Food Tank launched today with the aim of providing sustainable solutions for global food-related problems including hunger, obesity, climate change and unemployment.

Taking the view that greater research and investment in agriculture should produce the desired result, co-founders Ellen Gustafson and Danielle Nierenberg will use the think tank to highlight "innovative ideas that are already working on the ground".

Gustafson founded the 30 Project, which traced the trajectory of global hunger and obesity levels since 1980.

With almost 1bn people still not having enough to eat in 2012, while 500m others were confirmed obese in 2008, the data the 30 Project fleshed out now forms the starting point for Food Tank.

Nierenberg, co-founder of the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet project, has visited 35 countries around sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America, and believes that large-scale producers in the developed world, particularly the US, can learn from the sustainable methods used by small-scale farmers in developing countries.

They hope the Food Tank website will become an idea-sharing tool, featuring all important food and agriculture reports and research, as well as a forum for producers and policy-makers.

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