Humans have physically reconfigured half of the world's land to grow just eight staple crops: maize (corn), soy, wheat, rice, cassava, sorghum, sweet potato and potato. They account for the vast majority of calories that people around the world consume. As global population rises, there's pressure to expand production even further.
Many experts argue that further expanding modern industrialized agriculture — which relies heavily on synthetic fertilizer, chemical pesticides and high-yield seeds — isn't the right way to feed a growing world population. In their view, this approach isn't sustainable ecologically or economically and farmers and scientists alike feel trapped within this system.
