Joel K. Bourne Jr. graduated with a BS in agronomy from North Carolina State University and an MS in journalism from Columbia University. He is a contributing writer for National Geographic and has also written for Audubon, Science, and Outside Magazine.

Want to read a forecast of what lies ahead for humanity by Gebisa Ejeta, a plant breeder at Purdue University who won the 2009 World Food Prize: "We'll have to learn to produce as much food in the next four decades as we have since the beginning of civilization." According to the Bourne, food production is the greatest challenge that humanity has ever taken on, and we have to do it without destroying the environments that we all rely upon.

Well, that startling bit of news sets our minds spinning as we consider that we are now challenged to produce food for 9 billion people who will be alive in 2050. Bourne does not leave us stranded in the wilderness. He points to many experiments going on to waylay the malnutrition and starvation of millions. They include deep water fish farms, the expansion of organic farms, the reduction of food consumption, and going all out with genetically modified seeds. Not everyone will agree that these approaches can solve the problem.