• Biotechnology and development - an overview
• Poverty reduction and food security: impacts of GM crops
• Regulating GM crops
• The role of the private sector and corporate control
• Public participation and the politics of policy

Biotechnology and development - an overview

The global food system will experience an unprecedented combination of pressures over the next 40 years. Global population size looks likely to increase from nearly seven billion today to over nine billion by 2050. Competition for land, water and energy will intensify, while the effects of climate change will become increasingly apparent. Over this period, globalisation will continue, exposing the food system to novel economic and political pressures.

This Final Report of the Foresight Global Food and Farming Futures Project argues that decisive action needs to take place now, and identifies five considerable challenges ahead:

• balancing future demand and supply sustainably – to ensure that food supplies are affordable
• ensuring that there is adequate stability in food supplies – and protecting the most vulnerable from the volatility that does occur
• achieving global access to food and ending hunger. This recognises that producing enough food in the world so that everyone can potentially be fed is not the same thing as ensuring food security for all
• managing the contribution of the food system to the mitigation of climate change
• maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services while feeding the world

The authors present 12 key priorities for action by policy-makers:

• spread best practice: improvements in extension and advisory services in high-, middle- and low-income countries, and strengthening of rights to land and natural resources in low-income countries
  
• invest in new knowledge: new science and technology will drive future food supply, but investment in new knowledge needs to be made now to solve problems in the coming decades
• make sustainable food production central in development: development trajectories should be chosen to help food producers in low-income countries adapt to the effects of climate change to which they are likely to be disproportionately exposed. Investment in infrastructure and capacity is needed. but will only be realised only by innovative partnerships between governments, multilateral bodies and the private sector
  
• work on the assumption that there is little new land for agriculture: major expansion is unwise - it is now understood that land conversion, particularly of forests is one of the major ways that food production contributes to greenhouse gas emissions
  
• ensure long-term sustainability of fish stocks: there is urgent need to reform fisheries governance at national and international levels to ensure long-term sustainability. Many of the world’s wild fish stocks are over-exploited and subject to poor fisheries management. Aquaculture will have a major role to play and will need to produce more with increased sustainability
  
• promote sustainable intensification: to simultaneously raise yields, increase the efficiency with which inputs are used and reduce the negative environmental effects of food production requires economic and social changes to recognise the multiple outputs required of land managers, farmers and other food producers
  
• include the environment in food system economics: incorporating the true costs (or benefits) of different productions systems on ecosystem services is a powerful way to incentivise sustainability
  
• reduce waste: In high-income countries waste tends to be concentrated at the consumer end and in low-income countries more towards the producer’s. Reducing food waste is an obvious priority. It is also an area where individual citizens and businesses, particularly in high-income countries, can make a clear contribution
  
• improve the evidence base upon which decisions are made and develop metrics to assess progress: The Report makes specific recommendations for the creation of a global, open-source
  data base for the analysis of agriculture, the food system, and the environment, and the setting up of an International Food System Modelling Forum to enable a more systematic comparison of different models
  
• anticipate major issues with water availability for food production: incentives to encourage greater efficiency of water use and the development of integrated water management plans
  need to be given high priority
  
• work to change consumption patterns: the informed consumer can effect change in the food system by choosing to purchase items that promote sustainability, equitability or other desirable goals.  Clear labelling and information is essential. Building a societal consensus for action will be key to modifying demand
  
• empower citizens: modern ITC needs to be mobilised, and citizens must be helped to hold all other actors and themselves to account for their efforts to improve the global food system, through better publication on the commitments and effectiveness of different groups
  

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