Food 2030 Conference takes place in Brussels on World Food Day

AgriFood at York Academic Lead, Professor Bob Doherty attended this conference at the beginning of the week, and reports that despite the recent focus on developing a more sustainable food sector, statistics highlight worsening trends.

The UN FAO reported an increasing number of food insecure people globally without access to adequate food, whilst 50% of people in Europe were categorised as overweight.  Further pressure on ecosystems from climate change, soil erosion, land degradation shows an increasing pressure on available resources. Remember this is at a time when the world must produce 50% more food by 2050.

The International Panel on Food, Nutrition and Agriculture spoke about the need for a food systems approach which deals with regional contexts. They call for interventions at key leverage points in the food system, the need to strengthen policy coherence, enhance resilience plus health and wellbeing. Food2030 speakers discussed a range of solutions from better use of big data, more diversified food production, future proteins, climate change adaptation, social innovation, precision agriculture, community initiatives and the importance of reversing negative impacts on ecosystem services such as top soil loss ((970 million tonnes in Europe alone in 2016).

Bob Doherty (AgriFood lead at York) says “there is no one silver bullet, it’s going to need an integrated transformative approach that requires radical solutions based on the foundations of interdisciplinary research. The University of York with both IknowFood,  N8 AgriFood coupled with the research strength of YESI and CNAP is well placed to contribute to both changing mindsets and designing innovative solutions”

The challenge is how can we ensure knowledge gets to those with the capacity to act. Both IknowFood and N8 AgriFood have built strong links with industry and policy makers to ensure our research has an impact in enhancing food system sustainability and resilience.