Future of Food Symposium

Happy World Food Day (for last Monday) everyone! This year I ended up celebrating it by going to the 'Future of Food' symposium at the Royal Veterinary College hosted by their Students for Global Health society. There were a variety of talks ranging from 'Post-Brexit farming' to 'Climate change, food security and health', and speakers from many different backgrounds.

I particularly enjoyed Richard Kock's talk on 'Broken Food Systems and their role in emerging disease'. He (pictured top right) described how during his lifetime the way we produce food has completely changed, leaving us with the current broken food system we have 'in chaos'. He summarised the main issues we have in relation to food, which I put into an infographic (because who doesn't love an infographic?): 

He explained how important the global economy has been in creating our broken system and how this is linked to disease. To sum up his argument: Cheap food has a cost and this is disease.

When we look at biomass, the impact of animal agriculture on the environment as a whole is clear, with livestock outnumbering wildlife by at least a factor of 20 (see chart). With a growing demand for animal protein, especially in developing countries, the amount of livestock we will need is only going to increase. The way we manage our livestock today is largely through intensive farming, characterised by the use of chemicals, machines, and confinement to maximise productive output on farms. However, intensive farming can and does lead to the outbreak and spread of disease, he used the example of Swine flu (H1N1) (Here is an interesting overview on the subject I found by Caroline Lucas). To add, the types of food and the amount we consume today is leading to the increase of non-communicable diseases such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes, as shown in the infographic.

How do we fix this? He argues that we need to return to the previous system through a huge reduction in intensive farming and increase in smallholder farms. We as consumers need to appreciate the power we have to drive this shift, he used the example of a 16 year old who set up his own free-range egg farm.

While I enjoyed learning more about the impact the food system has on disease, I wish he would have mentioned the impact it has on the environment in more detail, especially given the relevance of so much of what he said on the issue.

Thank you to Students for Global Health RVC for putting on the event and for their pictures of Richard Kock and the audience that I have used in this post. If you would like to find out more about what they do click here.