Food Security and Choice – Can We Have Our Cake and Eat It?

Fresh from blogging about the undesirability of producing energy rather than cereals on local arable land I've just noticed courtesy of my Twitter feed that Professor Charles Godfray, a population biologist from Oxford University, gave a presentation at the Houses of Parliament earlier this week on the closely related topic of food security. Here it is:

Here are a few choice quotes from Prof. Godfray:

Land? They're not making it any more! (Unless perhaps if you're Dutch)

We're going to see increasing competition for water. Water is really scary. We're going to see water running out, especially underground water, and we're going to see increased competition for energy.

The way we produce food at the moment is literally unsustainable. If we continue doing what we are doing to soils, to our water resources and the way we produce food at the moment we will not have the capability to produce food in the same way in 20 to 30 years time.

And finally, the progress that has been made over the last 20 years or so in reducing the number of people who go to bed hungry on Earth has begun to reverse.

Business as usual won't work.

Hear, hear!