by Scott Pendleton

About the author: Scott Pendleton is a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor.

Cornfields blanket Iowa like a green ocean, making thoughts of famine seem as out of place as fleas on a goldfish. Yet John Ruan does worry about famine—so much so that he awards $200,000 each year to whoever contributes most to improving world food output.

“We can produce more population,” the Des Moines businessman muses, “but not more land.”

Our planet and its resources continue to shrink in relation to the burgeoning human population. Farmers must feed 5.3 billion mouths, and 90 million new ones each year—as much as another Mexico.

“Can We Do It"”

“The question is, can we do it"” asks Richard Harwood, a sustainable-agriculture expert...