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Professor Tim Benton on Global Food Security programme

“We are the champions, my friends”

After five years, my term as the Champion for the UK’s Global Food Security programme has come to an end. It has been a fascinating and rewarding experience, even if at times exhausting and frustrating. So what have I learned?.

The issue of food security is not (just) about food, it is about how we choose to live on a planet with limited resources. Food requires land and water and affects climate, biodiversity and our health. The amount of land and water available are finite, as is the climate impact we can tolerate, and the healthcare costs of the malnourished (underweight and overweight).

Whilst we can grow ever more food, ever more cheaply, the externalised costs – on environment and health – will grow too. How do we feed the world, and manage demand to create a sustainable, nutritious and equitable food system?

As Freddy Mercury says in the rock anthem: “I consider it a challenge before the whole human race”; and it is a much more complex challenge than I realised five years ago.

Read more at the Global Food Security blog
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