Articles and features
Urgent action needed to redesign the food system to feed the world’s growing population
A new report, published today by Foresight, the Government’s futures think tank, argues for fundamental change to the global food system, and beyond if a rapidly expanding global population is to be fed over the next 40 years.
The Foresight project ‘Global Food and Farming Futures’ has examined how a rapidly expanding global population can be fed in a healthy and sustainable way. Multiple threats are converging on the food system, including changes in the climate, competition for resources such as water supply and energy, and changing consumption patterns provide considerable challenges to sustaining the world’s food supply.
Read the press release.
The top 100 questions of importance to the future of global agriculture
A new paper published Thursday 11 November 2010 identifies the top 100 questions for the future of global agriculture. The paper, funded by the Foresight project on Global Food and Farming, is an important contribution in answering the project's central question of how a future global population of nine billion people can be fed sustainably, healthily and equitably.
Read the paper here.
Feeding the world in 2050
The Foresight project on Global Food and Farming Futures has published 21 reviews of the major drivers affecting the food system up to 2050 in a Royal Society journal. Topics include factors affecting the demand for food, trends in future food supply, exogenous factors affecting the food system such as climate change and competition for natural resources.
Read the reviews on the Royal Society website.
Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People
Science Magazine published this article 12 February 2010.
Continuing population and consumption growth will mean that the global demand for food will increase for at least another 40 years. Growing competition for land, water, and energy, in addition to the overexploitation of fisheries, will affect our ability to produce food, as will the urgent requirement to reduce the impact of the food system on the environment. The effects of climate change are a further threat. But the world can produce more food and can ensure that it is used more efficiently and equitably. A multifaceted and linked global strategy is needed to ensure sustainable and equitable food security, different components of which are explored here.
Read the Science Magazine article.
Foresight on the Today programme: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People
Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor John Beddington and experts from the Foresight project Global Food and Farming Futures have set out five strategies to combat the problem of how to feed a growing global population in the international journal Science. The population is expected to rise to 9 billion by 2050, more than 30 percent higher than today. Professor John Beddington outlined how world food production can be increased in an interview with the Today Programme on BBC radio 4.
Listen Again on the BBC site.
