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October 2020 | View this email in your browser

The global challenge of food security & biodiversity

Food security is when all people are able to access enough safe and nutritious food to meet their requirements for a healthy life, in ways the planet can sustain into the future.

However, food security faces a number of significant challenges across both production and consumption. On top of this, many countries are facing the double burden of hunger and undernutrition alongside overweight and obesity, with one in three people across the globe currently suffering from some form of malnutrition. The estimated cost to the world economy of disease and death from overweight and obesity is $2 trillion.

At the same time, almost 800 million people face hunger on a daily basis and more than two billion people lack vital micronutrients, affecting their health and life expectancy. Nearly half of all deaths in children under 5 are attributable to undernutrition.

Watch the above video from Global Food Security, the UK's cross government programme on food security research

Climate change will only make things worse as elevated levels of CO2 reduce the nutritional content of grains, tubers and legumes. A growing population also means more mouths to feed and with the expanding global population getting wealthier, there will be more pressure on resource intensive produce, particularly meat and dairy.

It has been estimated that by 2050 we'll need to feed two billion more people. However, there is by good approximation no new land for agriculture, with increasing competition from urbanisation, sea level rise reducing land availability, and the growing need for land for bioenergy, carbon capture and storage.

It is clear that we will need to use every technology available, alongside best practice farming to sustainably increase production. This also has to be accompanied by changes to food demand including measures on both consumption and waste.

A major challenge is understanding how can we re-design the food system to be healthy, sustainable, and more resilient to climate change, helping to meet both the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.

UN Warns Biodiversity Loss Is Endangering Food Security

Global loss of biodiversity is threatening the security of the world’s food supplies and the livelihoods of millions of people, according to a report by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Land-use changes, pollution, overexploitation of resources, and climate change were listed as the biggest drivers of this biodiversity loss.

The report examined biodiversity loss in 91 countries, including the plants, animals, and microorganisms that provide critical ecosystem services, such as keeping soils fertile, pollinating crops, cleaning water, and fighting pests and diseases. The study found that while more than 6,000 plant species have been cultivated for food, just 9 account for 66 percent of total crop production, indicating widespread monoculture on farmers’ fields. The FAO tallied 7,745 local breeds of livestock, 26 percent of which are at risk of extinction and 67 percent whose risk status is unknown. An estimated 24 percent of wild food species are decreasing in abundance, while the status of another 61 percent are not reported or known.

Hear Sir David Attenborough explain what biodiversity on our planet really means, and why it's so crucial to the survival of our natural world. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet was released earlier this month.

MIT Solve - Sustainable Food Systems Challenge

Over $2 million in prize funding is available for Solve's 2020 Global Challenges, including Sustainable Food Systems. The MIT Solve community - of which FPC is a Member alongside Nike, Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - is looking for technology-based solutions for a low-carbon global food system that provides nutrition with minimal environmental impact.

Shortlisted companies for the Future Planet Prize 2020 within Sustainable Food Systems are:

Whole Surplus: provides digital surplus food management system prioritizing recovery solutions in line with the Food Recovery Hierarchy.
eggXYt: Saving 8 billion male chicks, saving billions of dollars and adding 8 billion eggs to the global supply.
Symbrosia: A novel seaweed feed supplement that solves climate change by reducing livestock methane emissions by over 90%

Douglas Hansen-Luke, Executive Chairman, Future Planet Capital announces the Finalists for the Future Planet Capital Prize at Virtual Solve Challenge Finals 2020

Challenge Investing

Within our universe, we have a significant number of companies that are helping to profitably address this significant and vitally important global challenge. If you’d like to invest in some of the most promising growth companies based on top research then please don't hesitate to get in touch.

This comes with very best wishes from everyone at Future Planet Capital.

Want to know more?
Contact E d Phillips or Abi Wye at Future Planet Capital.

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