How do we ensure a sustainable future for farming?
25 February 2020
The next evidence session of the Select Committee on Food, Poverty, Health and Environment hears from experts on the impact of farming and the agri-food industry on the environment. The first session explores whether it is necessary to change our diet to ensure food production is sustainable. The second session considers whether technological solutions can help achieve a more sustainable food system.
- Parliament TV: Select Committee on Food, Poverty, Health and the Environment
- Select Committee on Food, Poverty, Health and the Environment
Witnesses
Tuesday 25 February, Committee Room 2A, Palace of Westminster
At 10.40am
- Dr Tara Garnett, Food Climate Research Network Leader, University of Oxford
- Professor Andrew Balmford, University of Cambridge
- Dr Adrian Morley, Manchester Metropolitan University
At 11.40am
- Kath Dalmeny, Chief Executive of Sustain
- Professor Sir Charles Godfray, Director of Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food
- Professor Tim Benton, Director, Energy, Environment and Resources Programme, Chatham House
Possible questions
- What is meant by a sustainable food system? What should we be aiming for?
- How effective are current Government policies to decrease the negative environmental impacts of agriculture?
- What pressures or constraints are the agri-food industries under that limit their ability to reduce the damaging environmental impacts of our food system?
- What are some of the key ways in which we see negative effects of food production on the environment?
- How can the agri-food industries contribute to improvements to environmental sustainability? What pressures and constraints are limiting their ability to do this at present?
- What dietary changes, if any, do we need to make to ensure a sustainable diet? Are these shifts a case of changing the behaviour of the industries or the population? What levers are available to the Government to encourage this?
- Do you think that a greater consideration of public health and social equality should be embedded into the design of the food system, alongside sustainability? How could this be achieved?