Almost a billion people all over the earth suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Many of them are starving while the world's population continues to grow dramatically. The population in the industrialized nations, whose hunger is still abundantly satisfied, must struggle with the costs of heavily subsidized overproduction of food. Still, the worldwide lack of food will also pose a threatening problem to them.

Klaus Hahlbrock is a Professor of Biochemistry and former director of the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany.