Egg prices are leading inflationary pressures in the grocery basket. Here in Buena Vista County, Iowa, 5 million egg-layers were exterminated after avian flu hit henhouses in late March. One producer, Rembrandt Foods, was shut down by bird flu in 2015, too. This time, however, the workers were advised to find new jobs. Twice burned, the company has not indicated a future for the shuttered plant.

And if that weren’t enough, Ukraine and Russia, which supply the bulk of wheat to Europe and chronically malnourished Africa, are locked in war with millions of bushels of wheat held hostage…

Climate change, livestock pandemics enhanced by huge concentrations of critters, and growing human population will increase food costs, absent a leap forward in technology. Norman Borlaug, the father of the so-called Green Revolution, predicted it as he was introducing new wheat strains to feed starving Latin Americans 50 years ago. Agri-industry did not pay much heed, exhorting farmers to plant more, fertilize more and spray more. We need a big breakthrough: like lab-grown meat.