A key event at this year’s Cambridge Festival, which begins next week (17 March – 2 April), tackles the ongoing problem of empty supermarket shelves and worries about supply chains during an in-depth discussion about our food security.

On Monday 27^th March, a panel of experts asks, HOW CAN WE IMPROVE OUR FOOD SECURITY? The war in Ukraine and climate disasters have focused people’s minds on issues of food security. Can researchers help to address the practical and political problems and what does history teach us? Speakers include:

Professor Tim Lang, Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City University London's Centre for Food Policy. Professor Lang has been a consultant to the World Health Organisation, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN and the UN Environment Programme. He has also been a special advisor to four House of Commons Select Committee inquiries and a consultant on food security to the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

Anoop Tripathi is a PhD student in Plant Sciences and Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge whose research on monocot grafting overturned the long-standing consensus that monocots cannot graft. His current research seeks to find a way to increase rice yields by 50% in environments that have been hit by climate change.

David Christian Rose is Professor of Sustainable Agricultural Systems at Cranfield University. He leads the Change in Agriculture research group which focuses on understanding how agricultural transitions are affecting farming stakeholders on the ground. We conduct work on innovation adoption, behaviour change, just transitions, technology ethics, policy co-design and farmer mental health.

Dr Emelyn Rude has a PhD in History which investigates how past fish stock collapses have impacted national eating habits. She is also founding editor of Eaten: the Food History Magazine and author of Tastes Like Chicken: a History of America's Favourite Bird.

The event will be chaired by Dr Nazia Mintz Habib, the Founder and Research Centre Director for the Centre for Resilience and Sustainable Development (CRSD). She is an Associate Professor with appointments at the Department of Engineering and Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge.

Speaking ahead of the event, Professor Rose said: “Food insecurity is caused by a complex web of factors – not only by a lack of food being produced, but by factors such as social inequality and corruption, which means that some people cannot afford nor access the food that is available.

“Here in the UK, the supply is more fragile at this time of year for some produce than others because we’re facing a perfect storm of glass houses that growers are struggling to run with high energy costs and climate impacts abroad.

“Due to the high input costs for some produce that we struggle to grow in the UK, it can be better for the climate to import from miles away if we look at life cycle analysis, but you also have to take into account supporting growers and jobs in the UK, increasing our self-sufficiency and improving food security, and we could eat a little more seasonally.

“We need to do better with self-sufficiency, tech innovations such as vertical farming can help to create artificial conditions but we’re never going to be self-sufficient for fruit this time of year. However, for things like apples and pears which are perfect to grow here, we still have higher than needed import levels.

“We need to change our eating habits. It’s not a bad thing to eat more seasonally if we can. There are some occasions where we could eat more of the winter greens we produce in this country, but retailers and consumers changing habits is not easiest thing to do.  Sprouts aren’t just for Christmas!

“And we need to get our farmers more support. If farmers feel like their cost of production is met, then they’ll grow more, and we’ll have better food security.”

Further related events include:

• WHAT’S FOR DINNER? THE FUTURE OF MEAT (22 March) – A panel of leading thinkers discuss the future of meat and consider the alternatives, from pulses and plant-based protein to lab-grown meat, molluscs and edible insects. Chaired by Professor Sarah Bridle, author of Food and Climate Change without the Hot Air, with speakers from the University of Cambridge including Professor Andrew Balmford, Dr Charlotte Kukowski and Dr Daniel Borch Ibsen.
• WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR THE CAMBRIDGESHIRE FENS? (1 April) – The Cambridgeshire Fens produce 33% of England’s vegetables and contribute over £3bn to the economy. However, the Fens are facing threats from climate change, availability of water, and the peat soil becoming exhausted and emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A panel of experts from research and farming discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the Fens. Hosted by the Centre for Landscape Regeneration, FenlandSOIL and Cambridge Zero.

The Festival, the largest of its kind in the country, is run by the University of Cambridge. Over 360 mostly free events cover everything from climate change and AI to health and politics.

For these and other related events, please visit the festival website for further information and to book seats: www.festival.cam.ac.uk