New Website Explores Food Security Challenge

A new website – www.foodsecurity.ac.uk – was launched last night (10 December)
to explore the issues around the looming challenge of feeding a global
population predicted to reach 9bn by 2050, and the world-class UK research
already underway to help avert a potential crisis.

The website, from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
(BBSRC), the UK’s largest funder of agri-food research, is a multimedia resource
with numerous social media features and provides an introduction to the food
security issue. It includes background information on the food security agenda
and facts and figures together with details about the impact of past research,
current research activity and the scientific challenges ahead.

At the centre of the website is a new multi-author blog – the first on the web
dedicated to food security and related research in the UK. It will feature posts
from authors across the food security field, including researchers, farmers,
industry leaders and consumers.

Featuring an easy-to-use, no registration required comments section the blog
will be an online destination for comment and provocative debate about different
views on food security and different approaches to feeding the growing world
population.

Prof Douglas Kell, BBSRC Chief Executive, said: “Feeding 9bn mouths in the
coming decade is going to require significant scientific progress, and changes
that will affect all of us. www.foodsecurity.ac.uk will give anyone interested
or new to the issue an introduction to the challenge we face and details of the
research being done here in the UK to meet it. The website outlines the impact
that UK science has already had in delivering more safe, nutritious and
affordable food – but highlights the significant policy and science hurdles we
need to overcome as we look to double food production to meet demand in the
coming decades.

“We can all recognise the importance of securing our food supplies but people
disagree over the ways to do this and the approaches to take. The new blog on
the website will be a place for those interested in this topic to
provoke, engage, debate and discuss. If people have something important to say
about food security we want to hear from them.”

Meeting the food security challenge – delivering safe, affordable and nutritious
food for a growing global population – will require a multidisciplinary research
approach. www.foodsecurity.ac.uk has been designed to grow to reflect the number
of disciplines beyond BBSRC science that will need to work together.

Prof Kell said: “BBSRC is working with many UK and international partners to
deliver food security. This is just the start. The Web is an exceptionally
important means of disseminating ideas and knowledge, and we are inviting all
our partners to join the website’s development and to contribute their views and
research examples.”

www.foodsecurity.ac.uk is a new website from and by the Biotechnology and
Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

About BBSRC

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is the UK
funding agency for research in the life sciences. Sponsored by Government, BBSRC
annually invests around 450 million in a wide range of research that makes a
significant contribution to the quality of life for UK citizens and supports a
number of important industrial stakeholders including the agriculture, food,
chemical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. BBSRC carries out its mission
by funding internationally competitive research, providing training in the
biosciences, fostering opportunities for knowledge transfer and innovation and
promoting interaction with the public and other stakeholders on issues of
scientific interest in universities, centres and institutes.

The Babraham Institute, Institute for Animal Health, Institute of Food Research,
John Innes Centre and Rothamsted Research are Institutes of BBSRC. The
Institutes conduct long-term, mission-oriented research using specialist
facilities. They have strong interactions with industry, Government departments
and other end-users of their research.

For more information see: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk