Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference yesterday the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Professor John Beddington, made clear the Government’s view that using the latest advances in science, such as GM and nanotechnology, is vital to make sure that the world can produce enough to feed a growing population by 2030. The world will need to produce 50% more food in the next twenty years. Prof. Beddington said that more crops will need to be produced on less land, and that GM offers a way to achieve this.

Speaking to farmers at the conference Prof. Beddington said “we need a greener revolution, improving production and efficiency through the food chain within environmental and other constraints”. He stated that action to improve crop yields is necessary now, due to time lags in developing and implementing new technologies, and that GM is critical in meeting economic, environmental and social goals.

Prof. Beddington’s speech attracted criticism from some, including in the Guardian’s editorial yesterday. The Guardian calls for Ministers to themselves be more explicit about the Government’s belief that GM is vital to ensure food security, communicating this directly to the public rather than relying on the Government CSA to make such speeches. The newspaper also questioned whether the evidence base really does support GM technology as ‘vital’ to food security, as outlined by Prof. Beddington, alluding to the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAAST), led by Professor Bob Watson, Defra’s Chief Scientist. The report found that GM technology was unlikely to have more than a limited role in tackling hunger and that global hunger is as much to do with power and control over food supply as with growing enough to eat.

See more: Daily Telegraph, 7 January 2010

As part of its 350th anniversary celebrations, the Royal Society has invited leading scientists to contribute to a special issue of their journal Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B: Environment and Evolution with their personal analysis of areas of high current relevance and interest. The wide ranging topics include gene function and neural processing, stem cell research, social cognition and ageing.

In line with the growing concern over environmental sustainability and food security (see Defra’s Food 2030 report published yesterday), almost a third of the articles deal with this theme, analysing the current challenges from ecological, social and economic perspectives. In his article, the Government Chief Scientific Advisor Professor John Beddington analyses the factors threatening our capacity to feed the future world population, and echoes the Royal Society ‘Reaping the Benefits’ report published at the end of last year in calling for increased scientific input to tackle these problems. Lord Robert May focuses on the increasing pressure humanity is placing on the natural environment, measured in terms of its ‘ecological footprint’, and its effect on biodiversity, while the Cambridge economist Sir Partha Dasgupta highlights the need for increased recognition of the role of intact ecosystems in providing vital ‘natural capital’ if these areas are to be given the protection they deserve.

The full articles are available free to download from the Royal Society’s website.

The Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn MP, and Shadow Environment Secretary, Nick Herbert MP, will both address the Oxford Farming Conference today, setting out their respective parties’ policies with regard to food and farming.

Nick Herbert is due to announce that a Conservative government would establish a supermarket ombudsman to protect the interests of farmers against any abuse of power by large food retailers. The ombudsman would be created as a unit inside the Office of Fair traiding and would be funded by a levy on big supermarkets. Nick Herbert will say that the ombudsman will “curb abuses of power which undermine our farmers and act against the long-term interests of consumers… failure to do so could result in reduced investment by suppliers, lower product quality and less product choice, with potentially higher prices in the long run.”

Hilary Benn will launch the government’s ‘Food 2030′ report, setting out the government’s food strategy for the next 20 years. Mr Benn will use his speech to the conference to call for Britain to grown more food in different ways, to reduce the environmental impact of food production and farming and to provide food for the world’s growing population. Mr Benn will say that society “know(s) that the consequences of the way we produce and consume food are unsustainable to our planet and to ourselves” and that a consumer revolution can bring about change. “People power can bring about a revolution in the way food is produced and sold…(farming will) follow consumer demand for food that is local, healthy and has been produced with a smaller environmental footprint.”

In his foreword to the report, Prime Minister Gordon Brown says that Britain “need(s) to produce more food without damaging the natural resources – air, soil, water and marine resources, biodiversity and climate – that we all depend on.” Plans within the report include making it easier for people to lease land to grow their own fruit and vegetables, reducing long waiting lists for city allotments, and a ‘land bank’ to ensure that plots of land do not go empty.

Original sources: BBC News: Parties to unveil plans for supermarkets and food, Guardian: Britain must grow more sustainable food, says Benn and Guardian: Conservatives to create supermarket ombudsman to protect farmers