This is the title of a talk given at Lincoln’s Café Scientifique on 10 March by Dan Magnone of the University of Lincoln’s School of Geography.
A brief summary is below.
Today there are seven billion people on Earth. We produce enough food to feed ten million. The scourge of global hunger is due to inequality not inability.
Such food production as we have is a remarkable achievement and due, in part, to the development of modern agriculture and our mastery of soil.
Critical to this has been the use of fertiliser. Yet a key component this – phosphate – is a finite and increasingly expensive resource.
In Europe, the large amounts applied during the latter half of the 20th Century mean that we can now produce large yields with relatively low application rates – due to “residual” phosphate (that which is left in the soil after harvest).
However, during the 21st Century Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to have the most rapid population growth and will require a similar agricultural revolution.
For many African countries this means a doubling of the proportion of income (GDP) spent of fertiliser in the next decade before reaching a more sustainable food future.
Dan Magnone is a senior lecturer at the University of Lincoln, researching and teaching on the geochemistry of water and soil.
The Future of Food in the Lincolnshire Fens
In this workshop, we will explore collectively the current and foreseeable challenges to producing, processing, and transporting food in the Fens. We will build on the experience of local farmers, processors, retailers, IDBs, local authorities, the Environment Agency, and others who live and work in the Fens. Through discussions, punctuated by snippets of information on…
Baking with Diverse Grain
Baking using flour from diverse population wheat, from Turner’s of Bytham and South Ormsby Estate in Lincolnshire Photos from Lincolnshire Breadbasket event at Heckington Windmill on 3rd May, and sent by the bakers in the following weeks
The Reality of Food Poverty in Lincoln
A new report shows a dramatic rise in the number of Lincoln residents needing emergency food parcels from the city’s food banks. The greatest increase is among households with children: children now account for 35% of all people fed by food banks in Lincoln. The two largest food bank networks in Lincoln provided almost 47,000…
Greater Lincolnshire Food Partnership 