Last week I
represented the UK at the G7 summit in Japan where we discussed how to address
the challenge of feeding a growing world population while protecting the
environment.
Around the
world countries are turning their attention to the challenge that demographic
changes pose. The world population is currently projected to grow to about nine
billion by 2050 and demand for food could increase by around fifty percent. The
truth is we are going to need our farming and fishing industries like never
before and we will need leaps forward in technology to deliver more food more sustainably.
In the UK we
are leading the world in developing new technologies which mean we can make
better use of things like satellite data to have more precise use of inputs
like fertilisers. We are also doing work to breed new proteins from peas
that will enable us to reduce our reliance on imported soya beans for animal
feeds and we are funding a range of breeding programmes to develop new
varieties of crop that are drought tolerant so that developing countries will
still be able to produce food even from land where water becomes scarce.
Fish protein
will also be important. We have made big strides over the last two
decades in understanding the science of our oceans and in improving the
sustainability of the fishing industry. There is also scope to do far more by
way of aquaculture and the UK is funding work that would enable essential Omega
3 fish oils crucial to fish farms to be synthesised in crops grown in the
soil.
While in
Tokyo I also did some trade promotion work to promote British food and drinks
products. It was great to see Cornish company Tregothnan out in Japan
selling Cornish grown tea to the Japanese and other Asian markets. They had
even been asked to be the judge in a competition to assess the quality of
tea! We have some amazing and unique food and drink producers in Cornwall
who are increasingly finding an interest for their products overseas.