By 2050, the number of mouths we have to feed will have increased by two billion.
It brings together conservationists and interested parties who represent all levels of the food-production chain, including scientists, economists, farmers, manufacturers, retailers and consumers. Read the programme here.
Issues such as achieving greater coordination between conservationists and the producers of crops, particularly palm oil and soya, applying scientific knowledge to utilise agricultural land more efficiently and the impact of the UK’s global food footprint, will be discussed.
Changing consumer behaviour to eating more healthily, and encouraging consumption of edible proteins that can be produced with fewer resources than, for example, grain-fed beef, will also be considered.
Our view:
The NFU makes no apology for wanting to reverse a thirty year trend of declining food security in the UK and reducing increasing levels of imports. Increasing biodiversity in the UK by exporting food production to those parts of the world where agriculture has a worse environmental record is not a sustainable policy.
Instead we should continue to build on the agri-environmental agenda established over the last twenty years where wildlife conservation is successfully coupled with efficient food production.
:: Guy Smith is tabled to speak at 2.45pm, Thursday 22 October - you can watch the conference live here