Looking for Answers Before you get worried about food shortages, you need to know that the world has faced this problem before. We found solutions. Since ancient times, people have used Earth’s


natural resources to grow food. Farmers look for the best places to plant their crops. Yet the land isn’t always right for farming. It can be too dry, too wet, or too rugged. If the land isn’t suited for farming, people change it. T ey reshape it. T ey build dams or cut down forests.


This 3-D printer is printing food.


class is coming over for dinner tonight. T at’s a lot of mouths to feed, and you’re in charge of cooking. You’d better get started. You go into your kitchen. What should


Y


you cook for your class? Most kids like pizza, so that’s what you decide to make. But you’ll need to figure out what kind. Lots of kids eat cheese pizza. Not everyone likes pepperoni or mushrooms. You’d better make several types. T at’s not a problem. You step up to your


3-D printer and push a few buttons. T en your printer starts cranking out dinner. Simple! Most of us don’t have a 3-D food printer yet.


T ey’re still being invented. But guess what? It won’t be long before a lot of people have food printers in their kitchens. T e way the world grows and makes its food


is changing. A lot of scientists and engineers are thinking about food and how it’s made. Here’s why. Earth’s population is growing. By 2050,


there may be more than 9 billion people living on this planet. All of them will need to eat. How we feed that many people is becoming more and more of a challenge every day. To feed everyone, we need to grow and


produce 70 percent more food than what we are producing today. T at’s a much bigger problem than what to serve for dinner tonight.


12 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER ou’ve got a bit of a problem. Your entire


Taking the Right Steps T e Incas were expert farmers who changed their land. T e Incas were an ancient people who lived in South America. T ey built a vast empire of 12 million people. T ese people lived among the snowy Andes


mountains. T ere wasn’t a lot of flat land to farm on. Farming on a hillside was a bad idea. Water runs downhill when it rains. T e water


can cause erosion, or wearing away of the soil. When the soil is worn away, it takes valuable nutrients with it. Plants can’t grow. To feed millions of people, the Incas had to


create something new. So they invented a form of farming called terrace, or step, farming. T e Incas changed their land by digging into


it. T ey carved huge steps into the sides of the mountains. T ey stacked stones around each step to make a solid wall. T en they filled in the space behind the walls with soil. T is made flat places to plant crops. When flowing rainwater reached a terrace,


it slowed down and soaked into the soil. T e water helped crops grow. T e walls in terrace farming also helped control erosion. T e plants grew well. From far away, these terrace farms look like a living staircase. T e Incas grew corn, potatoes, and quinoa.


Quinoa is a grain they used to make cereal, flour, and soups. Today, people all over the world use terrace


farming to grow crops. In Asia, rice grows in terraced fields called paddies. In Europe, grapes and olives grow on terrace farms.


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