Category: Global food security

Covid-19 commentary: Will there be shortages? HMG need prepare for the worst (while hoping for the best)

The Government appears unprepared for food shortages and scarcities. They need to act. And fast. Preparedness is everything before a crisis hits.

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Covid-19 commentary: What decision-makers need to pay attention to asap

Amid all the turmoil and flux even at these early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, we strongly recommend decision-makers at a national and local level keep in mind these six important points about our food supplies:

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Covid-19 commentary: The food supply network on 20th March 2020

This is our first blogpost of a series giving a running commentary on the reconfiguring of the food network that’s happening in front of our eyes.

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Food System Transformation #10: Complex adaptive systems, networks & their dynamics

Systems thinking? The circular economy? Phrases such as these have shifted thinking markedly on from discussion about the food ‘chain’. But have they shifted our thinking a radically enough for the transformation we need?

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Food System Transformation #9: The role of STEM (science, technology, engineering & mathematics)

At the Oxford Farming Conference last week, Henry Dimbleby put today’s urgency to transform the food system in the context of the Green Revolution in the latter half of the 20th century.

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Food System Transformation #8: The geometry of the box [we need to think outside of]

Biologist Jack Cohen, one of the New Optimists scientists, used to say that you cannot ‘think outside of the box’ unless you know the geometry of it very well indeed.

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Food System Transformation #7: Loaves don’t grow on trees

The rationale behind writing the last two blogposts, #5: The scale needed for our five-a-day and #6: The fresh produce supply chain was because many (but not all) the nutrients we need come from fruit and vegetables. But nutrients...

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Food System Transformation #6: The fresh produce supply chain

A “transformed” food system means a radical restructure of what happens between farm gate and retail outlet. Why? It’s where most of the activity and nearly all of the profits lie.

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Food System Transformation #4: A new corporate order?

Here’s a thought experiment: What would a list of the world’s largest food and beverage companies look like if there were a ‘food system transformation’?

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Food System Transformation #2: Close to the planet’s carrying capacity

We argue in this blogpost that the need for transformation in the food system is desperately urgent.

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