Biotech Updates

153 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates Issue Urgent Wake-Up Call Over Hunger Tipping Point

January 15, 2025

A broad coalition of 153 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates has made an unprecedented plea for financial and political backing to develop "moonshot" technologies to avert a hunger catastrophe in the next 25 years. The call is made through an open letter to be discussed during the "Agricultural R&D Moonshot: Bolstering U.S. National Security" meeting in the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture hearing room in Washington, D.C. on January 14, 2025.

The signatories warned that the world was not even close to meeting future food needs, with an estimated 700 million people going hungry today and an additional 1.5 billion people to feed by 2050. The letter predicts that humanity faces an "even more food insecure, unstable world than exists today, worsened by a vicious cycle of conflict and food insecurity." They added that bold action to change course must be taken, and to also pursue high risk, high reward, scientific research with the goal of transforming the global food systems to meet the nutritional needs of everyone sustainably.

The appeal, coordinated by Cary Fowler, joint 2024 World Food Prize Laureate, highlighted the threat of climate change to food production and other factors undermining crop productivity such as soil erosion and land degradation, biodiversity loss, water shortages, conflict, and policies restricting agricultural innovation.

"As leaders in science and innovation, we ask you to join us in sounding the alarm, raising collective ambitions, and advocating for research moonshots to ensure the world's future food and nutrition security," the signatories said.

For more details, read the news release from the World Food Prize Foundation. The Laureate letter is available here.


You might also like: