How do we satisfy future food demands?
Scientists from AGRO gave presentations at a conference about one of the world's most pressing issues: ensuring food for all – including in the future.
In a few years there will be many more mouths to feed than there are today. Generally increasing wealth puts even more pressure on global resources, since more and more people desire and can afford to eat increasing amounts of meat. The world's population is expected to approach 10 billion people in 2050 compared to the present 7.4 billion.
How do we ensure food for all without destroying the planet's valuable resources?
This issue was addressed at the conference Feeding the Future ’16 held on 26 September in Skanderborg, where AGRO’s professor Jørgen E. Olesen and senior scientist Uffe Jørgensen participated as the only speakers from Aarhus University. They were in the company of, among others, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Kristian Jensen, director in the Danish Agricultural & Food Council Flemming Nør-Pedersen, and the president for PAFO – the Pan African Farmers Organization Theo de Jager.
Key words in the conference talks included green responsibility, enough food, increased production, bioenergy, and sustainablity – and these are all topics that are right up the alley of AGRO’s research areas, not least in the flagship Climate-Smart Agri-Food Systems.
Jørgen E. Olesen's talk dealt with crops in the field and their carbon footprint, while Uffe Jørgensen spoke about increased production and decreased emission from intensively managed grasslands. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Kristian Jensen spoke about the global food situation and also commented on the agricultural package that was recently passed by parliament.
See Jørgen E. Olesen's slides here.
See Uffe Jørgensen's slides here.
See the full programme here.
See the article in Landbrugsavisen about Jørgen E. Olesen's talk here (in Danish).
See the article in Landbrugsavisen about Uffe Jørgensen's talk here (in Danish).
Climate-Smart Agri-Food Systems is one of the research areas in which the Department of Agroecology is particularly strong and from which results are delivered in line with national and global societal challenges and goals.