The first step to alleviate hunger in Africa could be as simple as promoting the use of fertilizer, according to a former senior adviser to President Ronald Reagan and the World Bank.

Addressing nearly 500 New York farmers and agricultural leaders at the New York State Agricultural Society Meeting in Syracuse Jan. 6, Robert Thompson '67 said the continent represents some of the greatest challenges when it comes to food production and projected population growth, but also great opportunities.

"I see no reason why sub-Saharan Africa shouldn't be self-sufficient," said Thompson a former dean of agriculture at Purdue University and adviser to governments around the world.

Yet Africa can hardly feed its people and faces a doubling of its population by 2050. The continent falls far behind in crop yield; while climate and corruption are problematic, the main culprit is the continent's ancient, weathered soil that has been stripped of most of its nutrients, he said.

But with investments in research and infrastructure, Africans could keep their bellies full as well as those of the additional 2.6 billion who will need feeding worldwide by 2050, Thompson added.

But he warned that many nongovernmental organizations do a disservice by objecting to genetically modified (GM) crops and fertilizer use, techniques some find controversial.

"It's so counterproductive," he said. "To do the things we need to do, we are going to need all the tools of modern science. GM is not going to solve everything, but I think we would be terribly derelict if we refuse to use that tool."

There is also the threat of neo-colonialism and corporate land grabs as countries with few prospects for domestic expansion start to stake claims on ever-diminishing parcels of arable land, he said, with just 12 percent of land worldwide not presently farmed, forested, eroded, degraded or turned into desert.

He predicted food production will need to double by 2050; India, for example, expects an explosion in population and rising income levels. Low-income consumers will have the biggest effect on world food demand as they escape from poverty, he said, as wealthier people consume more meat, dairy and produce, increasing demand for raw agricultural commodities.

Scientists can address hunger, he said, by developing new breeds of plants and animals, improving food nutrition, controlling diseases, reducing the need for pesticides and improving soils.

Education, water control and waste reduction are also key, he added. Some 40 percent of food produced in the United States is discarded, wasting not only money and supply, but the energy used to produce the products, Thompson said.

Having markets in place to supply farmers and buy their outputs, good roads, better world trade policies and public investment in agricultural research are also key, he said.

Also speaking at the conference was Jennifer Wilkins, a lecturer in Cornell's Division of Nutritional Sciences, who noted that most Americans get enough food, but not enough nutrients. Nearly a third of adults do not consume the recommended two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables a day, but supplement their diets with high-calorie, ultra-processed food with little nutritional value, she said.

Were we to actually meet dietary recommendations, the United States would have to produce an additional 4.1 million acres of fruit, 8.9 million acres of vegetables, 8.8 million acres of legumes and 5.6 million fewer acres of wheat, she said.

Stacey Shackford is a staff writer at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.