The Hungry World

It is estimated that by 2050, 9 billion people will have to be fed in the world. Experts fear that global food production can no longer keep up with population growth, and that global conflict could follow. 

Once the brain has flicked a special switch, a person can go without food for quite a while. Sadly, if you are sick and weak already, this mechanism does not work properly. The same applies to children. 

The UN aimed to cut global hunger in half from 2000 to 2015, but today even more people are starving than at the beginning of the millenium. 

Scientists issued warnings about the famine in the Horn of Africa as early as 2010. Their early warning system is funded by the international community, which ignores its findings. 

Genetically altered plants are supposedly more resistant to pests and bring higher crop yields. But consumers and farmers are protesting against these plants, and one company, Monsanto, stands in the eye of the storm. 

A Swiss company has embarked on a project leasing land from rural villages in Sierra Leone to produce European biofuel. Some say this is agricultural development, but others warn it's opportunistic land grabbing. 

Biofuels can help industrialized nations reduce fossil fuel dependencies and cut harmful carbon emissions. But their production means diverting valuable farmland, threatening food security in developing countries. 

Industrial agriculture and intensive farming are commonplace these days and have led to a big reduction in the number of species on our fields. What does that mean for global food supply? 

Do we need genetically modified food to quell global hunger? That controversial question prompts emotional debate. The truth is anything but clear-cut.  

A researcher in the Netherlands hopes to create the first hamburger by growing muscle cells in a Petri dish. For many the experiment seems tasteless, but there are very good reasons for it.