10 Jan 07

Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute is hosting an international, interdisciplinary research project, which focuses on how to improve food security against the growing threat of global environmental change.

The project, Global Environmental Change and Food Systems (GECAFS), includes research on analysing the vulnerability of food systems, identifying different ways of adapting food production and transportation options in the face of global change, using scenarios to plan for change, and encouraging more dialogue between scientists and policymakers on the links between food security and the environment.

The project is also supporting a number of regional research projects: In southern Africa, where political, social and economic factors already make the food situation insecure, but climate change and continued environmental degradation will be likely to complicate the situation further; in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, where poor farmers are vulnerable to the risk of flooding and drought due to potential changes in the monsoon and glacier and snow melt, as well as declining agricultural productivity; and in the Caribbean, where islanders are increasingly concerned about how changes in extreme weather events will interact with changes in world trade to undermine foreign exchange earnings with which most of the region's food is purchased.

The Executive Officer of GECAFS, John Ingram, said: 'The food systems which underpin food security encompass a wide range of issues, including not only food production and other aspects contributing to food availability, but also access to food and food utilisation. Many of the activities which underpin food security such as food production, shipping, processing and preparation themselves contribute to climate change and other aspects of environmental degradation. We need to determine strategies that cope with global environmental change and assess the environmental and socio-economic consequences of adaptive responses.'

GECAFS receives core funding from the Natural Environment Research Council and the Social and Economic Research Council. It is scientifically sponsored by the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) which brings together researchers from diverse fields, and from across the globe, to undertake an integrated study of the Earth system.