Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) chief scientist Professor Ian Crute will tell
delegates at the board’s spring conference this week that the fresh produce industry must value resources as well as innovate to stay ahead.
Crute is due to deliver the keynote address at the event on 18 April at the Institute of Food Science & Technology. He will tell delegates that the challenge to feed a growing world population extends much further than the accepted necessary advances in science and innovation.
Crute believes that the use and management of both water and land hold the key to sustainable productivity. This applies not just to the need to increase food production but also conserving biodiversity, adapting to climate change, preserving valued landscapes, producing renewable energy, providing clean water, reducing GHG emissions and protecting livelihoods.
“Producing as efficiently as possible on the smallest footprint of land capable of meeting demand for food is both the greenest and usually the most profitable way to farm,' Crute will say.
The AHDB chief scientist will also use the speech as an opportunity to call for the short-term costs, as well as long-term benefits, of sustainable production to be shared across the entire food chain.
He added: “Reconciling the need for food security with the environmentalconsequences of agriculture poses a challenge that can only be resolved through a shared food chain responsibility, in addition to continuing investment in science and innovation.”
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