Solutions to The Food Crisis

We can feed the world. That’s the message we want to send with the latest issue of Foreign Policy magazine: a collection of practical ideas for getting smarter about food production, making supply chains more efficient, and wasting less. Here are some of the solutions we spotlight:

• Sarah Taber argues that the status quo has to change. Industrialized agriculture, Taber writes, actually benefits only a select few. Instead, we must invest in fisheries and forests and, crucially, treat food policy as a public utility rather than as a corporate endeavor.
• One way to produce more food would be to improve access to fertilizer, according to Saloni Shah. Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa use only 20 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare of land—less than 15 percent of the global average. As a result, those countries produce fewer crops and are forced to spend money on expensive imports.
• Ancient grains such as millet are nutrient-rich, need less water, and are more resistant to pests. Dan Saladino traveled to Nongtraw in northeastern India to discover how one community is pioneering its return and transforming their diet in the process.
• Why is the Impossible Burger more expensive than a regular beef burger? Nigel Purvis and Bruce Friedrich make the case for targeted tax credits and subsidies to attract investment in plant-based proteins. After all, it worked for renewable energy.
• Alicia Kennedy reports from Puerto Rico on how local entrepreneurs are betting big on mushrooms to achieve food sovereignty in a part of the world already hit hard by climate change.

Plus, Bronwen Everill asks: Whatever happened to those histories of a single food that were so popular at the turn of the millennium? And don’t miss FP’s own Jennifer Williams reviewing Gerry Adams’s little-known foray into cookbook writing. Yes, that Gerry Adams.—Ravi Agrawal, FP editor-in-chief

P.S. For more on solving the food crisis, join FP’s executive editor, Amelia Lester, and Sarah Taber, along with the World Food Program’s chief economist, Arif Husain, for a live discussion tomorrow, October 11, at 1 p.m.

New and Noteworthy

• Europe’s Energy Crisis: Winter is coming, and Europe is facing an energy crisis that people are calling “generational.” Gas prices are now eight times what they were on average over the past 10 years and eight times more expensive than in the United States. On the latest episode of Ones and Tooze, Adam and Cameron discuss how bad it could get and why next year could be even worse. You can read an edited transcript of their conversation here. Plus, check out a live taping of Ones and Tooze on Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. in New York. Click here to purchase tickets to attend the event in person, or tune in virtually to the live stream.?
• How the White House Plans to Hurt Putin: Are U.S. sanctions working, and what other measures has the White House taken to hurt Russia? Last week, ahead of the annual IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington, the U.S. Treasury’s Wally Adeyemo joined FP Live to discuss the dizzying state of the world economy, the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, and more. Check out the full video here, or read a condensed transcript.
• Bringing Multilateralism Back: With support from the Open Society Foundations, FP Analytics’ latest issue brief highlights potential pathways for multilateral institutions to respond more effectively to existing and emerging crises.

Book Review: Streets of Gold: America’s Untold Story of Immigrant Success

America’s immigration wars are at an impasse. With illegal crossings surging at the southern border and the backlog in green card petitions reaching new heights, there is a widespread sense that the U.S. immigration system is badly broken. And yet there’s no prospect of bipartisan agreement about what exactly it would mean to fix it—at least not in the near future.

Conservatives are largely united in believing that the system should focus first and foremost on deterring unauthorized migration, enforcing the rule of law, and ensuring that the United States can select newcomers who are best positioned to succeed in a modern market democracy. The left, meanwhile, has come to embrace a more open approach, one that creates more legal pathways for the poor and ambitious.

Against this backdrop, Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan, economists at Stanford and Princeton universities, respectively, have published Streets of Gold, an engaging brief for immigration optimism.

Continue reading this book review.

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Partner Events From Around FP

• Harnessing the Potential of Population Aging: Join FP, in partnership with AARP, for a conversation on demographic change and how to strengthen local economies while supporting the well-being of older adults. This event will be held in person and livestreamed. Oct. 12 | 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. EDT | Washington, D.C. Register here.?
• Investing in African Health Security: FP, in partnership with the African Union and PATH, explored the investments, partnerships, and models that can inform a strategy for fostering a sustainable African manufacturing industry. A video recording of the discussion is available online.

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