[djfm]

land that currently provides enough rice to feed 27 people will need to support 43 by 2050

Honest question: can't we assume that, as population grows, people will just plant more rice?

Sure this cannot be done everywhere, but there's surely some arable land somewhere that can grow, and maybe technology can help in other ways than by manipulating the genome of plants.

For instance, if we had cheap energy or a very efficient desalinating tech, we could desalinate ocean water and cultivate normal rice where there are deserts now...

In France farmers are complaining that the prices of farm products are too low and it sounds like there are many places where we produce way too much for too few consumers.

Instead of playing god to reduce a risk in 2050, can't we try right now to find economical, political, or technical ways to take the surplus from one place and bring it to places where food is already dramatically lacking?

EDIT: formatting

[swombat]

Sure we can! Which rainforest do you want to cut down to make space for the new fields?

[tgb]

Why wouldn't you want to do both?