Tacking food security from the soil up

It’s predicted that the world population is set to rise to 9.2 billion by 2050, creating a need for a 60 per cent increase in global food production. Currently, 842 million people are undernourished, 827 million of which residing in low income countries. In low-income countries, spending on food can often consume over half of household income, leaving the poor extremely vulnerable to price fluctuations. Shifts in the system such as climate change, soil degradation, pest outbreaks, economic and political crises, and population growth are placing added pressures on the global food system.

The global food systems are inherently complex, due to their various processes, value chains, actors and interactions. The outcomes of the food system affect multiple stakeholders and industries in various and occasionally conflicting forms. With so many relying on their resilience, food systems must be equipped to meet their goals, even when presented with unpredictable drivers of change.

Addressing the Paris Climate Talks in 2015, Professor Duncan Cameron, Institute for Sustainable Food co-director, warned that Earth has lost a third of arable land in the past 40 years.

Since then our science and innovation have made great strides to protect our natural resources as well as develop new technologies to alleviate the problem.

Recently our scientists discovered we can grow 15 percent of our fruit and vegetables in just 10% of our urban spaces. We can now grow tomatoes and herbs in mattress foam in the desert and alternative growing methods such as hydroponic and aquaponic systems are booming.

Yet in 2021 the soils that support all terrestrial life on Earth are still being eroded by deforestation, intensive agriculture, urbanisation and the climate crisis far faster than they can regenerate.

Novel growing techniques and urban horticulture can provide a helpful buffer but the reality is farmers and the soil of our lands will continue to provide the bulk of our calories. As scientists we can’t continue to work in silos - we need to work with and learn from the farmers who tend to our lands. Our research tells us soils are sick but we can’t solve the problem through research alone.

We want farmers to be supported to work in partnership with nature, using precision farming technologies to improve the health of our soils and minimise damaging inputs. And we want to see foodscapes that promote healthy choices, making them affordable and accessible to all.

At the Institute for Sustainable Food, we want to see moves towards more locally-grown and seasonal food – with high-tech urban farming systems providing training and job opportunities for communities hit by recession.

Our vision might sound impossibly ambitious – but we believe that by working across disciplines and with a range of partners beyond academia, we can achieve real change.