Britain's academy of sciences, The Royal Society, is warning that the world will have to increase food production by 50% by 2050. It's recently published a report calling on the UK government to spend more than $3bn on crop research.

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Professor David Baulcombe of Cambridge University, who led the research, says a billion people are already malnourished. Professor Baulcombe says the money the government should plough into crop science is needed immediately. If we wait ten years, he says, it may be too late. The genetic manipulation he refers to could produce crop strains resistant to disease, drought and salinity.

But the issue of genetically modified crops is still something of a hot potato, despite the technology being already used by millions of farmers. Environmental groups say the usefulness of GM crops has not been proven, and the threat they pose by letting altered genes spread into other plants is significant.

Keith Adams, BBC News, London

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the global population
the number of people in the world

feeding those extra mouths is a major challenge
making sure the increased population has enough food is a very difficult task

compounded by the spectre
combined with and made worse by the threat

malnourished
not getting enough food, or not getting the food they need

plough into
steadily invest in/allocate to

crop science
research into ways of improving plants used for food (e.g. through genetic manipulation, or modification - see below)

resistant to
that are not affected by (something that is considered negative)

genetically modified (GM)
when the genes of a plant are altered by people, not nature, in order to change the way they grow or produce crops

something of a hot potato
a sensitive or controversial issue that is not easy to deal with (a hot potato is a set colloquial expression)

spread into
get inside, contaminate

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