Mike Vickers' Blog

A lecture at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 9^th February 2015

Tom Benton is Global Food Security Champion He made a number of critical points on world growth and how and if it could be sustainable

1. There are 805 million in the world hungry; there are 1 million people in the UK in food poverty
2. All of us eat the wrong food. 2/3 of the food eaten is wheat, rice and maize; if we include sugar, barley, soya, palm oil and potato we get up to 86%
3. The world population will increase from the current 7 billion to 10 billion by 2050
4. Food for Europe comes through the Suez Canal – an interruption in flow and Europe would be in crisis – there aren’t enough ships to go via the Cape
5. The World will be 4* hotter; it’s not the average temperature that matters to growing plants it’s the maximums which could 6* or 7* above the average – at 35*C maize will not grow
6. 70% of water used for agriculture; 1 kg meat takes 10/12 tons of water for production; a green bean from Kenya takes 1 gallon of water
7. Eat local food , it saves water and carbon
8. After continuous increase in crop yields now starting to drop off
9. Need to reduce demand for food
10. 1/3 of food wasted – 3 for 1 but best by today.
    1. The need for supermarkets to always have food available requires that they have 200% resilience
    2. Our food laws have stopped recycling of waste
11. Health cost is £2,500 per person per year in the UK
12. 50% of Chinese heading for diabetes
13. In 2050 we will be eating more than the World has produced so far; needed 120% more water 40% more crop land 10% less forest
14. Loss of biodiversity
15. Agriculture produces more carbon than cars
16. A plea for more horticultural research
17. Food sales dominated by Marketing and supermarkets. Remember that supermarkets provide the food that we want to buy. The answer is a change in us not the supermarkets – if we change our eating habits then supermarkets will change what they sell.  A bottom up approach is needed
18. During WW2 we got it right