SOES Farming Conference 2022

“Given everything, can we really produce nutritious, sustainable food, that we can all afford?”
Record high food prices have triggered a global crisis that will drive millions into extreme poverty. The war in Ukraine, supply chain disruptions, drought across many parts of the globe, and the continued economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic are pushing food prices to all-time highs.
Rising food prices have a greater impact on people in low and middle-income countries, but there remains a paradox - whilst we see more of the population go hungry, we still are facing an obesity crisis, a crisis which is not going to get any better if people cannot afford healthy and nutritious food.
In the last 60 years our diets have become more homogenous and increasingly dominated by staple foods that are high in energy and low in micronutrients. Three crops - rice, maize, and wheat - provide more than 50% of the calories that we gain from plants. People, particularly the poorest, do not consume enough nutrient-rich food such as fruits, nuts, seeds, and whole grains.
Against this backdrop is the ever increasing need to reduce the environmental burden of food production to meet the targets required to arrest global warming. A need that is hampered now by more regular climate shocks, such as droughts, that make it more difficult for the food industry to meet such targets. All of this raises a fundamental question - one which is the subject of this year’s conference - can we really produce nutritious, sustainable food, that we can all afford?
Chaired by Radio 4 Farming Today's Charlotte Smith, Speakers Judith Batchelar, Ex Brand Director of Sainsbury's, Tom Gribble, Local Arable/Dairy Farmer, and Henry Dimbleby, Author of the National Food Strategy & Co-Founder of Leon Restaurant unpack this crucial topic.