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A focus on the link between energy and food production in Africa at the Durban Climate Change Conference is much needed, says Robin Sanders.
The recent Durban Climate Change Conference is a follow on from Cancun which did not move a lot of things forward on key environmental issues ranging from CO2 emissions, carbon sequestration and credits), to land and water resource management.
The important fact that the conference is taking place on the African continent for the first time should not just boil down to its mere presence in Durban. But just like key sub-Saharan African economies are emerging, Africa’s emerging voice on climate change policy is vital to a number of future developmental areas, not least of which is food security – including all of its pillars from food production to improving the continent’s ability to feed itself and using renewables to spur better agricultural energy use.
Continue reading Africa, climate change and food security
Tim Benton on the challenges ahead and why he’s taken on the role.
Meeting the growing demands for both food and sustainability is a huge interdisciplinary challenge; the answer will not be found in a single discipline. As an interdisciplinary problem, global food security solutions must combine agricultural science (including crop improvement), farming management, understanding trade-offs in land uses (between ecosystem services and agricultural production for example) and a wide range of social issues concerning behaviour, consumption, economics and global trade.
Continue reading A Champion for the Global Food Security programme
Individuals, governments and farmers are all responsible for the changes we need, says Oliver Dowding.
My first 13 years of farming saw endless lorry-loads of fertilisers and chemicals coming on to the farm. The controls on their usage, and the consequential problems, were evidently increasing. I re-examined what I was doing and who the gainers and losers were.
Conclusion: I needed to cut down the inputs, improve sustainability, stay friends with the consumer and re-enliven my soils.
Continue reading Business as usual is not an option
Farming is still not receiving the attention it deserves to reap its potential, says Isabelle Coche.
One of the items on the G8 agenda at the 37th summit being held May 26-27 in Deauville, France, is the transition to a green economy. Agriculture can play a substantial role in helping to stimulate growth, secure rural livelihoods and reduce poverty in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Prior to the G8 summit, Farming First has launched an online infographic The Story of Agriculture and the Green Economy.
Continue reading How agriculture can help to achieve the G8’s green economy ambition
We should bury the dodgy statistics but face up to the reality of our over indulgence in meat, says Simon Fairlie.
I recently spent several years investigating the environmental impact of livestock production for a book called Meat: A Benign Extravagance, which stimulated the debate on the real carbon foot print of rearing animals for food, particularly when the Guardian’s George Monbiot wrote his ‘Let them eat meat – but farm it properly’ critique.
Continue reading Meat: a benign extravagance
Organic and conventional agriculture can both contribute to a sustainably farmed landscape, says Tim Benton.
The world’s population is predicted to increase by 35% (PDF) by 2050. Simultaneously, per capita food demand is rising because as individual wealth increases, consumption (especially of meat and dairy) also increases. Although there are uncertainties, the most widely cited prediction for future demand is that 70% more food (PDF) will be required by 2050.
Continue reading Land sharing vs land sparing: why the fight?
Progress towards affordable, sustainable food production will be made with successful partnerships, says Janet Allen.
On 10 February the UK’s major public funders of food-related research published their coordinated research plan to help the world avoid a food security crisis.
The UK Research Councils, Government departments and other public bodies are co-ordinating their research activities related to food and agriculture through the Global Food Security (GFS) programme, the blog of which you are reading.
The GFS programme aims to provide the world’s growing population with a sustainable and secure supply of safe, nutritious and affordable high quality food from less land and with lower inputs. A short video that encapsulates the problem can be seen on the front page of this website.
Continue reading Research strategy launched to help meet food security challenge
A paper that details the scope of the food security challenge provides useful insights, says Janet Allen.
An interesting and potentially very useful contribution to the thinking and discussion around food security has appeared in the form of an open access paper The top 100 questions of importance to the future of global agriculture.
It is too easy to be sceptical and say what we need are 100 answers, but if you start with good questions you are more likely to generate good answers. The questions in this paper were produced by a wide consultation process involving 45 institutions and finally 55 authors based in 21 countries.
Continue reading 100 questions for global agriculture
We need to move toward more sustainable agriculture practices that use the best of all approaches – including organic, GM and non-GM biotechnology, says David Howlett.
In achieving global food security, agriculture is part of the problem and part of the solution to climate change.
While we need to better understand greenhouse-gas emissions from agriculture we do know they are significant. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that direct emissions are about 14% of global emissions (similar to those from transport) and emissions from deforestation are 17% of global emissions – but because farming is a major driver of deforestation the majority of these are due to agriculture.
Continue reading Combining tactics for triple wins in agriculture
Improving the conversion of light into biomass will require thinking outside the box, says Riaz Bhunnoo.
It’s said that you can’t force people to have fun, but can you help a group of people to be creative?
The answer is yes. But it depends largely on the people present and the environment they are in.
The Ideas Lab on enhancing photosynthesis, jointly organised by BBSRC and the National Science Foundation in the US, and held at the Asilomar Conference Center, California, Sept 13-17 aimed to create an environment conducive to creative, ‘out of the box’ thinking. The idea was to bring together a diverse group of people from different disciplinary backgrounds and to use their unique perspectives and expertise to generate novel and potentially ground-breaking ideas in a similar format to a ‘sandpit’.
Continue reading The Ideas Lab on enhancing photosynthesis
