Information

By 2075, the United Nations’ mid-range projection for global population growth predicts that human numbers will peak at about 9.5 billion people. This means that there could be an extra three billion mouths to feed by the end of the century, a period in which substantial changes are anticipated in the wealth, calorific intake and dietary preferences of people in developing countries across the world. Such a projection presents mankind with wide-ranging social, economic, environmental and political challenges that need to be addressed to ensure a sustainable future for all. One key issue is how to produce more food in a world of finite resources.

Today, we produce about four billion metric tonnes of food per annum. Yet due to poor practices in harvesting, storage and transportation leading to losses, as well as market and consumer waste, it is estimated that 30–50% (or 1.2–2 billion tonnes) of all food produced never reaches a human stomach. Furthermore, this figure does not reflect the fact that large amounts of water, energy and land are used unnecessarily in the production of foodstuffs which simply end up as wastage. This level of resource waste is a tragedy that cannot continue if we are to succeed in the challenge of sustainably meeting human needs in the 21st Century. Dr Tim Fox will present the findings of the Institution’s groundbreaking report in this area, ‘Global Food: Waste Not, Want Not’ and consider what engineers, governments, businesses and the public need to do to reduce wastage and thereby help ensure the future provision of food.

About Dr Tim Fox

Tim is Head of Energy and Environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Tim is responsible for developing the Institution’s thinking on energy, environment and sustainability issues and communicating this through thought-leadership reports, public speaking engagements, national and international press and broadcast media appearances and by providing input to government policy making. He was lead author on the Institution’s groundbreaking report “Global Food: Waste Not, Want Not” which was published in January 2013 and galvanised world attention on the issue of waste and loss across the food supply chain from field to stomach.

Tim has a wide range of research and engineering practice experience gained across many industrial sectors and has worked in commercial enterprises, government agencies and educational institutions in the UK, Australia, Canada and The Netherlands. He is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Environmentalist and Fellow of both the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Society of Arts.

Registration

Please register for this event online. For more information use the contact details below.