The report is produced by the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institution of Chemical Engineers in the UK.
Launched in Westminster by Hilary Benn MP – UK secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs – the report says that changing weather patterns, crops being used for fuel rather than food, and emerging Chinese and Indian middle classes, will all contribute to a breakdown in the world’s current food supply chain.
Professor Peter Lillford CBE, chairman of the working party that produced the report, says that it will be the poorest nations that succumb first.
“The countries that are less technologically advanced and those that rely most heavily on food imports will be the first to suffer,” said Professor Lillford. “It will be survival of the fittest.
“Last year, we saw riots in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Senegal and Morocco because of food shortages. We experienced ripples of change in the UK, too, where many food prices rose. It’s all about the availability of food as a commodity on a global scale,” he continued. “In the developed world, because food is relatively cheap, we waste it. That’s no longer morally or economically acceptable, and we’ll also rely on the chemical sciences to implement technology to reduce this waste, alongside the need for adjustments in consumer behaviour. There’s no way out of this unless we make changes.”
The report recommends a stronger focus on developing and improving chemical engineering technologies to conserve and reuse water, the development of modern biotechnology to create pest-resistant crops, the application of novel enzyme chemistry and technology in food manufacture, and the creation of methods to treat livestock waste to generate energy and bio-gas as possible solutions to prevent the food shortfall.
It also calls for improved scientific literacy among policy makers, and says supermarkets must make greater efforts to champion sustainability.
The report warns, however, that a shortage of properly qualified scientists and engineers in the UK threatens to undermine such efforts and could harm the nation’s food industry and its capacity to deliver.
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