Ted Audio Collective. Ted Talks Daily, I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

Steve Long is one of the world's leading crop scientists

and he's working on something very cool

to help feed the world and tackle climate change.

In his TED 2023 talk, why improving crop photosynthesis at the genetic

level is a huge game changer for all of us after the break.

Like TED Talks, you should check out the TED Radio Hour with NPR. Stay tuned after this talk to hear a sneak peek of this week's episode.

Today. a sneak peek peek of this week's episode. Today, nearly one in 10 is food insufficient.

That number has been rising every year since 2014,

and it's forecast to become considerably worse

over the next two to three decades.

This is especially true for the poorer countries of Africa and Asia,

where the rise in demand is outpacing the rise in our ability to supply.

I want to tell you how the most important process on the planet,

boosting that process, photosynthesis could alleviate this problem.

How photosynthesis works is that it plants remove carbon dioxide

from the atmosphere,

then they use sunlight energy to convert that

into our food, releasing our oxygen at the same time.

Photosynthesis is the most studied of all plant processes.

And from that knowledge, we realize that even our most productive crops

are only achieving about one-fifth of the potential

...