**1. Introduction**

Grain production is the basis of global food security and is indispensable for feeding the world. In 1798, Malthus argued that the global population increases more rapidly than global food supply until war, disease, or famine reduces the number of people [1]. The failure thus far of Malthus's prediction has not prevented others from promoting similar scenarios in more recent decades. For example, Paddock [2] forecasted a worldwide famine by 1975 and stated that within the short-term, it would be impossible to feed the population. Ehrlich and Ehrlich [3] predicted worldwide famine in the 1970s and 1980s due to overpopulation and urged action to control population growth. Just like Malthus [1] and Paddock [2], Ehrlich and Ehrlich [3] failed to appreciate the creativity of humanity. Romer [4] highlighted that a sustainable economy may be introduced in the future. Therefore, the green revolution introduced agricultural technologies that resulted in a doubling of grain production globally. More than 50 years have passed since the predictions of Paddock and Ehrlich, but mass starvation has not become widespread, although the number of undernourished and malnourished people has risen.

Nevertheless, many of Ehrlich and Ehrlich's [3] arguments related to resource scarcity appear to be close to reality because there are physical limits on natural resources. This has led Diamond [5] and other experts to shift the blame from "population" to "consumption." Fifty years ago, a growing population was highlighted as the main challenge facing humanity. Today, what really matters is people's consumption and production, which creates a resource problem. The principal challenge today is not population but total world consumption—namely, the product of local population times the local per capita consumption rate and it is not even consumption itself that is the major issue—only irresponsible and excessive waste, for which efficiency is the solution. The rational use of natural resources is the only way to avoid the global collapse of food, energy, and environmental security. Now we must take another step forward. We hypothesize that the problem is deeper and needs an even wider consideration to find more effective solutions or ways that will lead us towards a significant improvement.

1962 was the year of peak population growth, with a growth rate of 2.1%. Subsequently, population growth slowed to 1.1% by 2015. Global population will continue to grow until 2100; however, the rate of growth is expected to fall gradually to 0.1% annually [6]. The world's population reached 7.8 billion in 2020 and is projected to increase to 11.2 billion by 2100 (Figure 1). Can it realistically cover its grain needs?

**Figure 1.** World population and growth rate, 1750–2015, and projections until 2100. Source: Roser and Ortiz-Ospina [7].

The goal of this study is to summarize losses along the grain value chain and identify more effective solutions. The problems at the pre-harvest and storage stages combined with mycotoxin contamination represent a very strong limitation, leading to huge losses of grains. This paper first presents the literature review on food loss (FL) and food waste (FW), followed by global grain production and losses along the grain chain including field, storage, mycotoxin contamination losses and consumer waste, a discussion of the role of integrated pest management, plant breeding, and agronomy in grain production and the implications for the future supply of grain for food and feed. Overall, this study explains the complexity of the grain value chain in order to make decisions on how best to prevent grain losses across the supply chain.
