Ecology and hunger

Background/Question/Methods The first, and some argue the most pressing, Millennium Development Goal is to alleviate extreme poverty and hunger. While tremendous progress has been made in the “war on hunger” since the 1980's, the volatile food prices of 2008 forced another 40 million people into undernourishment, bringing the global total close to a billion. Global hunger is a complex and multi-faceted problem that typically has been the domain of agronomists, economists, and rural development specialists. Less frequently, however, has an ecological perspective been applied to help alleviate extreme and hidden hunger.

Results/Conclusions Here we identify key contributions that the field of ecology can make toward sustainable rural livelihoods, especially in the area of hunger alleviation. First, deliberate management of ecosystem services will be increasingly important for sustaining agricultural production through pollination, pest control, and improved agroecosystem resilience. Second, maintaining agrobiodiversity—including functional diversity of plants, animals, and microorganisms—can help support human nutrition by reducing both acute and hidden hunger. Third, increased understanding and accurate modeling of freshwater and saltwater ecosystems will be critical to the sustainable management of fisheries. Finally, an ecological perspective is important for increasing synergies among different land uses and objectives such that conservation, food production, and livelihood goals can simultaneously be achieved across rural landscapes.