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By 2050, the world will be a different place.  There will be 50 per cent more people to feed on a planet that will still be the same size.

‘Business as usual' will not be an option for world food producers, says Winthrop Professor Graeme Martin, Deputy Director of The University of Western Australia's Institute of Agriculture and leader of the University's clean, green and ethical Future Farm 2050.

"By 2050, we will have fallen below the minimum of 0.22 ha of land needed to produce food for one year for one person," he says.

"And the climate will be changing.  Meanwhile, food markets are demanding higher quality, safer products that are delivered ethically.

"We can sit on our hands and wait, or we can plan for it."

An industry forum - Food 2050 - organised by UWA's Institute of Agriculture, aims to get us to start planning for it now.

The forum - from 1pm on Wednesday 10 April at The University Club Auditorium - will address the full range of vital issues if humanity is not to be hungry when the world population reaches nine billion people: agriculture; society and markets; rural sociology; architecture and design; water management; management of food quality and supply; and responsibility for ecology and biodiversity.

And it will offer visionary examples to show that it is possible and that we need to decide to act now and be prepared to invest in a long-term vision for the future.

The forum has attracted a wide range of speakers who are expert in health, energy, water, finance, rural women, the latest in food monitoring and security, animal production, soils and farmhouse design.

Guests will be welcomed by UWA's Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), Winthrop Professor Peter Davies, and the scene will be set by leading international crop scientist Winthrop Professor Kadambot Siddique, who is Hackett Professor of Agriculture Chair and Director of the University's Institute of Agriculture.

Media references

Christine Shervington (UWA Future Farm 2050 Project Manager)  (+61 4) 08 096 662
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783