About the programme
The UK’s main public funders of food-related research and training are working together through Global Food Security to meet the challenge of providing the world’s growing population with a sustainable, secure supply of good quality food from less land and with lower inputs.
The programme delivers coordinated, multidisciplinary research divided into 4 themes:
- Economic resilience
- Resource efficiency
- Sustainable production
- Sustainable, healthy, safe diets
The challenge
Over 800M people globally do not have adequate access to safe and nutritious food. This could be made worse by the expected population growth to over 9Bn and increasing affluence and urbanisation.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation predicts demand for food will grow by 50% by 2030 and 70% by 2050. The challange is to meet this demand in ways that are environmentally, socially and economically sustainable, and in the face of global climate change.
Future food production and supply must:
- Use less land and fewer imputs
- Produce less waste and have a lower environmental impact
Food must be nutritious, safe, affordable and available to all.
For more information on the food security challenge, see The issue.
To read about how research is already underway to tackle the issue, see Research in Action.
UK government
'Food 2030' sets out the UK government vision for a sustainable and secure food system. The framework for research to support this vision has been published in the 'UK Cross-Government Food Research and Innovation Strategy'. The Scottish Government published its food and drink policy ‘Recipe for Success’ in June 2009.
Links to these documents can be found in Reports and position statements.
Global Food Security reflects and helps to address these strategies through cross-disciplinary and inter-related research themes that bring together complementary approaches.
The programme builds on each of the partners’ research programmes and is designed to complement other multi-partner and multidisciplinary programmes in Energy, Global Uncertainties, Lifelong Health and Wellbeing, and Living with Environmental Change.
