Innovating in Sustainable Agriculture: Food, Fear and the Future of Farming

The presentation will start  out by outlining the intimidating challenges facing our food production systems, and the absolute need to innovate if we are to be able to produce enough food in the decades ahead without destroying our environment in the process. However there is a growing “anti-technology” sentiment in society today which is making the development of new technologies in agriculture ever more difficult. Indeed we are currently losing technologies from the market at a faster rate than they are being introduced. This will be illustrated  with a personal perspective on the controversy surrounding the neonicotinoid insecticides. The presentation will then finish with a discussion of some of the new and exciting technologies being developed for use in agriculture and food production.