On the 10 December 2008, Hillary Benn, Secretary State for the Environment, made a speech on food security, to the Fabian Society.
Issues he talked about included inequality of access (hunger is a problem of access/distribution rather than absolute output) population growth (can we feed the equivalent of two more Chinas by 2050?), the land grab for food growing in Africa, the cost of intensification of production since the green revolution (biodiversity losses, soil and water pollution) and the depletion of fish stocks. His main focus was on climate change and the challenge this poses for food security in the UK and globally.
He argued that the UK needs to work with developing countries to improve their productivity in ways that are sustainable; to invest more in reseach; tackle disease; invest in appropriate infrastructure (roads, communications); support microfinance initiatives and create a fair global trading system.
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