By Krysta Harden, Vice President of Public Policy and Chief Sustainability Officer, DuPont
 
Escalating urbanization, one of the most complex and defining global trends of our time, will intensify food security challenges in years to come. By 2050, more than 60 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas, primarily in developing countries. Rural-urban migration, particularly prevalent among young people, will have profound impacts at every step in our global food chain—from few farmers to grow food to radical innovation to meet the nutritional needs of these new demographic realities.     
 
According to the report released recently by the DuPont Advisory Committee on Agricultural Productivity and Innovation, “Amid global urbanization, we are facing a population expected to reach over 9.6 billion by 2050, a growing middle class, extreme weather variability impacting global crop production, unsustainable levels of food waste and loss, the double burden of under- and over-nutrition, and increasingly limited natural resources. Each of these challenges compounds the other, leaving no single solution to meeting our growing food demand.”
 
While there is no silver bullet, The DuPont Advisory Committee recommended a number of actions.  Among them are embracing investment in innovation and infrastructure in agriculture, promoting global trade to move food more freely to urban populations and unleashing the next generation to solve the challenges.  I’d like to focus on one—tapping into the talent and passion of youth.
 
Today, youth are leaving the farms because of a perceived lack of economic opportunities.  They are often drawn to opportunities and lifestyles associated with city dwelling.  As a result, however, there are fewer and older people left to grow an ever-increasing amount of crops needed to meet population demands. In the United States alone, the average age of a farmer is 58 and it is even higher worldwide. We need to create compelling reasons for youth to stay on the farm. 
 
I see no boundaries in how youth can positively impact food security. But we need to motivate, excite, and enable them to fulfill their future leadership positions. But we must provide them with the sense of purpose and the tools to contribute and thrive. We also need to connect youth in rural and urban areas with an understanding of food systems and food policy so they can make informed choices to contribute to food security.   
 
The opportunities for young people to apply their skill and passion to the food and nutrition challenge are endless. We will need farmers, scientists, business leaders, and technology innovators. Teachers will have a critical role to play in educating and inspiring tomorrow’s solvers. Engineers, marketers, and policy experts also will be needed. With a will to solve the challenge, youth with almost any skill set can contribute. 
 
This means inspiring young people from every background, to focus their talent on addressing the noble cause of eradicating hunger and malnutrition. According to the Advisory Committee report, “The global community should find new opportunities to excite youth about farming and their role in feeding the world. Precision agriculture, mobile technologies, improved genetics, and mechanization are only some of the tools to be leveraged. And we must educate our youth and women, starting early, with an appreciation for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).”     
 
At DuPont we focus on educating and enabling youth as one of three 2020 food security goals and we already surpassed our goal to engage two million youth. For example, in Africa we are partnering with 4H and local governments to create enterprise gardens that teach modern farming and business practices to youth. We are seeing a significant increase in interest to pursue agriculture as a career among the youth who participate in the enterprise gardens. 
 
This is an exciting time to be engaged in agriculture but to achieve our objective of food and nutrition security amid a growing urban population, we must ensure we are tapping into all the resources available—and this means youth!