"Wedges against Global Hunger in 2050" 

For more than a decade, food policy experts have warned global food production must nearly double to adequately feed 2050’s projected population of 9 to 10 billion. The assumptions of the warning extrapolate status quo dynamics: e.g., stable population growth rate, ca. 35% of food wasted, and increasing per-capita meat consumption.

Thus, the situation is more complex than a simple demographic model with a potentially unsustainable solution. More recently, analyses of the world's agri-food systems suggest a more realistic and sustainable solution might be obtained through multidisciplinary coordinated interventions, that is, a "wedge" approach.

Clearly,  the assumptions and narrative must be reframed. Diverse participants of the world’s agri-food systems, including farmers, researchers and decision-makers, need  to come together to accurately define long-term challenges and direct how to assemble the various solutions to create a sustainable food system that addresses humanity’s food needs.   
 
To that end, the "Wedges against Global Hunger in 2050" Conference brought together speakers and other participants from academics, NGOs, government, farming and other industry representing not only agricultural and natural sciences but also humanities, engineering, policy, and social sciences. Speakers both deconstructed the issue and examined the broad array of potential diverse solutions, which, if properly aligned, should be superior to a single panacea.  After a day and a half of presentations, breakout workshops were devoted to crafting one or more realistic and sustainable solutions. The results were presented and discussed in the final plenary session to identify actionable tasks. The conference was synthesized in the closing keynote address.

To our knowledge, this conference is the first of its kind. The major product we anticipate from this effort is a new view of the crisis that discards the current view that indirectly pits population against sustainability. We anticipate a  multidimensional set of integrated approaches to stimulate more convergent efforts to achieve global food security while modifying agri-food systems to act as agents to improve global environmental sustainability.