source: www.newfoodmagazine.com
Against the backdrop of devastating forest fires and floods, coupled with the food accessibility challenges Covid brought to light, Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri calls for a worldwide AgTech revolution to secure humanity’s survival.
The past two years have exposed new cracks in the security of our food supply and shed light on the fragility of the ecosystem that has come to not only feed but also characterise our interconnected, globalised world. It has shown the need for urgent action to transform our agricultural practices and invest in agricultural technology innovation if we are to prevent long-term devastation from climate change.
COVID-19 has put food security on the national agenda in the UK, as it has for many countries worldwide. Temporary food shortages highlighted the role of complex trade agreements and supply chain logistics in dictating the availability of food, as well the environmental influence our global dependence on complicated supply chains and fresh food imports is having.
It was therefore encouraging to see that the UK’s new National Food Strategy outlined the growing importance of food security. The report rightly deemed it a “largely invisible” issue that “the public tend not to think about much, until something goes wrong”. It made the crucial connection to climate change, noting that widespread harvest failure, as a result of our current agricultural practices, could be the next shockwave to hit the world’s food system.