Up to 50 percent of the world’s food production is still lost due to pests, weeds and crop diseases, despite the huge advances by modern science techniques.

This challenge and other associated factors will be discussed at this year’s XVI International Plant Protection Congress in Glasgow in October.

One of key questions to be asked will be - ‘How safe is our food and who do you trust to give the answers?

This issue will be opened up by Professor Tony Hardy of the Central Science Laboratory, as the chairman of the European Food Safety Authority Scientific Panel on Plant Protection Products and Residues.

The question will be asked whether with increasingly sophisticated products available to guarantee crop yield and quality, plus concerns raised over genetic modified technology, should food safety concerns be addressed at a European Commission level or on a national basis.

The Congress will take place from Monday October 15-18 and will feature 40 platform sessions, 160 speakers and 250 poster sessions in the four day programme.

“With over 600 papers being offered for the event from over 60 countries, they underline the true international importance of this event,” said Professor Phil Russell, chairman of the BCPC Programme Committee in London last week.

A record number of visitors are expected at the Congress held at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow from Monday 15 October to Wednesday 17 October.

Alongside it will be the exhibition section which started 14 years ago at this conference and looks set to break records this year.

A new event this year will be a debate on the environmental scientist Rachel Carson, on the centenary of her birth, who published the controversial book ’Silent Spring’ in 1963.

The debate will discuss how relevant the concers raised in her book are today.

Leading the motion ‘The house believes that Rachel Carson would not today have written Silent Spring’ will be Dr Lewis Smith of Syngenta, with the opposition coming from Lord Peter Melchett of the Soil Association.

“It is important to revisit Rachel Carson’s concerns around farming systems and examine the links with current thinking on climate change,” said David Atkinson, BCPC vice chairman.