The scope of the problem:

• At least one of every eight plant species in the world -- and nearly one of three in the United States -- is under threat of extinction (http://www.well.com/~davidu/plantextinction.html).
• More than 200 native plant species in the United States have gone extinct; More than 760 plant species in the U.S. are federally listed as endangered or threatened (http://www.centerforplantconservation.org/SupportFYI.html).
• The estimated damage from invasive species worldwide totals more than $1.4 trillion – five percent of the global economy (http://www.nature.org/initiatives/invasivespecies/).
• An estimated 1.02 billion people in the world go hungry.  In the United States, over 49 million people—including 16.7 million children—live in households that struggle to put food on the table. That means one in seven households in the U.S. are living with hunger or are at risk of hunger.  (http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/)
• In a world where so many are hungry, we feed corn to cars. 25% of US corn is now grown for ethanol production.  This conversion has also led to an increase in world food prices (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_vs_fuel).

But there is hope!

• We are getting creative in our solutions, such as using goats to eat invasive species (http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/washington/misc/art26013.html).
• International efforts are building to help feed future generations of children (http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/57964/2010/01/26-164334-1.htm).
• Since 1951, the Nature Conservancy has protected more than 117 million acres of land through collaborative rather than combative methods (http://www.nature.org/).