Scotlant, United Kingdom
January 24, 2011

The Director and Chief Executive of SCRI, Scotland’s leading centre for crop research, has welcomed a UK government-commissioned study into food security.

Professor Peter Gregory was one of the leading scientists who worked on the study which has called for urgent action to avert global hunger.

He said: “This report contributes to the emerging agenda for research on food security. SCRI will continue to make major contributions to this through its work on breeding new crop varieties that are resistant to diseases and able to use fertilisers and water efficiently, and by developing new management systems that promote sustainable crop production practices.”

The Foresight Report on Food and Farming Futures will inform the new UK-wide Global Food Security project which is being promoted by several UK Government departments and Research Councils together with the Scottish Government.

The report predicts that current systems of food supply are not sustainable and will fail to end hunger unless radically redesigned. It is the culmination of a two-year UK Government project to examine how a future global population of 9 billion can be fed healthily and sustainably.

Scientists at SCRI have contributed to the report through contributions to specialist papers on competition for land use, the management of soils for sustainable agriculture and ecosystem services, and the funding of agricultural research.

It is the first study across a range of disciplines deemed to have put such fears on a firm analytical footing.

According to the government's chief scientific adviser, Professor Sir John Beddington, the study provides compelling evidence for governments around the world to act now.

SCRI, based at Invergowrie, Dundee, employees more than 300 scientists and researchers involved in plant genetics, food quality, plant pathology and environmental science.
 

Website: http://www.scri.sari.ac.uk

Published: January 24, 2011