Agriculture: Trends and Issues

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THEME ARTICLE

America's agricultural education will face its biggest-ever challenge in the next 50 years: helping farmers gear up to supply nearly three times as much.

Today, the world's farmers are feeding only 6 billion people, and only about 15 percent of them are eating high-quality diets. But high technology, freer trade, and spreading democracy are driving higher incomes in emerging countries. By 2050, the world will probably have a peak population of 8.5 or 9 billion people, nearly all of them demanding high-quality diets for their kids. Even Russia and SubSaharan Africa may be able to afford high-quality diets.

Americans now have 113 million companion …