Tomorrow National Geographic will host Food: A Forum from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. followed by a weekend hackathon on feeding a planet groaning under the weight of 7 billion—and quickly growing to 9 billion—people. My top five ways to ease the way:

Focusing on food law as a singular study of the modern food system would examine the multiple levels on which food—the growing, procuring, transporting, distributing, cooking, serving, and cleaning of it—affect our planet. Far beyond traditional regulatory work that falls under “food and drug law,” negotiating the best body of law to ensure good food for 9 billion is currently the most interdisciplinary legal work around. Let’s examine all laws relating to food as one body