GES Center Lectures, NC State University
Genetic Engineering and Society Center | Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

#1 – Sir Charles Godfray - Can we feed the world without wrecking the environment?

With post-lecture discussion led by Chancellor Randy Woodson

Lecture: Sir Charles Godfray - Can we feed the world without wrecking the environment?

VIDEO: Watch on YouTube, or on Mediasite (allows toggling between video and slides)

Monday, January 13, 7 - 8:30 pm, Hunt Library Auditorium Presented by the Genetic Engineering and Society Center in collaboration with the Genetics and Genomic Initiative at NC State and the Society for Risk Analysis.

We can now imagine a future where humanity’s demands of the earth plateau or even decrease. But at that plateau there will be billions more people needing to be fed than exist today.

Sir Charles Godfray's talk argues that it is possible to feed this number of people without despoiling the environment, but only if we make hard decisions today.

"We require a new revolution in agriculture of the same magnitude as the industrial and green revolutions that not only boosts productivity but also radically improves resource-use efficiency and sustainability. We need to reduce waste across the food system. We need to make hard decisions about diets and consumption patterns. And we need to accept globalization and refashion a globalized food system that provides public as well as private benefits."

Following his prepared remarks, Chancellor Randy Woodson then led a discussion with Professor Godfray.

Sir Charles Godfray is the Hope Professor of Zoology at Oxford University, and Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, whose work examines how the global food system will need to change and adapt to the challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. In 2010 he authored a paper, “Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People,” in the journal _Science _that has been cited over 6,000 times. Many of his more recent papers on the subject dig deeper into this subject.

Godfray currently chairs the Science Advisory Council of the UK’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 2017 was knighted for his services to scientific research and for scientific advice to government.

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