Tag Archives: food security

It’s time to turn swords into ploughshares, bombs into bread, and soldiers into good Samaritans*

Posted on 23 April 2020 by

It is blatantly obvious that there is no military response that can defeat the COVID-19 virus. It should be equally obvious that military spending can’t deal with the other two great long-term, slower-acting pandemics – climate change and biodiversity loss. … Continue reading →

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Food or War: is that the question?

Posted on 7 April 2020 by

Rather foolishly, when I set up my website  some years ago, I wrote that I was thinking of writing a book provisionally entitled Food is a Key to Avoiding World War III. Life has intervened and I haven’t been able … Continue reading →

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#Potatoes – Crop of the Future? A discussion with Prof Anton Haverkort

Posted on 11 October 2019 by

Forty years ago, when I was working in Turkey, I met another young man called Anton Haverkort, just setting out on his career. He grew up on a potato farm in the Netherlands, studied potatoes, and came to Turkey to … Continue reading →

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Resilience in the UK #foodsystem – 4 key questions

Posted on 18 September 2019 by

Resilience is one of the buzzwords of our times. Having a resilient food system is crucial in the light of climate destabilisation, biodiversity loss, and political changes such as will be brought about by Brexit in the UK. So what … Continue reading →

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Saving and using Mexico’s fantastic #tomato agricultural #biodiversity

Posted on 9 November 2018 by

Tomatoes have spread into cuisines around the world but most commercial varieties have a narrow genetic base and only grow well in optimum conditions often in greenhouses. As climate changes and interest in the fruit’s nutritional properties grows, drawing on … Continue reading →

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Future #Food #Sustainability and research needs for the UK and EU facing #Brexit?

Posted on 23 July 2018 by

I was at an horizon scanning workshop organised by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics last week to discuss the future of food sustainability in the UK. It was run under the Chatham House rule, which means you can say things … Continue reading →

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The many arguments for urgent #climate action – in 32 A5 pages

Posted on 1 June 2018 by

How do you convince governments to take more urgent action on climate change? When ministries spend so much of their time, as one ex-downing street advisor once said to me, firefighting the immediate problems of the day? The authors of … Continue reading →

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