The Vital Role of Ecosystem Services
What is agricultural land for? Growing food, obviously. But does farmland provide us with any other benefits, perhaps benefits that we don’t directly pay for? Next time you are out …
Course: Future Food: Sustainable Food Systems for the 21st Century
Sustainable Intensification
Here, Prof Michael Winter discusses how sustainable intensification does not have to be an oxymoron and what advancements and knowledge is needed to feed the planet in the future.
Key drivers of agricultural land-use
In this video, Prof Ian Bateman talks about the key drivers of farming management practices, their importance for healthy ecosystems and for profitability. In the next article we will explore …
The cost of food waste
Nearly one third of all food produced for humans each year is wasted or lost. This 1.3 billion tonnes of food is worth a total of nearly US$ trillion. This …
Investigating food prices in FAOSTAT
In this short video Dr Dan Bebber investigates food price inflation using the FAOSTAT database. If you want to follow along with Dan you can open the FAOSTAT site in …
The policy landscape
Food and agricultural policy – whether in developed or developing countries – is complex. Policy objectives may differ over space and time. In developed countries for example, low market prices …
The economics of food
In this video Prof Steve McCorriston describes the many financial, political and societal factors that determine what food is in the shops and how much it costs. Now read the …
How important are smallholders in developed and developing countries?
The District of Uttarakannada in Karnataka State, India, has some wonderful farms. The rain shadow of the Western Ghats mountains and the powerful monsoon enable luxuriant growth of vegetation in …
Family farms: from generation to generation
In this video, Prof Matt Lobley talks about how most of the world’s food comes from family farming and what challenges and opportunities this means. Following this video, read an …
Summary of the week
Well done for reaching the end of Week 3 of Future Food. We hope you enjoyed it, and now feel you have a better understanding of the threats to food …
Organic farming
We have learnt about novel technologies in agriculture. What place does organic agriculture have in our future food systems? Organic food is produced to a specific set of standards and …
Precision agriculture
We have just heard about how crop yields can be increased by cultivating or genetically engineering more resistant and nutritious crops. Now we will consider other ways to increase production …
The green revolution
Here, Prof Sarah Gurr talks about the Green Revolution which enabled enormous yield increases around the world, thanks to the development of modern crop varieties and improved fertiliser management. In …
Let’s look at soils
We can learn a lot about soil health by examining the soil and its surroundings, and this article explains how. You can carry out this inspection in any outdoor location …
Soil – A vital ecosystem
In this video, Dr Kees Jan Van Groenigen shows what healthy soil looks like and how farmers can help soil structure and nutrients by using different cultivation methods. In the …
These articles are from the online course:
Future Food: Sustainable Food Systems for the 21st Century