Abstract

Food: surely one of the greatest challenges facing humankind this century. Already we have reached a world population of almost 7 billion. With the population expanding by about 80,000 people per day, we will reach a population of 9 billion by the middle of this century. But how can we feed them? Can we afford to cultivate more land? Could we make crops more productive? Or could we find ways of defeating pests and diseases that decimate crop yields? Leading science author, writer and broadcaster Dr John Emsley, formerly of University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, will explore the possible solutions that science can offer, debunking several myths and scare stories that have recently dominated the headlines.