7 billion people and counting

The United Nations today officially marked the global population reaching 7 billion. It called on world leaders to meet the challenges of a growing population, including ensuring adequate food and clean water.

At a press event in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the world’s population reached 6 billion in 1998, only 13 years ago, and it is expected to grow to 9 billion by the middle of this century, or even a few years earlier – by 2043.

That's a lot of people – a lot of people who will be looking to farmers of the world for food and a lot of farmers who will be looking to produce that food while using the fewest amount of resources possible.

Here in Nebraska we talk about Sustaining Innovation and how through responsible stewardship and improved management practices, Nebraska corn farmers are growing more corn with less – less fertilizer, less chemicals, less water, less land and less of an impact on the environment.

That notion, however, is true for most farmers no matter what they are growing — from tomatoes to eggs and from rice to beef. All are producing more food today than a decade ago and doing so with a smaller footprint. (American corn farmers grow five times more corn than they did in the 1930s – but are doing so on 20 percent less land.)

If you think about it, that's the goal of any farmer — it is how he or she ensures their success in the future, how they remain viable in the long term. It comes from learning how to get better from every crop every year, and learning from your neighbor, even if that neighbor is half a world away.

Can we grow more grain on an acre? Or produce more pounds of sweet potatoes? Or raise more pigs per litter? The answer is, of course, yes. And it can be done by farmers all over the world, from the United States to Tanzania, from China to Poland.

It just takes knowing how — and building on that knowledge every year.

Just imagine where we were a generation ago. Or two. And where we are today. From horses to tractors that drive themselves.

Where will the next generation take us? Where does it need to take us?

Certainly on a global basis more people need to know how to grow more food and to do so while relying on fewer resources. To be successful, however, it will take a toolbox full of knowledge, innovation and technology. Limiting either only slows the investment needed in global agriculture.

If you think about it, an incredible amount of food is produced around the world today.

Yet still people  go hungry.

Farmers producing food is just one component to having enough food for all. Transportation, politics, economics, reliable trade rules and more play a critical role and must be part of a solution – for all are needed to create a global population that is food secure, now and in 2043.