Our ability to feed ourselves is essential to the survival of humanity. This event will explore some of the technologies, ancient and modern, that make this possible. Part of the Cambridge Zero Climate Change Festival 2022.
Expert speakers from the University of Cambridge will present technologies ranging from ancient methods of preserving food to modern gene sequencing. We’ll hear about how wild plants have been transformed into cultivated crops, and how water, that most precious resource in our warming world, is managed.
Some of the technologies discussed will be controversial; some are so ancient we take them for granted; some increase yields but threaten the natural environment; some are accessible to the poorest people in the world; others aren’t.
The presentations will be followed by a Q&A and an audience vote on which has made the biggest and most sustainable contribution to supplying the world with food.
Speakers:
Professor Tina Barsby OBE, Honorary Professor of Agricultural Botany, University of Cambridge
Professor Shailaja Fennell, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge
Dr Inanna Hamati-Ataya, Principal Research Associate, CRASSH, University of Cambridge
Professor Martin Jones, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge
Chair:
Professor Howard Griffiths, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge
Date:
Friday, 14 October, 2022 - 17:30 to 18:30
Event location:
Large Lecture Theatre, Department of Plant Sciences, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EA