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Cambridge Global Food Security

An Interdisciplinary Research Centre at the University of Cambridge
 

This interdisciplinary research symposium organised with Cambridge Zero took place on Thursday 21st March 2024 at the West Hub in Cambridge. 

The event was focussed on how our complex food system can become more sustainable.  Food, and the systems that produce it are essential, but they are also a leading cause of climate crisis and biodiversity loss.  This problem will only become more acute as the world’s population grows and the deepening climate crisis creates increasingly adverse conditions for farmers in many regions. Food production depends on biodiversity, but conventional farming methods tend to favour monocultures.  

The symposium's speakers addressed these issues from multiple perspectives.  A theme of many presentations was the urgent need for food system stakeholders to have access to research findings, which would allow them to take the kind of long-term, systemic approaches that will make meaningful change possible.  

As Elisapeththu Hoole said, ‘We are looking at problems that farmers can’t understand, predict or manage. Policy makers don’t have tools to address these issues in way that’s meaningful to sustain food production in very vulnerable areas.’ She and Dr Jerry Chen talked about Global Tipping Points, AI-Assisted Food Productions Modelling and Policy Making in Least Developed Countries, with a focus on the synergy between their respective research projects, opening up exciting prospects for digital models to help policy makers have access to reliable data and accurate modelling and prediction. 

By bringing together speakers and attendees from many disciplines, including farming and NGOs, it is hoped that this Symposium generated some of the interdisciplinary connections essential to the future of food security.

 

Click here to read more about the Symposium on the University of Cambridge website.

Please click on the titles below for abstracts or summaries of all presentations, as well as slides for some.