The IFPRI roundtable, with its focus on the prospects of a long-term balance between food demand and supply, provided a link between the two conferences, as the adequacy of food supply at affordable prices for future populations is a crucial element in a strategy designed to alleviate poverty and accelerate growth, in the context of an increasing population.

Based on meticulous research and on-the-ground reporting, an expert in the field explores whether ending extreme poverty and widespread hunger is within our reach as increasingly promised, revealing the issues that hinder this mission that are often glossed over.

Today more than three quarters of a billion people go hungry in a world where food is plentiful. A distinguished scientist here sets out an agenda for addressing this situation. Initially published in 1997 in the United Kingdom, the book is now available in the first edition produced for the Western hemisphere. In it, the author has updated information to reflect current economic indicators. This volume includes a foreword written for the previous edition by Ismail Serageldin of the World Bank. The original Green Revolution produced new technologies for farmers, creating food abundance. A second transformation of agriculture is now required—specifically, Gordon Conway argues, a "doubly green" revolution that stresses conservation as well as productivity. He calls for researchers and farmers to forge genuine partnerships in an effort to design better plants and animals. He also urges them to develop (or rediscover) alternatives to inorganic fertilizers and pesticides, improve soil and water management, and enhance earning opportunities for the poor, especially women.

Population and Food examines recent trends in food production and assesses the prospects for feeding humanity in the twenty-first century. With case studies from throughout the developed and developing world, the book suggests that food production in most world regions has kept ahead of population growth, that future food production prospects are encouraging, and that in all probability the people of the world will be better fed in the twenty-first than in the twentieth century.