DES MOINES, Iowa—The World Food Prize Foundation gathered hundreds of scientists, farmers and innovators in the agrifood industry last week to address a pressing question: How can we better feed the world’s hungry?

Rattan Lal, a former World Food Prize laureate and one of the world’s most renowned soil scientists, offered an unexpected answer: Do it with less.

Intensive food production systems have used too much land, too much water, too much fertilizer and too much soil carbon, he said. To reverse that trend, he added, the goals of agriculture must shift from maximizing yields to restoring damaged ecosystems and preserving nature.

Lal is a distinguished university professor of soil science at the Ohio State University, where he directs the eponymous Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Managem

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