Sustainable Food CABI Global Summit on 'Food Security in a Climate of Change'

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The CABI Global Summit on “Food Security in a Climate of Change” spelt out the challenges ahead for the food and farming sector. Recent price rises have reminded everybody of the size of that challenge. Not only do we have to produce more food, we have to do it more sustainably. Over a billion people now go to bed hungry each night - up several hundred thousand in last couple of years, making the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal to half hunger by 2015 virtually impossible.

We have to produce more while taking into account reducing energy consumption, reducing greenhouse gases, conserving water and maintaining biodiversity. To try and encourage this increased sustainability there are all sorts of standards developing – eg Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) Standards approved by the Rainforest Alliance, through EuroGAP, to sustainability standards of the World Bank itself. Many of these are recognised by the World Trade Organisation (under Sanitary & Phytosanitary measures) as not barriers to trade, they make it harder for developing countries and smaller companies to enter world markets. Yet these standards are needed and are here to stay, so ways to facilitate poorer countries and companies must be established to enable freer trade. Perhaps retailers should set up online learning / audit systems.

Somebody asked how they could cope with all this, to which the chair responded with the classic answer from the “Hitchhikers Guide” computer; saying “42”. However, there were lots of ideas and examples of how small producers could enter the market, varying from micro-finance, “support zones” where produce could go and be properly looked after, through to Global Plant Clinics to help farmers diagnose diseases, and online library systems enabling access to all the world food and farming journals – for some - for free. Other hopeful signs were using the dramatic increase in mobile phone usage across the world to help farmers find market signals, previously denied them.

The inevitable question about GM came up (our views on GM). While discussing the effects of climate change encouraging "invasive species", it was noted that a nasty nematode was making inroads into banana crops at higher altitudes. The questioner said there was a GM crop that was resistant to the nasty nematodes, adding that perhaps it was about time to revisit some of the controls on GM - particularly the Cartegena Protocol. The answer came that farmers could boil the corms to protect against the nematode so there was no great urgency. Both “sides” looked satisified. Yet it is not so much a matter of right/wrong, instead we should consider the other elements of sustainable development. When we do, we would ask whether the local farmer can afford GM. And also ask whether they can get enough (cheap) labour to boil the corms. There seems to be a consensus building around GM, best articulated by Bob Watson Chief Scientific Adviser to DEFRA who said that GM has little relevance to poverty in Africa arguing that existing technologies are enough provided there is a bottom up approach that encourages local skills. However, he also said it would be stupid to ignore such a tool in our technological armoury, in developed countries, when trying to find new ways to improve sustainability.

This theme was spelt out in the keynote address. We need to intervene along the whole chain to get closer to harnessing the potential of existing technologies, and yet at the same time innovate to keep meeting the challenges posed by climate change. We need to recognise the complexity of this debate and enjoy it – rather than stick to slogans. What is also agreed widely is that the rundown in R&D and associated scientists, that has occurred in both developed and developing countries over the last 20 years, could prove catastrophic – just at the time when we need them most.