A one-day conference to be held in London next month is seeking to raise the profile of new food crop opportunities, and establish ways to maximise sustainable production of quality food in the UK.

‘New Climate, New Crops?’, taking place at the Hilton Hotel in Kensington on June 18, aims to bring together a wide range of experts to examine the roles of science, policy and the food chain in identifying opportunities for growing produce in the UK’s future climate.

Organised by the Defra-funded Innovation Network, based at the University of Warwick, in partnership with the British Crop Production Council (BCPC), keynote speakers include Robert Watson, chief scientific adviser for Defra, National Farmers’ Union president Peter Kendall, and Hugh Oliver Bellasis, chairman of council at the Royal Agricultural Society of England.

The speakers will first inform delegates of key issues through a series of ‘perspective talks’, before discussions begin based around an Open Space forum, where topics for discussion will be put forward by delegates on the day. Other key questions such as ‘How will climate change affect global food production?’, ‘What is the vision for land use in the UK?’ and ‘What needs to be done in order to develop new crop markets?’, will be hotly debated.

Jason Pole, conference organiser and research fellow at the University of Warwick, said: “There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about growing crops for biofuel markets, but the subject of new food crops and new crop varieties is a bit of a grey area, and one that we think is very important to focus on with this conference.”

For more information, please visit www.BCPC.org/congress2008/WHRI/index.asp

Topics