Over 150 global leaders demand urgent investment in agricultural innovation

A cry of alarm from 150 Nobel Prize winners and World Food Prize Laureates: the world is not ready to face the growing food crisis. Their 2025 call calls for an immediate change of direction, with targeted investments in research and innovation to ensure a future of food security for all

An appeal like no other-a wake-up call to the world, from more than 150 leading figures: Nobel Prize and World Food Prize laureates put the issue of world hunger under a magnifying glass, pressing for radical political and economic support of agricultural research and innovation. Their goal? To prevent a catastrophic food crisis that could hit our planet within the next 25 years.

The “laureate letter 2025”: a warning stark

The 2025 open letter, entitled “Laureate Letter 2025,” sends quite a candid message of warning: “We are on a dangerous trajectory toward a tragic gap between global food supply and demand.” Current estimates say 700 million people are affected by hunger, and 60 million children-under the age of five-suffer such severe malnutrition that it irreparably damages the development of both their brains and bodies. Until 2050, the world will add another 1.5 billion people and further exacerbate the crisis.

Armed conflict, rising economic instability, increased market pressures, and climate change are putting agriculture under siege. Extreme weather, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and lack of water create an unfavorable outlook for agriculture. Main crops like corn, which are already facing plummeting yields over much of Africa, have even more dismal outlooks.

Need to act

According to the letter, “today’s food access challenges will be compounded by tomorrow’s production difficulties.” This statement indicates the urgency in taking action as experts warn that “we are nowhere close” to producing enough food for future populations. Although past efforts emerged from last century’s Green Revolution, investment in agricultural research and development has drastically slowed down. Strict regulations further hindered the adoption of new technologies.

Yet science has some promising solutions. The letter advocates for high-risk, high-reward research projects—what have been termed “moonshots”—that could transform agricultural production. These include enhancing photosynthesis in staple crops like rice and wheat, developing cereals that can biologically fix nitrogen—a process that reduces the need for chemical fertilizers—and converting annual crops into perennials to prevent soil degradation.

Neglected crops and food waste: overlooked opportunities

It is also important to study and improve the so-called “forgotten” crops, varieties of crops that are bypassed by intensive agriculture but happen to possess incredible nutritional value and climate resilience. Crops of indigenous origin, withstanding even water stress and supplying local populations with vital nutrients, need greater attention. Furthermore, improved food preservation practices of fruits and vegetables can go a long way in reducing waste and thus greatly improving household food security.

Policy and investment: science alone is not enough

Research alone cannot solve the problem unless it is accompanied by forward-thinking policies and regulatory frameworks that support responsible innovation. For this reason, Nobel laureates and World Food Prize winners urge policymakers from around the world to encourage concrete investments in and create effective incentives for the adoption of advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, computational biology, and next-generation genomic techniques.

The letter’s authors reinforce this paradigmic shift: “we cannot anchor our future and agricultural systems to outdated models and ever-dwindling nonrenewable resources.” The vision is to build transnational collaborations, where research centers and universities work together toward a common objective. A global coordination mechanism would identify and support the most promising research projects, including monitoring their long-term impact.

A turning point: hope amid crisis

Global hunger and malnutrition are dauntingly complex problems, but there is nonetheless room for optimism. The signers stress that although the stakes are high, the economic and social returns of investing in agricultural research are peculiarly bright. Similar investments have fueled past scientific and technological revolutions—like landing humans on the moon—proof that humanity can achieve milestones once considered unthinkable. The same ambition can be applied to safeguarding food security for a planet expected to reach nearly 10 billion people by 2050.

This is a pivotal moment. The actions taken by the international community today, the 2025 letter asserts, “will determine whether tomorrow’s food crisis becomes tragically inevitable or if it can be prevented.”