In my opinion what we really need (if we are going to continue to live a lifestyle at all similar to what we have now) are big investments in new farming method

In my opinion what we really need (if we are going to continue to live a lifestyle at all similar to what we have now) are big investments in new farming methods that allow food to be grown next to where people live. If you want to live in a big city now (which potentially can have big environmental benefits with multiunit housing and whatnot) your food probably comes from far away. Imagine if the highrise next to you instead grew tons of fresh vegetables, mushrooms, and other food and you could buy it direct from the "farm" at a store at the base? Nothing would be wasted in shipping - it would be as fresh as possible - prices could be low - and convenient as hell. I don't see any reason why we could not (with better understanding of soil) have complex systems of fungi and dirt in such a system as well.