Episode description

Climate Change is expected to continue disrupting food production and consumption. Over recent years pressures have intensified on everyone, from those growing food and selling it, to those paying for and eating it. Researchers are considering how we can best ensure our food supplies are sustainable and secure into the future. We look at the possible options: from local food communities and digital small-holder farming to reducing our meat consumption – and, tackling food inequality. Des Fitzgerald asks Professor Peter Jackson and Dr Matthew Davies how we might best ensure that everyone is well fed.

Peter Jackson is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Sheffield. He is also the Co-Director of the University of Sheffield Institute for Sustainable Food which aims to find dynamic solutions to the challenges of food security and sustainability by drawing on the expertise of researchers across the sciences, social sciences and the arts and humanities. He works on social geography, cultural geography, consumption, identity, families and food. Further information can be found here: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/sustainable-food

Dr Matthew Davies is Associate Professor at University College London. He is based at the Institute for Global Prosperity which has coordinated an AHRC funded partnership for Prosperity and Innovation in the Past and Future of Farming in Africa (PIPFA). He has been engaged in rethinking the role of small-holder farmers in the future of food production. He also works on a range of topics on environment, society and prosperity in eastern Africa. Details of his research can be found here: https://md564.wordpress.com/

Professor Des Fitzgerald is a New Generation Thinker based at the University of Exeter.

You can find a new podcast series Green Thinking: 26 episodes 26 minutes long in the run up to COP26 made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI, exploring the latest research and ideas around understanding and tackling the climate and nature emergency. New Generation Thinkers Des Fitzgerald and Eleanor Barraclough will be in conversation with researchers on a wide-range of subjects from cryptocurrencies and finance to eco poetry and fast fashion.

The podcasts are all available from the Arts & Ideas podcast feed - and collected on the Free Thinking website under Green Thinking where you can also find programmes on mushrooms, forests, rivers, eco-criticism and soil. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2

For more information about the research the AHRC’s supports around climate change and the natural world you can visit: https://www.ukri.org/our-work/responding-to-climate-change/ or follow @ahrcpress on twitter. To join the discussion about the research covered in this podcast and the series please use the hashtag #GreenThinkingPodcast.

Producer: Marcus Smith