The UK’s main public funders of food-related research are working together through the Global Food Security programme to meet the challenge of providing the world’s growing population with access to safe, affordable and nutritious food, all of the time and in ways the planet can sustain into the future.
Latest activity update
The winner for GFS’s 2021 research storytelling competition, Speak UP for Food Security – Five Stories for Change, has been announced. In honour of the UK hosting COP26, this year’s competition aimed to equip UKRI early career researchers with the knowledge and skills to not only inform climate action in the food system, but to inspire it as well.
New report, produced as part of the ‘Transforming UK Food Systems SPF Programme’ to explore the impact of Covid-19 across the UK food system, including food system resilience, lessons learnt and building back better.
The UN recently stated that it finds ‘no credible pathway to 1.5C in place’ with current global commitments to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. In anticipation of the conclusion of COP27, here is a recap from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released in April 2022. This looks at possible solutions and mitigation strategies in response to the changing climate, including what role the food system can play in our fight against climate change.
The risk of extreme weather hitting several major food producing regions of the world at the same time could triple by 2040. This was the major finding from a GFS report on extreme weather and the food system, which was presented at the AAAS meeting and at the US Senate.
GFS has catalysed a strategic approach to soil science which has helped galvanise investment in research and training. UK soils are worth £5.3 billion to our economy – 2.2 million tonnes of topsoil is lost each year in the UK costing farmers £9 million.
GFS has helped facilitate an £18.5 million multidisciplinary research initiative to help protect animal and human health in the face of emerging livestock farming systems. Meat demand is predicted to rise by 40% in 2030 and there are significant risks to health associated with the rapidly changing nature of livestock farming systems to meet demand: 60% of human pathogens and 75% of emerging diseases are zoonotic.
GFS has launched a major interdisciplinary research programme to help policymakers and practitioners optimise the resilience of the UK’s food system to environmental, biological, economic, social and geopolitical shocks.
The global food system is under pressure. Over the next 35 years, the growing global population will demand more food than has ever been produced in human history!
Animation by Zedem Media.
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