In praise of the humble pollinator

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.

Banana

Bananas at a crossroads

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.

Friends different selection of food

Sandpit for early-career researchers at lecturer level or equivalent

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.

Insight: Paris-compliant healthy food systems

Insight, issue six: Paris-compliant healthy food systems

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.)

Cover image of Alternatives to conventional pesticides workshop report

Alternatives to conventional pesticides: understanding the efficacy and unintended consequences of a change in practice

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.)

From left to right: Dr Ruth Wade (The University of Sheffield), Dr Alison Scott-Brown (Kew Gardens), Dr Sofia Cota-Franco (Newcastle University), Dr Rory O’Connor (University of Reading), and Dr Ben Keane (University of York)

GFS Policy Lab group funded

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.