**4. Conclusions**

Growing population and changing dietary habits, with the intensifying demand for food with higher value added in developing countries are expected to increase food demand by 60% by 2050. In addition, unprecedented developments are taking place, especially in areas where the demand for fossil resources has traditionally been very low. Agricultural production can only be intensified with the increasing use of fertilizers. Thus, the efficiency of fertilizer usage needs to be improved. Almost all developed and developing countries have accepted the need to increase agricultural productivity and efficiency. The sustainable production of more food for human consumption requires technology that makes better application of limited resources, including land, water and fertilizer. Traditional agricultural production is not sustainable economically or environmentally. The question is whether the existing knowledge on agro-ecological practices is able to achieve the rate of yield that is required to feed the growing population. Without answering the question, a substantial investment is needed in research and innovation. In addition to food security, food stability is also important, and the most important issue here is predictability.

Food production requires a fundamental transformation in order to preserve the ecological conditions of the planet and to avoid the associated health risks. The key to the solution is so diverse that it is essential to integrate and renew the relevant branches of science. This includes, for example, molecular and taxonomic biology, food science and medicine, agronomy, ecology, earth science, computer science and nature biology. Long-term, interdisciplinary human health studies need to

be further integrated in order to achieve a higher standard and compatibility of sustainable food production. Globally, sustainable development goals require an industrial and scientific revolution. Food production, a ffected human population growth and the global ecological challenges it generates, will play a crucial role in the future of the Earth.

Climate change and extreme negative weather conditions are key drivers of global famine and food insecurity. They have a negative impact on livelihood and all aspects of food security (accessibility, stability, etc.) and contribute to other malnutrition related to childcare and nutrition. Due to the growing energy and food demand, it has become evident that greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide, have an impact on the global climate. There is a growing demand for suitable land, where food production, feed production, energy crops and urbanization are in competition. These problems are further exacerbated by the gradual change in soil productivity caused by climate change (erosion, water stress, increasing soil salinity, etc.). The health of the soil is also crucial during agricultural production because healthy crops can only be produced on soils in good conditions. Producing crops that meet the high criteria of healthy foods requires soil in good conditions. That means the farmers have to pay attention to the health status of the soil during agricultural production and plant seeds or use fertilizers which do not harm the soil. However, the change in indirect land use may also increase greenhouse gas emissions. Precision plant breeding is a good solution to increase crop production and yields. Farmers always have to pay attention to saving biodiversity. Increasing yields by starting agricultural production on new lands cannot be a solution anymore in order to save the available natural resources. This is due to the fact that crop production has shifted to previously unused land, which can lead to the transformation of forests and savannah. Such land use change will damage biodiversity and increase greenhouse gas emissions. The science of global climate change indicates that, as a result of the increasing level of greenhouse gases, the Earth as a whole has a general warming trend. While natural resources have an impact on greenhouse gas concentrations over time, global scientific consensus indicates that human resources for greenhouse gases also contribute to global climate change. The risk of food insecurity and malnutrition is greater today, especially in low-income regions, which are more exposed and sensitive to climate change.

Technological innovations may allow mankind to increase food production in a sustainable way to meet the reasonable needs. The use of smart devices including smartphones, other IT tools and di fferent applications of precision and automatized agriculture can help farmers to increase the e fficiency of agriculture. The spread of smart IT devices can help the spread of precision and automatized agriculture as well as more agriculture employees will have knowledge about these technological solutions. When professional agricultural users start to introduce new smart solutions in the operation of agricultural companies, they can count on the IT knowledge of their workforce; however, during the self-evaluation of employee knowledge, managers always have to pay attention to the Dunning–Kruger e ffect [94]. The above e ffect means that less educated workforce usually overestimates their knowledge—and this circumstance is totally typical in the case of IT knowledge in the agricultural sector [95]. Ultimately, the issue of food security applies to people as well as to finite resources. There is no simple or easy solution to sustainably feed nine billion people, especially with consumption habits becoming non-sustainable. Hopefully the scientific and technological innovation is going to help to defeat this challenge. Sustainable food production can only be achieved by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing water usage. This growth must be achieved without further environmental damage. Sustainable intensification might be a way to ensure the necessary—and not overestimated—scale of production while mitigating environmental impacts. We must avoid further reducing our biodiversity for the easy profit of food production, not only because biodiversity provides numerous public goods that humankind relies on, but also because we have no right to deprive the future generation of the economic and cultural benefits. These challenges together represent the crucial problem that needs to be solved. To solve this crucial problem, we need a social revolution that breaks down the barriers between science and agriculture related to food production. The goal is not only to

maximize productivity but also to optimize the results of production, environmental protection and social justice (fairness of food distribution) in a much more complex way.

According to the results, instead of the inclusion of additional agricultural area, further improved yields and food managemen<sup>t</sup> will be necessary to provide sufficient amounts of additional food. This will require more efficient water and energy managemen<sup>t</sup> as well as improvements in waste management. Due to the growing population and changing dietary habits, food supply (especially the animal protein-related consumption) is expected to increase the pressure on the environment. A higher share of plant-based consumption may help to reduce this pressure, but it is expected only in the developed areas with a relatively high GDP per capita. Climate change is the slowest changing component of the food supply, but its impact is felt globally. The right perception of climate change can have a serious impact on improving food security. Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence, there is often skepticism and emotional overtones in the debate surrounding climate change. However, effective solutions to problems require a united and cooperative approach. Coordinated restrictions on agricultural trade are essential in times of high and volatile food prices, which was often hampered by ad-hoc and unadvised trade restrictions in individual countries in the past. Higher food price volatility has become a feature of the liberalized agricultural market in the last decade. As price volatility cannot be reduced, the aim should be to spread and hedge the associated risks properly. Efficient future markets and different types of insurance could be useful tools to tackle these issues. Taking these factors into account is particularly important, since inadequate food supply is likely to lead to food-related riots and social unrest, which, in addition to their economic and social impact, have ethical and political implications as well.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, D.F. and J.S.; Methodology, J.S and D.F.; Software, J.S.; Writing—original draft preparation, D.F.; J.S.; M.H.-R.; Writing—review and editing, D.F.; J.S.; M.H.-R.; Visualization, D.F; J.S..; Supervision, M.H.-R.

**Funding:** This work/publication is supported by the Debrecen Venture Catapult Program, EFOP-3.6.1-16-2016-00022 project. This project is co-financed by the European Union and the European Social Fund.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest
