Feed the world at Shropshire conference

Leading experts say to keep up with global population growth, more food will have to be produced worldwide over the next 50 years than has been during the past 10,000 years combined.

In hosting the European Food & Farming Partnerships' (EFFP) West Midlands food and farming conference entitled 'More With Less – Driving Performance, Sustainably, Harper Adams hopes to tackle the issue of food security.

The free event, sponsored by Defra and hosted by BBC Radio Shropshire's Eric Smith, will be held on February 5 in the university's Queen Mother Hall, from 10am to 4.30pm.

Speakers will include Stuart Thompson, Partner EFFP; Barry Jackson, managing director of EggSell Ltd; Iain McCartney, director of United Potato Farmers; Scott Kirby, farm manager at Harper Adams; Simon Weaver, farmer director at First Milk; Jerry Dyson, category manager at Molson Coors; and Hayley Campbell-Gibbons, chief adviser horticulture & potatoes at the NFU.

The event will also include a panel discussion, and a summary of the conference papers and discussions by Paul Rhodes, regional manager at EFFP, and Simon Thelwell, a Senior Lecturer in Supply Chain Management and Logistics at Harper Adams.

Mr Thelwell said: "The conference will take on one of the biggest challenges facing our industry today: how to produce more food for a growing population with less available resource: the 'more with less' challenge.

"This plus other more immediate issues such as commodity price volatility poor global harvests, and rising input costs, will be tackled from different perspectives with ultimately a single goal in mind – to help build a prosperous and successful food and farming industry.

"This event will paint a picture of what the future may look like and help you develop strategies to tackle the big issues most likely to impact us all.

"It will give you a unique opportunity to learn from expert speakers, real life case studies and others about how to meet the challenges ahead.