More than 150 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates this week issued what they describe as an unprecedented wake-up call to avert a hunger catastrophe in the next 25 years.
Why it matters: Financial and political support for developing agricultural research can help reverse the current trajectory that could leave as many as 1.5 billion people food insecure, they said.
Zoom in: Climate change, soil erosion, water shortage, conflict and market pressures are among the factors that call for "moonshot" efforts to increase food production, according to the open letter to world leaders.
Flashback: Recipients of the World Food Prize — headquartered in Des Moines — have previously called for action about a growing hunger crisis, including at the G7 Agriculture Ministers meeting in Germany about three years ago.
