According to most estimates by the year 2050 the world population is expected to increase from the actual 6.8 billion to over 9 billion people. Population growth will have all sorts of consequences. One of the most compelling questions and growing global concern is about the future availability of food and food security. Will we have enough food to feed this number of people on Earth? What is the best way to produce it, i.e. how to maximise food production and minimize its impacts on the environment and societies? Can we cope with the food crises in the era of rapid climatic changes? What are the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on global food security?

The lecture will explore the range of academic and political answers to these questions. It will review the debate around the food crisis, shedding light on competing theories on its causes and consequences. Specifically, in the lecture I will present alternative visions about the prospects of food technologies, digital agriculture, organic farming and agroecology, biofuels. Further, I will present a short summary of past and current approaches to global food security policy.