A few words on a big issue

Our food system needs a revolution. That’s the message from the ‘Global Food and Farming Futures Report’ released today by the Government’s Foresight Institute. The report is a bible of facts and information on a hugely complex issue, but to avoid your head hitting the desk too quickly here’s a quick visual tour of some of the things being said.

The report isn’t just about GM crops, retailer power, farting cows, waste or hunger; it’s about a fundamental restructuring of the entire food system. A new map if you will, to join up the dots.

The 'Wordle' gives a visual snapshot of the most commonly occurring words in the Foresight report. Click here to find out more about Wordle.

See that big flat bit between 1987 and 2007… don’t expect to see much more of that 

Climate change is going to have a very significant impact on the price of food…

Drought could hurt big economies badly. India, China, the U.S, Canada – we’re going to need to find surplus’s from elsewhere…

Energy and water, yes we’re definitely going to need much more of that.

The way we’ve grown crops for the last 50 years simply isn’t affordable for the next 50. Chucking on lots and lots of fertiliser has been the name of the game... However a) fertiliser is becoming increasingly expensive due to rising energy prices and b) it hasn’t really boosted yields that much has it? 

We’re pretty good at growing wheat in the UK – let’s spread some of that expertise…

So that’s a brief whistle stop tour of some of the big issues covered in the report. However over the next month we will look to unpick these further with blogs on each of the key sections of the report:

A. Balancing future demand and supply sustainably – to ensure that food supplies are affordable.

B. Ensuring that there is adequate stability in food supplies – and protecting the most vulnerable from the volatility that does occur.

C. Achieving global access to food and ending hunger. This recognises that producing enough food in the world so that everyone can potentially be fed is not the same thing as ensuring food security for all.

D. Managing the contribution of the food system to the mitigation of climate change.

E. Maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services while feeding the world.

Please do send us your thoughts and comments.

To read the initial reaction to the launch of the report click the links below:

BBC: Urgent action needed to avert global hunger

Farmers Weekly: Revolution needed to feed the world

Farmers Guardian: Scientists and ministers call for new agricultural revolution

Business Green: Report warns global food system is broken

The Guardian: Global food system must be transformed on industrial revolutions scale