With livestock production losses due to FMD costing an estimated $2.3 billion each year in Africa, affecting food security, national economies, and the livelihoods of livestock keepers – 85% of which live in extreme poverty – this targeted vaccination programme could help alleviate poverty in eastern Africa.
If the fruit sector were a game, what would it be like? Monopoly – rich get richer, poor get poorer? Snakes and Ladders – it’s all down to luck? Dungeons and Dragons – highly complex and best directed by experts? Or maybe like Twister – needing strength and flexibility?
With a rapidly increasing global population set to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 coupled with environmental change, the challenge of feeding the world has never been greater. Making UK farming more resilient and sustainable will improve the UK’s ability to feed itself, while also benefitting the global food system more broadly.
For National Insect Week, Dr Tom Breeze from Modelling Landscapes for Resilient Pollination Services in the UK project, part of our Food Systems Resilience Programme, shares how bees are vital to global food security.
Bananas, the UK’s favourite fruit, appear at first glance to be among our most reliable and resilient fresh produce. They are stocked in every supermarket on every day of the year, and their price seldom varies by more than a few pence per kilo. But beneath this apparently smooth and steady supply lies a complex international network affected by extreme weather, plant disease, social and political shifts, and the looming threat of climate change.
We will be holding a sandpit for early-career researchers (at lecturer level or equivalent) on 4-6 July and 19-20 July 2018 (venue TBC) for our third call ‘Resilience of the UK food system in a global context: Transforming the food system for health, sustainability and resilience across production and demand’. The application deadline is 23 May 2018, 16:00.
GFS Insight aims to offer a balanced and interdisciplinary representation of the current state of knowledge in a particular area relating to food security. This issue outlines the need for a food system that supports both health and the Paris climate agreement, exploring impacts of food production and consumption as well as potential interventions to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions across the system.
(You can view PDF documents by downloading a PDF reader. We recommend using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox web browsers.)
The Global Food Security (GFS) programme has published a new workshop report that highlights the risks and challenges of using alternatives to conventional pesticides in the food system.
Pesticides provide numerous benefits, yet pressures on their use has led to industry exploring other viable options for pest, weed and disease management. This report examines the challenges of using alternatives to conventional pesticides, and highlights future research priorities for biopesticides and Integrated Pest Management strategies.
(You can view PDF documents by downloading a PDF reader. We recommend using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox web browsers.)
A team from the Policy Lab workshop were awarded a prize of £5,000 to produce a report examining how we can provide food alongside other ecosystem services, incorporating examples of best practice from other countries.
They get a bad press, but certain compounds are key to a future with safe, sufficient and affordable food, says the ECPA’s Graeme Taylor.
An interdisciplinary group of researchers attended a three day workshop, forming small groups to consider future priorities for policy to better support multi-functional landscapes. One group was awarded £5,000 to develop a Policy Lab report and journal publication based on their work.
