World Resources Institute: “How to Sustainably Feed 10 Billion People by 2050, in 21 Charts”

There is a big shortfall between the amount of food we produce today and the amount needed to feed everyone in 2050. There will be nearly 10 billion people on Earth by 2050—about 3 billion more mouths to feed than there were in 2010. As incomes rise, people will increasingly consume more resource-intensive, animal-based foods. At the same time, we urgently need to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural production and stop conversion of remaining forests to agricultural land.

Feeding 10 billion people sustainably by 2050, then, requires closing three gaps:

• A 56 percent food gap between crop calories produced in 2010 and those needed in 2050 under “business as usual” growth;
• A 593 million-hectare land gap (an area nearly twice the size of India) between global agricultural land area in 2010 and expected agricultural expansion by 2050; and
• An 11-gigaton GHG mitigation gap between expected agricultural emissions in 2050 and the target level needed to hold global warming below 2^oC (3.6°F), the level necessary for preventing the worst climate impacts.