Topic description and stories

The task of ensuring affordable access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for all is one of the major challenges of the 21st century.

Minor volcanic eruptions could ‘cascade’ into global catastrophe, experts warn

06 Aug 2021

Researchers call for a shift in focus away from risks of 'super-volcanic' eruptions and towards likelier scenarios of smaller eruptions in key global...

Read more
Cells of roots colonised by fungi turn red

Blushing plants reveal when fungi are growing in their roots

23 Jul 2021

Scientists have created plants whose cells and tissues ‘blush’ with beetroot pigments when they are colonised by fungi that help them take up...

Read more

Kelp, maggots and mycoprotein among future foods that must be mass-farmed to combat malnutrition

13 May 2021

Radical changes to the food system are needed to safeguard our food supply and combat malnutrition in the face of climate change, environmental...

Read more

Crops being watered

Exploit plants’ ability to tell the time to make food production more sustainable, say scientists

30 Apr 2021

Cambridge plant scientists say circadian clock genes, which enable plants to measure daily and seasonal rhythms, should be targeted in agriculture...

Read more
Baby orangutans in Central Kalimantan. Expansion of oil palm plantations is destroying their forest habitat.

Climate change and food demand could shrink species’ habitats by almost a quarter by 2100

06 Nov 2020

Mammals, birds and amphibians worldwide have lost on average 18% of their natural habitat range as a result of changes in land use and climate change...

Read more
Iowa County Drought

Globalised economy making water, energy and land insecurity worse: study

26 Oct 2020

The first large-scale study of the risks that countries face from dependence on water, energy and land resources has found that globalisation may be...

Read more

Crop Science Centre building

New Crop Science Centre opens in Cambridge

01 Oct 2020

A new Centre in Cambridge, designed to fast-track technologies to sustainably improve farmers’ yields worldwide, was launched today.

Read more

Opinion: Local food solutions during the coronavirus crisis could have lasting benefits

22 Apr 2020

Solutions found during the current pandemic could benefit food security, human security, & international development.

Read more

What does lockdown mean for the future of our food supply?

03 Apr 2020

As countries adopt different approaches, the question remains: how best to enact a lockdown without compromising critical food supply chains in the...

Read more

The world's their fish finger

12 Mar 2020

Smothered in ketchup or squished into a sandwich, there’s one tasty convenience food that’s hard to resist. Now two Cambridge researchers believe...

Read more

Ecosystems Overload

10 Dec 2019

We are laying waste to the biosphere. If we're serious about saving millions of species, then it's our own that must change how it thinks about...

Read more
Cherry and baby plum tomatoes

Harnessing tomato jumping genes could help speed-breed drought-resistant crops

16 Sep 2019

Once dismissed as ‘junk DNA’ that served no purpose, a family of ‘jumping genes’ found in tomatoes has the potential to accelerate crop breeding for...

Read more

Pages