Farming First: A Recipe to Feed a Crowded World

If this approach sounds familiar, it should

People walk in a crowded street in Mexico City on November 4, 2011. The United Nations estimates that the world population reached 7 billion on October 31, 2011. Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images

One version of an old joke features a shipwrecked economist on a deserted island who, when asked by his fellow survivors what expertise he can offer on how they can be rescued, replies, “Assume we have a boat.” Economists have a well-deserved reputation for making their theories work only by making unrealistic…