A world hungry for answers

Two thirds of the wars in the last 15 years have been, at root, about shortages of food, land and water, and the desire of various ethnic, religious or political groups to control local resources, as the Oslo Peace Research Institute has pointed out. If food shortages in key regions intensify, conflicts, genocides and refugee waves are liable to multiply, creating instabilities that will topple governments, favouring terrorism and insurgency.

Far and away the greatest challenge facing humanity this century is the necessity to double global food production with less land, less water, less nutrients, less science and frequent drought.

Australia was a leader in the global effort that doubled food output last time around - when the Club of Rome initiated the Green Revolution in the 1960s. Despite popular misconceptions, we are in fact leaders at managing drought, in water-efficient farming, in sustainable agricultural systems and in fisheries and landscape management. Some of our previous scientific firepower is still intact.

While adapting to greenhouse is urgent, it isn’t anything like as urgent as finding ways to double the world harvest using far fewer resources. Climate change will be the least of our worries if large parts of humanity starve.

It is fair to say this is an issue about which governments are totally complacent. They have yet to see 21st century agricultural research for what it is - defence spending.

The world is ripe for another wake-up call, and who better than Australia - skilled at confronting the harsh realities of drought, uncertain climate, lack of nutrients, pests and disease - to administer it?

First of course, we need to put our own effort in order - and reverse the disastrous decline in public good, production-oriented research in Australia.