How do we nourish people and the planet?

There is hope, and it can be done. We’ve done it before: A grim hunger forecast was predicted for Asia 50 years ago, before scientists, many of them Cornellians, developed new rice varieties and growing techniques that prevented mass starvation; wheat scientists have developed varieties and strategies to resist devastating pathogens, preventing hunger crises and the civil unrest they create; innovations in technology, science, economics, policy and more over the past 150 years have reduced the U.S. workforce necessary to feed the country from 50% to 1.3%.

As an institution, CALS has embraced its responsibility to nourish both people and the planet by working with plants and animals, with revolutionary technology, and with the many people and organizations who grow, process and distribute our food.

“This college has always embraced our Land-Grant mission, to drive innovations to market and to push big thinking that solves the world’s grand challenges,” said Benjamin Houlton, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “Because of the unprecedented challenges we now face – limited space, limited resources, a growing population and the worsening impacts of climate change – we need a quantum leap forward. We see the need for our brand of transdisciplinary, action-oriented scholarship, now more than ever.”

Erin Rodger is senior manager of marketing and communications for CALS. Brynn Wilkins is assistant director. Krisy Gashler is a writer.