Commentary Of all the things in the world, food is one of the few things capable of uniting the masses. A shortage of it, however, has the power to do the very opposite, driving people to the brink of madness. Julian Cribb, a distinguished science writer and author of “The Coming Famine,” warns that a global food shortage is just around the corner. Due to “shortages of water, land, and energy combined with the increased demand from population and economic growth,” the world is ill-prepared for the horrors that await. According to the academic Monica Caparas, the “probability of crop yield failures is projected to be as much as 4.5 times higher by 2030 and up to 25 times higher by 2050 across global breadbaskets.” The most at-risk crops are rice, maize, soybeans, and wheat. Several countries around the world are at significant risk of crop yield failures. China is …