Welcome to the Foresight Project on Global Food and Farming Futures
(November 2008 – present)

"How can a future global population of 9 billion people all be fed healthily and sustainably?"

The project will look out to 2050 and take a global view of the food system; considering issues of demand, production and supply as well as broader environmental issues.

Because of the project’s global perspective, the work will draw heavily on the skills and perspectives of leading experts and stakeholders from around the world.

The project’s findings are due to be launched in October 2010.

Reasons for Undertaking the Project

The project has been motivated by a number of major challenges facing the future of food and farming including:

• A growing world population and changing patterns of habitation.
• The evolution of the global economy and associated trade and governance issues.
• Changing demands in consumption across the world.
• The effects of climate change on agriculture and marine production.
• Concerns over growing energy demand and the need to increase yields while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• The drive to improve the environmental sustainability of food production and consumption.
• Potential scientific and technological advances that will improve efficiency and productivity.
• Emergent and resurgent plant and animal pests and diseases.

As with all Foresight projects, the Foresight Global Food and Farming Futures project will seek to apply leading edge scientific and other evidence and futures analysis to identify critical issues and their consequences, and to identify and analyse possible policies and interventions for addressing those challenges.

More specifically, the project will:

• Analyse the global food system including changing demand in countries around the world, changes in the production and processing of food, and changes in the supply chain: This will strengthen our understanding of the global uncertainties and interdependencies, and how they will play out in different parts of the world.
• Identify key drivers of change and investigate how they could interact to affect the food system and give rise to a broad range of uncertainties and impacts including conflict and migration.
• Consider how new science, policies and interventions could best address future challenges. The practicalities of realising those policies and interventions will be a key consideration.

The project will consider food and farming in the oceans and freshwater as well as on land. It will also address important issues such as pressures on land-use for non-food purposes – such as biofuels. It will also consider the importance of healthy ecosystems within the food system. Substantial use will be made of modelling and economic analysis.

The project will also perform analysis at several different spatial resolutions: global, regional, national and local. Case examples from around the world will be used to inform the work, and will involve local experts to ensure that the work draws upon local understanding and perspectives.

Project Process

The project will have three broad phases:

• Phase 1: Understanding the nature of the future challenge
  January 2009– October 2009
• Phase 2: Identification and analysis of possible approaches to future challenges
  November 2009 - May 2010
• Phase 3: Conclusions and production of the project report
  May 2010 – October 2010
• Launch of findings
  October 2010

Project Oversight

• Ministers
  Jim Fitzpatrick MP, Minister for Farming and the Environment at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Michael Foster MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for International Development are sponsors of the project.
• Government Chief Scientific Adviser
  Professor John Beddington FRS, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the Government Office for Science is the Project Director.
• Lead Expert Group
  Professor Charles Godfray FRS, Hope Professor at Oxford University, a trustee of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and President-Elect of the British Ecological Society chairs the Project’s Lead Expert Group. The Lead Expert Group comprises leading academics in relevant disciplines and will work closely with the Project Team to ensure that the Project’s findings are of the highest technical and scientific standard.
• High Level Stakeholder Group
  A High Level Stakeholder Group chaired by the sponsoring Ministers, will provide strategic direction, advise on the key issues that the Project should address and help ensure action when the findings are launched. The High Level Stakeholder Group will include senior representatives from key national and international organisations, the international research community, the third sector and industry.
  

Relationship with Foresight Land Use Futures Project

Foresight is also currently undertaking a Land Use Futures project . Key differences between the two projects are:

• The Land Use Futures project specifically considers the UK whereas the Global Food and Farming Futures project has a global perspective.
• The Land Use Futures project considers all possible uses of land whereas the Global Food and Farming Futures project focuses on land use that directly affects the food system.
• The Global Food and Farming Futures project considers oceans, seas and lakes.