An increasing number of global threats such as climate change, poverty, declining agricul- tural production, scarcity of water, fertilizer shortage and the resulting social and political unrest seem overwhelming. The urgency to address these threats creates an ever increas- ing demand for solutions that can be implemented now or at least in the near future. These solutions need to be widely implemented both locally by individuals and through large programmes in order to produce effects on a global scale. This is a daunting and urgent task that cannot be achieved by any single technology, but requires many different approaches.