Challenge: design a plan that will produce and distribute enough food to feed the planet over the next century, while ensuring that efficiency and equity are maximized with minimal disruption to the environment
Background: With a world population of 9 billion expected by 2050 – and a billion people currently malnourished – Mission 2019 students spent their first year at MIT exploring the issue of food security and ways to feed the world’s population over the next century.
In the fall semester, Terrascope students researched interdisciplinary, cost-effective, and sustainable strategies for improving food security, culminating in a website and final presentation of their proposed solution. Spring semester, freshmen approached the problem using the tools offered in the classes Design for Complex Environmental Issues and Terrascope Radio, which investigates the food system through sound and human voices. Students dug deeper into the theme of feeding the planet during a spring break trip to New Mexico, where agriculture has been influenced by water scarcity, human migration, technology, and agricultural practices from across the world.
