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Maria

UK urged to lead on future food

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8317511.stm
Quote:
The UK should plough £2bn ($3.3bn) into crop research to help stave off world hunger, says the Royal Society.

It says the world's growing population means food production will have to rise by about 50% in 40 years and the UK can lead the research needed.

Approaches it endorses include genetic modification, improved irrigation and systems of growing crops together that reduce the impact of diseases.

It says that rising yields have brought "complacency" over food supplies.

Earlier in the year, the G8 pledged to spend $20bn (£12bn) improving food security for the developing world.

The Royal Society's report, Reaping the Benefits: Science and the Sustainable Intensification of Global Agriculture, concludes that science has to have a significant role if the food supply is to be maintained in 2050, when the world population may have reached nine billion.
Maria

Catching up on the 'news'.  
Martin

nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
GM doesn't work, and will only help prolong the agony by intensifying high input chemical farming, and will rapidly leech the last innate fertility from the land - we have to grasp the nettle of the population problem, and fast!
(that's simple arithmetic - it's not a question of "whether", just "when".........
as explained by the excellent Prof Bartlett -
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RdOk521m9WA)
The latest work shows that permaculture can double the yield of land without a chemical or any GM use at all - we have to "go sustainable" and fast, or as Will Self says "we're toast"
Maria

I know    Thanks for grrrrr'ing for anyone who doesn't.
JamesB

yeah, changing our diet will make a massive difference. I dont mean everyone going vegan but eating a lot less meat etc

James
Ina

We mainly need to use the food we already produce more efficiently - I think I mentioned that book "Waste" on another thread... Sorry, I'm on a mission at the moment
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