Food Security - maintaining resources in the age of globalisation of trade
Birkbeck Free Lecture series, Spring 2015, Friday evenings 13th February to 20th March at 18:30.
Venue to be confirmed
World population projections show that there will be many more mouths to feed in coming
decades. This need will follow the actual population trend, but meeting it depends on many other
factors. Food production will continue to depend upon half a dozen staple food plants. There is a
potential fragility in maintaining production that depends upon land availability, soil fertility, water
supplies, freedom from pests, appropriate technologies and suitable crop varieties. Equally
important is whether the primary crops are eaten by us, or used less efficiently for meat production.
Food can be lost in storage and transportation. In an increasingly urbanised world, some see the
solutions in energy-intensive, industrial scale farming, fisheries and food distribution, whilst others
advocate smaller scale, local activity. Much of this will be affected by climate change. This lecture
series explores the issues and tries to answer some of the questions.
Further details of the six individual lectures, and a reading list, will be available later. To receive
these, please email ecssoc@gmail.com, consult the website http://www.bbk.ac.uk/geds/ourresearch/ecss/free-public-lectures, or pick up a copy at one of the lectures.
13th February. What is food security and why should we care about it? Prof Tim Benton,
University of Leeds, 'Champion' for the UK’s Global Food Security programme.
20th February.
27th February.
6th March.
13th March.
20th March.
The free public lectures are in a series hosted by GEDS, Birkbeck University of London. They are
suitable for those who may be considering, or undertaking, university courses in ecology, biological
conservation or related subjects. They will interest environmental and ecological practitioners,
natural historians, wildlife organisations and others with similar interests.
The lectures are supported by GEDS, Birkbeck University of London and would not be possible
otherwise. They are organised and promoted by the Ecology and Conservation Studies Society,
with assistance from the Linnean Society of London.