"In the 21st century, our ability to feed ourselves will be tested as never before." "A population explosion will turn food demand into a crisis." "GUNSHOT" "Already, food prices have soared and across three continents the hungry have turned to protest." "We're not immune to the food crisis here in the UK." "The average British shopper's food bill went up by ten percent, that's £750, last year." "Around the world, governments and their people are looking for new ways to produce more food." "Here in Britain, the Grow Your Own Food movement has flourished as shoppers turn away from expensive imports." "I just don't get it, why don't we eat our beans and leave African beans for Africans." "Seems sensible, doesn't it?" "We're spending half as much on our food bills as we were 30 years ago, and if that's the way we want to carry on, then maybe cheap food from abroad is the only answer." "In fact, in a new scramble for land, some rich countries are buying vast tracts of Africa to grow food for their own people." "With today's farming methods stretched to the limits, more experts are saying we can no longer shun genetically modified food." "If we are going to survive until 2050 without having mass starvation, we simply have to accept that we're going to have to use this technology." "Tonight, I am looking at what needs to happen to prevent planet Earth from going hungry." "By the middle of the century, the world's population would have reached a staggering nine billion." "To feed all those extra mouths will take a combination of global commitment and local action." "One way or another, we'll have to double world food production." "The forecasts are pretty alarming - we're not producing enough food." "Perhaps the best solution would be for all of us to start growing more food in our own back gardens, in allotments..." "Frankly, in any spare bit of land available." "In west Yorkshire, two women have done just that." "They've been planting fruit and vegetables all over their small market town." "We've got herbs at the station, we've a got lovely gooseberry walk down by the Golden Lion pub," "We've got apples and pears around the school playing field." "We've got Swiss chard outside the old surgery." "We've got beans and strawberries growing in boats in every school yard." "We've got a potato bed down by the station just about to come up." "And it's not just for show." "Pam Warhurst and Mary Clear head a movement called Incredible Edible Todmorden." "They want their town to grow all of its own vegetables and orchard fruits within a decade." "We thought in ten years we could make Todmorden self-sufficient in food." "If we could do that, we can pass on something to our children." "It would be incredible." "It would be totally incredible." "We've got big dreams." "We've got enormous dreams." "I mean, ten years to make a town self-sufficient." "What we've got is the potential, in time, to have a town that can look after itself but also, doesn't have to fly beans halfway across the world." "Why should we be eating African children's beans?" "I don't get it." "Why don't we eat our own beans and leave African beans for Africans?" "Seems sensible, doesn't it?" "In ten years time, we think we can do that." "Pam and Mary are not alone." "Grow Your Own has taken off all over Britain." "There are 30 people waiting to get their hands on every allotment plot available." "We could do something at the festival, actually." "We could, we could." "Home grown maybe just catching on here in Britain, but there's a Caribbean city where its already taken root." "More than two million rely on urban farms to grow half their fruit and veg." "Now, I know as cliches go, this is as obvious as it gets." "getting into a 1950s car and taking in Havana's faded glory." "But Cuba's got a very modern story to tell and it's one that's got lessons for us back in Europe." "For decades, Cuba used to import nearly all of its food and it was able to do that because trade with the Soviet Union was heavily subsidised but when the Soviet Union collapsed, everything had to change." "Cuba had to grow its own food and it had to use every tiny little bit of space in order to do that, even space in cities like Havana." "So in a struggle to produce enough food to feed the population, almost 200 urban farms, known as Organoponicos, have sprung up all over this bustling city." "Emilio Andres works at one of the city's biggest allotments, Alamo Organoponico, a co-operative that produces 240 tons of vegetables a year for the local community." "So, Emilio, just describe for me what was here before this farm." "Before this farm, this was garbage." "People used to put rubbish here?" "Yes." "And now, what is the purpose of this place now?" "Now it's purpose is to produce vegetable for the people." "Now, looking around, I can see apartment blocks all over." "Why are farms like this, in the city, important?" "It's important because it's near the city, it's erm.." "fruitful for the people, it's healthy food and you can provide a lot of jobs for the people." "How many people work here?" "Here are working 170 peoples." "How important is it, do you think, for Cuba now to be able to produce its own food." "It's important because now this, erm, a big, big problem in the world and the price of the food is increasing every day, so if you are able to produce food you can have the sustainability and you have food security, too." "And when you know that you are feeding people, here in Cuba, your fellow Cubans, how does that make you feel?" "Makes it very good." "Yes." "Urban farms in Cuba produce more than four million tons of vegetables every year and the country is now 90% self-sufficient in fruit and veg." "Not so long ago, this is where local people would have parked their cars." "Today, they're growing lettuces, radishes, oregano - you name it, they seem to have it." "Even so, the city farms hardly look like the answer to a global food crisis." "They're just, well, too small, really." "But I guess it's not the scale but the principal that's important." "The principal that local people are taking some responsibility for their own food needs." "And we have forgotten that Britain itself was once forced to plant its way out of hunger." "During the Second World War, we faced food shortages because imports were halved." "And to deal with the crisis, the government encouraged the public to dig for victory." "'Through the campaign to grow more vegetables, 'the nation is now self-supporting in vitamin C.'" "As a result of the war time effort, we went from producing less than a third of our food before the war, to 40% by the end of it." "As the 20th century went on," "Britain became more and more self-sufficient, until by the 1980s we were producing 80% of the food we consumed." "But the farming subsidies that helped to boost production proved an expensive way to feed the nation." "In the '80s, government policy changed, moving away from self-sufficiency towards trade, depending more on imports." "Now, that's fine if you are talking about things like pineapples and oranges or coffee." "But even when it comes to produce that we can grow right here in Britain, we still import about a quarter of what we need." "That figure's even more startling when it comes to something like apples." "This country is home to 500 different varieties of the fruit and yet we only grow one in every ten apples that we eat." "But, what we can grow ourselves is limited by the seasons." "Apples are only picked in the autumn, but the modern shopper is hooked on year-round availability." "Today, choice is king." "That means shipping in out-of-season products from abroad." "So, British farmers are using cutting edge technology to stretch the natural growing seasons of a whole range of crops, including Scottish strawberries." "The Co-op, which is both a supermarket and the UK's biggest farmer, has extended the growing season from two months to six months." "And, because they're grown in Britain, these strawberries can be picked, sorted, packed and on our supermarket shelves in as little as 24 hours." "Christine Tacon is the woman who's job it is to try to balance what shoppers want, with what her farmers are able to grow." "If it is going to become harder and harder to put food on Britain's plates, do you think Britain being self-sufficient is the answer to that?" "Self-sufficiency is a huge part of the answer of ensuring that everybody is fed in the UK and it is easily achieved if we're eating more seasonable food." "So the challenge is an educational challenge rather than a growing challenge." "We've got techniques to spread the seasons, maybe not all year round, but if people eat with the seasons in the UK, it's not that big a challenge." "We can now get carrots 52 weeks of the year, but to get them in the colder time, we will be fleecing the soil to let the soil warm up, then when the carrots start to come through," "we'll be putting straw over the carrot tops, so we will be nursing those carrots through at the very difficult time of year, but, we can get on some products, 52 weeks supply and other ones, we're stretching the seasons." "Do you think people have just kind of forgotten what seasons are about?" "I don't think they know!" "We're now so used to be being able to buy everything we want, we have become divorced from when food is grown and we just feel if it's in the supermarket, I'll buy it." "If I'm reading my recipe and it calls for strawberries, I'll buy them." "It might be better to say, actually, I will eat my strawberries in the summer, when they're grown in the UK where there is plenty of water and I'll just eat less at the other times of the year." "That's the challenge, but we're a long way from meeting it." "Despite the best efforts of British farmers, 40% of the strawberries sold here are imported." "There are limits, in the end, to self-sufficiency." "We can achieve self-sufficiency in food, as long as we change our diet." "We can grow enough food in the UK for everybody to eat." "But there will only be certain things they can eat at certain times of the year." "What we won't have is anything like the choice we've got now." "Less than a third of the fruit and veg we buy in the UK is home grown." "Getting more British produce into our shopping baskets and trolleys will mean a radical change in our expectations." "So self-sufficiency is going to have to play some part in making sure" "Britain is fed in the future." "But as Christine was saying, that could mean telling shoppers that having strawberries on Christmas day really isn't on." "And I think that's nothing short of reinventing the notion of what it means to have consumer choice." "But can the huge changes that are needed be left to shoppers or the supermarkets?" "It may require government intervention." "I am going to meet Hilary Benn." "He's the cabinet minister responsible for food and agriculture, and I want to find out how government is going ensure our food security in the decades ahead." "We can just become self-sufficient and say listen, you were elected to look after me and all the other people in Britain." "We just pull up the drawbridge and we know we can feed ourselves?" "Why don't we do that?" "Although we are 60% self-sufficient overall, we can't grow all of the things that we currently eat." "So it is a combination of trying to maximise agricultural production around the world, because we're going to need to grow a lot more food, but we also rely on trade and we can't close the doors." "We can't shut the curtains and just think of ourselves because we are in this together." "How important will trade with the outside world be in meeting Britain's food security and food demand?" "A global market is very important to making sure that everyone has got enough food to eat." "Farmers will produce more if there is a market for them that wants to buy what they are producing and that's a very important part of making sure that there is encouragement to farmers to produce more food around the world." "There will never come a point when a prime minister will say, actually, we need to change the way we eat, change what we eat and eat only those things that we grow and live seasonally, if you like." "We're in a world where we assume that all products will be available all year." "And that's not sustainable." "In the end, this is about sustainability." "It is and there has to be change." "There is no doubt." "But the fundamental task is not to shut the doors, it's to get our own agricultural production up and encourage it, but to get it up in the rest of the world." "Today's government is not alone in looking towards trade as the way to feed the nation." "They're following a trend set over 20 years ago." "It's part policy and part necessity." "Some foods, like bananas and oranges, can't be grown naturally in this country and, however hard we try, seasonality plays a big role, too." "Imports of potatoes go up eight-fold when it's not the main growing season in the UK." "There are real limits to the amount of food we can grow ourselves." "We could do a lot better, but it would still not be enough." "Last year, we imported three times as much food and drink as we exported." "All this points to trade continuing to play a crucial role in feeding Britain, not least because self-sufficiency has its limits and its sacrifices." "The big picture across Britain is this." "Even with our industrial-scale farming, with all the efficiency that implies, if we wanted to become self-sufficient, we'd either have to grow two thirds more or eat about 40% less." "Either way, it means a big change in lifestyle, a big change in our habits and if we don't like the sound of that, then we've got little choice but to depend on people outside our country to feed us." "And in any case, it might actually make more sense to concentrate on the crops most suited to our climate and let others stick to what they do best." "New Zealand has eight times more farming land per person than we do, and produces nine times more food than they can eat." "Last year, for every baby born in New Zealand, 450 lambs were born and a fifth of them were exported to the UK." "After its 11,000-mile journey," "New Zealand lamb can still be cheaper than the UK-produced variety." "Economist Caroline Saunders argues that by the time it gets to our plate," "New Zealand lamb can also have a smaller carbon footprint than home-reared lamb." "Seems strange that we can't produce the lamb here and eat the lamb that we produce." "It seems strange to you from that perspective, but you've got to remember New Zealand has a benign climate that's very good at producing grass, it's got four million people, compared to the UK where you've got 60 million people and about the same land area," "so you couldn't expect the UK really to produce all its own food." "Let me get this right- are you saying that Britain simply can't be self-sufficient or are you saying self-sufficiency is a bad idea anyway?" "Oh, I think self-sufficiency is a bad idea, but I do appreciate there are certain key supplies that are felt are acute." "But I think you've got to keep some sense to that debate." "Trade should be allowed, so that you are importing product from the place that it's used the least resources to produce and you yourselves are producing things that you are very efficient at and so that you can export those" "and import the products that are produced more efficiently elsewhere." "But isn't trade really, in the end, about some big companies making big profits, rather than feeding people, including the small people, around the world?" "Historically, trade has been shown to be the most efficient way to feed the world and THE way to feed the world." "I am not for unfettered free trade that means that the big corporations are going to get bigger and richer, but free trade that allows benefits to flow back to farmers and producers, whether in New Zealand or in developing countries, is the way forward to feed the world." "Makes you think twice, doesn't it?" "Common sense tells you that growing things nearby is always going to be better." "But what if you can't grow them here or growing them here means using a lot more in the way of fertiliser and energy." "So it looks as if trade is going to remain an important part of the way in which we feed ourselves, and frankly, even that may not be enough." "Africa's vast landscape is the stage for a new chapter in the competition to feed the world's people." "This is a continent rich in agricultural resources, even if they are not always best used." "And it's here that many countries from outside the region are looking for land to boost their own food security." "Governments around the world are going to extraordinary lengths to make sure that their people are fed." "Once it was simply a case of importing the food they couldn't produce themselves." "Now, rich countries want the ultimate assurance, the ultimate guarantee, if you like." "Now they want to get hold of the land itself, even if it means looking thousands of miles away." "The Tana River Delta is a lush area, teeming with wildlife of all shapes and sizes." "This is a fertile region but its full agricultural potential has not been exploited on a large scale." "At least, not yet." "The Oma tribe, who have worked this land together for generations, have only ever taken what they need from this land." "No more, no less." "But their ancient bond with this land could soon be broken." "The people of Mwanja village have heard unconfirmed rumours that their own government, the Kenyan government, might lease a large slice of this area to the oil-rich but land-poor gulf state of Qatar." "If the deal goes ahead, Mohamed and his neighbours say they would loose their source of food." "So for the people of Mwanja, the consequences of the deal, if it was signed and sealed, would be not only the loss of their birthright but their very livelihood, too." "No wonder Mohammed says hunger and death could follow." "But it's hunger that's also the driving force in pushing Qatar and so many other countries to look for solutions beyond their borders." "Oil-rich middle eastern countries have been at the forefront of this new race for land." "After the dramatic rise in food prices of the past two years, they're ready to do whatever it takes to feed their people." "Mburu Gathuru is a Kenyan activist who believes that these kinds of deals, or land grabs as they are being dubbed, are one sided." "Isn't this the future?" "It's as simple as that." "There are countries that don't have food - they have a trade." "They trade with Africa which has plenty of land - that's what's supposed to happen." "Yes, but when you look at it, the people are going to be displaced, thousands of people are going to be displaced from the 40,000 hectares of land that is going to be taken by Qatar." "If the consequences are as bad as you say they are, why is the Kenyan government pushing ahead with it?" "This is one case of misguided priorities in this country." "Kenyans here are suffering, they are dying of hunger, now we are close to ten million people who are not having enough food." "Now, to say that they are going to give our land to a foreign country so that they can grow food for their own people out there while our people are dying - it is really a mishap." "The Tana River Delta land deal is not done and dusted but what about the rest of Africa?" "Right across the continent, foreign investors are paying governments large sums to lease tracks of land for food production." "Land ownership is a hugely emotive and divisive issue." "As a reporter, I have witnessed first hand some of the violence that can be sparked off by competition for land." "Now, given that history and despite some of the economic arguments, which I accept, I still can't see how these land deals could end up as anything but trouble." "If nothing else, these land deals prove just how acute the competition for food has already become." "But we have been here before." "Rising populations have often led to apocalyptic predictions of the famines ahead." "In the past, technology has always come to the rescue." "Historically there is one nation that meant that the twin challenges of food and security and an exploding population head on." "I am going to India to see how a country that 50 years ago was getting food aid has now turned itself around so dramatically." "India's population went up by 50% in the first half of the 20th century, and with it the demand for food rocketed." "By the 1950s, it was known as a land of famine and was a major recipient of food aid." "But, in the 1960s all that changed." "As food riots flared up throughout the subcontinent, India turned to science to feed its population." "Punjab is the Indian state that was the focus of what became known as the Green Revolution " "A combination of new high yielding strains of wheat and rice, and intensive farming techniques." "These new ways of farming enabled Punjab, which makes up less than 2% of the country's land mass, to grow 20% of its wheat." "'I've come here to see the effects of the famed Green Revolution for myself.'" "Well, we're just pulling into Ludhiana and I am here to meet a farmer who is very much a part of that Green Revolution." "George." "Mr Hara." "Oh, thank you, this is for me?" "Oh, thank you very, very much." "It's a privilege to have you here." "And thank you for meeting me here." "Welcome to Punjab." "Thank you." "'In the 1960s Jagjit Singh Hara was one of the first land owners 'willing to experiment with what were then revolutionary agricultural techniques." "'His pioneering spirit has paid dividends many times over." "'Today he is a prosperous man.'" "If you had said to a farmer, say in 1950," ""Your state, Punjab, is one day going to feed all of India," what would that farmer have said then?" "At that time it was not possible. 1950." "It was only the confidence came when we got the Green Revolution." "So the green revolution changed everything?" "Yeah." "Everything, you see..." "200%, 300% increase." "It's not a small jump." "Then we got the confidence, we can feed not only India, we can feed the whole world." "So this area wasn't known for producing food?" "Not at all." "Just one crop." "And not much irrigation here." "No canal irrigation." "And the soil was not good fertility, as in those jungle and barren area." "The new farming methods were introduced along with new breeds of rice and wheat." "That combination had a dramatic effect on yields." "In 1965 a farmer in Punjab could grow enough rice to feed 12 people on 2½ acres of land." "By 2007 he could feed 30 people on the same plot - almost a threefold increase." "How is it possible that a state that didn't grow rice, didn't eat rice, how did it end up feeding most of India with rice?" "It is economics." "It is that the return from the crop was so good, and then the farmers said, "Why not we do it?"" "So it spread like wildfire and that's why a small part of the country is feeding India." "In the 1960s India led the world in this new form of farming, it was seen as the model for so many other poor countries which also struggled to feed their people." "Even in Britain, new, more intensive agricultural techniques led to an increase in yields of 40% between 1960 and 1970." "The word for wheat in Punjabi is "kanak"." "It's also the word they use for gold and that's not just because of the lovely colour of this wheat, it's also because of the wealth that it's brought to Punjab." "My visit coincides with the festival of Baisakhi, the traditional celebration of the wheat harvest." "And Mr Hara has invited me to a party at his house." "We are the people who have earned and spend and enjoy." "This is a day for celebration." "The Green Revolution, with its heavy reliance on a technological fix, suited Punjab's big landowners best, and even today they are still reaping the benefits in a lifestyle that few in India could aspire to." "More goods are available like the refrigerator and television and things like cars and motor cycles." "Do you think there are any limits to the Green Revolution?" "Do you worry at all that things can't just keep getting better and better and better every year?" "There is no limit." "The limit is the sky." "So we can increase our production, we can increase our labour, we can increase each and every thing." "Well, I think this party is going to go on for some time yet." "I'm going to call it a day." "It's been really interesting listening to the people here." "One of the guests said to me the sky is the limit in Punjab." "And they're all having a party." "And in a sense, Punjab has been having a party for 40-odd years." "And you just wonder if it isn't a little bit too good to be true." "There are now many experts who believe the Green Revolution's very success will also be its downfall." "Years of intensive farming have depleted the soil and drained the state of much of its water." "'Surinder Singh, a farming campaigner, 'predicts a bleak future for food production in Punjab.'" "Surinder, do you think the Green Revolution that everybody was so proud of, do you think that's now coming to the end?" "Yes." "I definitely said that this system, this whole system was not a sustainable system." "We have lost our food biodiversity, we have imbalanced the ecological system to highly mechanised and highly intensive farming." "Soil health is lost, our surface and and ground water we have lost." "How much longer has Punjab got to be like this?" "If the methods we are using, if we are not changing that, then I don't think that in coming 10 to 15 years we can produce any food grains for Punjab." "There is apprehension that our changing this system, the country will face food insecurity." "Food insecurity?" "Yes." "So the spectre of famine, the fear of famine, is still there, among the Ministers and the experts and so on?" "Definitely." "So they continue to follow on this... heavily industrialised form of agriculture, even though you're saying it's over?" "That's they they are still promoting and advocating this system." "We really mustn't underestimate the extent to which the fear of famine has shaped people's thinking here." "It's as if it were written into India's DNA." "So the Green revolution is like one big insurance policy against hunger - and who'd want to give THAT up?" "After decades of growth, wheat yields are now dropping in Punjab." "So whether they want to or not, the region's farmers may have to think again." "So too will the rest of the world." "With food demand set to double over the next four decades as the population rises and diets change, conventional farming methods will struggle to keep pace." "If harvests stay at their present levels, then by 2050 we'll need new agricultural land the size of Brazil to produce enough food to feed the world." "So where do we find a Green Revolution for the 21st century?" "Today, science offers genetic modification - the ability to adapt the structure of plants themselves." "Its supporters say this controversial technology could be the next scientific leap forward." "The United States has been growing and eating GM produce for almost ten years, with apparently no ill effects, but there are some who believe the claims made for GM are exaggerated." "'The name's Corky Jones." "'I'm a farmer from Brownville, Nebraska, a little town in the south-east corner of the state.'" "Been a farmer all my life, actually 78 years, and proud of every one of them." "Eight years ago, along with thousands of other US farmers," "Corky started planting GM wheat and soya, or GMOs as they're called stateside." "'It was just another thing printed on the bag that said something, 'but it didn't mean anything to the farmers.'" "Didn't even know they were GMOs when we planted them and didn't even know what GMO stood for." "The company selling GMOs to farmers promised higher crop yields and a reduced need for chemicals to treat those crops." "Well, the first year we planted it, it was right, we sprayed one time and it so just happened that it worked, and it worked well, that we held down the grass weed population." "The second year, why, we weren't quite so lucky, we had to spray twice, and now, several years later, why, we're spraying and putting other chemicals down to prevent weed infestation." "If I was able to turn the clock back and say, "OK, no GMO and what we got now," I would turn the clock back because the only people who really profiteered off of this is the companies that introduced" "the diphosphate and the GMO product itself." "Corky is an exception." "Most US farmers seem to have welcomed GM crops." "For the small but vocal group of farmers and environmental activists who oppose GM, both in America and in Britain, the involvement of big business seems to be as much of an issue as the science itself." "The question of whether the science actually works has become confused with who should own it." "I've come to Mexico to look at one of the key scientific concerns about GM - the fear that, once released, GM strains will spread uncontrollably." "Some scientists believe that once it's in commercial use, GM could contaminate all non-GM crops and we'll all end up eating genetically modified food whether we like it or not." "This is the main wholesale market for maize in all of Mexico." "And Mexico is the birthplace of maize, it's where it all started." "In fact, there are literally thousands of varieties of the crop." "And it's to protect that diversity that the government has a ban on growing genetically modified maize or even field-testing it." "But now researchers say they claim to have found GM-contaminated maize fields in nearly half the states of the country." "No-one knows exactly how this contamination occurred but most believe it crossed the border from America." "Doctor Antonio Serratos says his research puts the claims of contamination beyond doubt." "If as you say, there is" "GM contamination of the maize crop in nearly half the states in Mexico, what are the dangers, what are the implications of that?" "First of all, I think the implication is that... the genetic integrity of maize could be jeopardised by the insertion of different type of genes." "When we go from the laboratory to the field, for example, or the eco system." "And we don't know what is going to happen in a very complex web of interactions between organisms." "Doctor Serratos fears that mixing GM varieties into the source material for all the maize across the world could have unpredictable consequences." "He told me about a GM experiment he conducted on the crop six years ago." "Produce this type... of maize, which is a mutation." "Let me get this right, you're saying to me that you had what we in England would call corn on the cob, and by inducing or changing one gene, you ended up with this?" "Yeah." "The transgene in this case induced a mutation." "Is that a predictable transformation, something you could have predicted?" "No, it's unpredictable." "That's why I am a little bit concerned about the transgenic modification of maize." "What worries me is that, in the case of Mexico, if one introduces this type of genes in commercial genetically modified maize, then we are doing a very large experiment on genetics of this plant." "THEY CHANT:" "Say no to GMO!" "Say no to GMO...!" "Those kind of concerns about GM safety have turned into outright opposition, even to field-testing the crops, especially here in the UK." "GM scientists say it's a bit like developing an experimental drug to treat a major disease without ever being able to test it in trials." "They argue that this new technology may yet deliver the only durable answer to a future global food crisis." "One of the world's top GM research centres is based right here in the UK." "You wouldn't think it to see all these light bulb switches and dials but this place is actually dedicated to plants and agriculture." "Out there in rural Norfolk are some of the country's most experienced farmers, but in here, at the John Innes Research Centre, they are looking at farming well into the future." "Giles Oldroyd is trying to create new crops that will be less reliant on the chemicals that lie at the heart of intensive farming." "In this experiment he's trying to take the nitrogen-producing ability from pea plants and transfer them into wheat plants, reducing the need for nitrogen fertiliser." "This is a pea plant." "On the roots of the plant they have what we call nodules and within those nodules are these pink structures on the roots..." "These little pink dots?" "Exactly." "So those nodules are basically nitrogen factories and they are supplying all of the nitrogen the plant needs for its growth." "In other plants that are incapable of doing this, they have to capture that nitrogen from the soil." "And in our agricultural processes we provide that nitrogen as nitrogenous fertiliser." "Nitrogen-based fertilisers can increase crop yields by up to a half, so they're an essential part of the global food supply we all depend on." "But the costs of using these oil based fertilisers are like to rocket over the coming decades because oil itself will become more expensive." "There is also an environmental cost to using chemical fertilisers." "There is already evidence of nitrogen poisoning affecting soils and seas across the world." "For Giles Oldroyd, these are all compelling arguments to push ahead with the kind of GM research programme he is spearheading." "I can sort of understand your logic." "You take this nitrogen factory from the pea plant and you put it into a wheat plant, bingo - you've got it." "But I'm not sure that we understand all the interactions that might take place once it's there." "There is an unpredictability about it all." "It's not unpredictable in that we don't know what effect it will have on wheat." "Science by definition is predictable because we're not just randomly taking a gene out of a pea and putting it into wheat and asking what happens - we're actually very carefully and very thoroughly trying to understand the process in the pea plant and then, with that knowledge" "and with that understanding, taking that into wheat." "What we DO know is the effect of nitrogen fertilisers." "We DO know that they cause death zones in the Gulf of Mexico, we DO know that they're using huge amounts of fossil fuels, and yet we do them anyway." "If this is a natural and biological solution to that, what you're saying is that we should not do it because of this perceived unpredictability." "What do you say to those who would argue that what you are doing here is unnatural, it's acting against nature?" "I would argue it's entirely the opposite." "We're facing depleting natural resources, depleting fossil fuel reserves, we are facing expansion in the population to 9.5 billion, and we're facing climate change." "And this is all going to happen within our lifetime." "And if we are going to survive until 2050 without going into major wars and without having mass starvation, we simply have to accept that we are going to have to use this technology." "THEY CHANT" "Having listened to those on both sides of the argument, it feels to me as if the public debate on GM has got stuck, too often portrayed as if it were a struggle between mega corporations and the small farmer," "or between Frankenstein science and nature." "And the trouble with such polarised views is that it's prevented a proper informed debate about a science that could help feed the world." "Many of the solutions that different people I have met have put forward are about growing more food." "But perhaps this is not the answer." "Some argue that the key to feeding the world in years to come is as much about using our existing resources more intelligently." "Perhaps, we need to consume or waste less food." "A third of the food British consumers buy gets thrown away." "That's £420 of food per household that we chuck in the bin every single year." "Every second in the UK we collectively throw away six rashers of bacon, eight whole eggs," "14 whole sausages, 51 apples, 59 whole potatoes," "76 bananas and 81 slices of bread." "That's every single second." "This is waste we simply can't afford in a world that's running out of food." "In Bedfordshire, a ground-breaking new service uses waste food to create more food." "Here, residents are asked to keep their food waste separate from their general rubbish." "It's collected weekly and taken to this anaerobic digester." "There it gets shredded, liquified and then goes through a process of fermentation and pasteurisation, which produces excess energy that goes back into the national grid, and, most importantly, ends up as fertiliser for the farm." "Waste food is ultimately helping to produce more food." "Lisa Burton and her family have been using a brown bin." "We've been putting our food waste into our brown bin for about six months now." "Probably fill up about a bag a week or so roughly, because we're not so bad at throwing way, but if we've got bread it would be two bags a week, which is quite a lot and then it seems like we're wasting food." "Notice that I'm not buying so much in the supermarkets now and not throwing away so much, because you notice the wastage and you realise how much is going out in the bin every week, because it's going into a brown bin" "as opposed to just going away bit by bit." "John Ibbett is the farmer who came up with the idea to set up the anaerobic digester on his land." "This plant takes 12 million litres of pig slurry, it takes an additional 30,000 tons of all sorts of different food waste." "We produce enough electricity to supply around 1,700 households and we replace about 300 tons of nitrogen fertiliser, which is about 1,750 acres' worth of fertiliser that will be normally applied to the fields." "At the moment, we have a problem with waste." "The landfills are all filling up and we need to make better use of that resource." "This does turn rubbish into a genuine useful resource - it's green all the way round, it's a perfect circle." "This farm can grow 6,000 tons of grain on the land that has been fertilised using the 30,000 tons of waste food that goes into the plant every year." "In a world where food is an increasingly valuable resource, this technology is one way to create more food from the waste we can't seem to avoid producing." "There are more radical - dare I say outlandish - solutions that scientists are looking at." "Who knows whether meat grown in laboratories - so-called victimless meat - will ever catch on or be cost-efficient to produce, or whether the new wave of enormous humidity and temperature-controlled green houses growing year-round vegetables will fulfil their promise of being food production" "at its most advanced, intensive and efficient." "And there's a new twist to city farming - allotments in the sky, you might call it." "In the US, Professor Dickson Despommier believes his multi-storey vertical farms could not only grow everything we need, but do it in the urban areas where most people live." "The idea of a vertical farm is quite simple, actually." "It means simply to take existing greenhouses and instead of making them flat and spread out all over the place, stack them on top of each other and turn them into a building, maybe five, ten or 15 storeys tall." "An outdoor farm of ten acres of tomatoes is equivalent to one indoor acre of tomatoes." "Because there are no crop failures due to weather events, and you can grow them year round." "So that means you can actually feed as many people with a single acre indoors as you can with ten acres of outdoor land." "Vertical farming doesn't necessarily mean just plants, because we don't eat just plants." "We eat various animals too." "It's possible to connect plants to animals indoors, in separate facilities, but connected together." "So that I can now have an eco-system in a building." "I think in ten years from now this idea, although crude at the moment, will be refined enough so that almost every city that you go to will have a project on vertical farming." "Despommier's vertical farm is still only a computer graphic, but the different farming technologies that could make it a reality already exist." "In the UK, a project linking fish and plant production is already under way." "I want you to have a look at this." "It may not seem much, but that's where some pioneering work is going on in sustainable food production." "They call it aquaponics, and this is the only place in Europe that does it." "Now, Charlie, all I know about all of this is what it's called - aquaponics." "You'd better tell me what's going on here." "Well, aquaponics is the integration of aquaculture, or fish farming, with hydroponics, which is growing plants without soil in water." "So where's the start point?" "The start point would originate from the fish themselves." "OK." "We take the fish wastes and recirculate them through the system." "The wastes from those fish are providing a nutrient source for the plants." "OK." "And the plants are in turn filtering the water for the fish." "Charlie, in simple terms, you've got all these fish and they're producing a load of fish poo and you've got to clean that into something that the plants can use?" "Exactly, yeah." "And that's what is going on here?" "Exactly." "So these plants, basically, are growing in fish water." "Yeah." "Are people actually going to want to eat lettuce grown in fish water?" "I don't think they would know the difference." "There is no taste difference?" "Absolutely." "The lettuce tastes like lettuce grown in the soil?" "Exactly." "You can try some for yourself." "What about the fish?" "Well, they do taste fishy." "That smell is fantastic." "Shall we try this?" "Absolutely, yeah." "'This is what you could call a virtuous cycle.'" "Tastes like lettuce!" "..It tastes absolutely delicious." "'The fish feed the plants, the plants clean the water for the fish 'and offcuts from the plants are put in wormeries, which in turn become food 'for the fish." "It's a good example 'of sustainable food production in action." "But the big question 'is whether aquaponics could ever provide food on the scale we need.'" "I can see that it works and it tastes good and all of that, but... is it something that's going to feed Britain?" "Well, it has that potential." "It's more suited to being replicated geographically on a local, small scale, than competing with the Dutch large greenhouses." "So something like this, it's not going to supply a huge supermarket chain." "It's more likely to supply a school or a hospital, something like that?" "Yeah, or direct to end-users." "A system such as this might feed into a local school and four, five, ten different outlets such as delis or small supermarkets." "And the diverse range of production that a system like this can produce really lends itself to being put back into communities rather than sourcing food from supermarkets." "It's quite the opposite to this mass production line of food that comes from all over the world - this is produced locally and eaten locally." "Exactly." "'So, aquaponics may not be THE solution to a global food crisis but perhaps that's the whole point." "'We might have to look at a variety of answers." "'What I have become convinced about on my travels around the world 'is that we face serious challenges in the years ahead, keeping up 'with the ever-increasing demand for food.'" "From India to Cuba, from Mexico to right here in Senegal, the message is clear." "We're using up the world's resources faster than they can be replaced." "There is only one planet, there is only a limited amount of the resources we use." "If we keep going as we are, we'll need two or three planets, never mind one." "Many of us have got used to having what we want, when we want it." "I think that may have to change." "If our actions in terms of eating more and more meat are going to result in catastrophe of global proportions, then we as responsible human beings need to take heed of that." "Even here in Britain, our food security is under threat." "We've taken some things for granted for too long, and we need to wake up and realise there are things we've got to do to have a safe and secure future, including one in which everyone has enough to eat." "'I don't think that "business as usual" is going to be enough.'" "I'm sure that we'll have to embrace science in one form or another." "But even that doesn't offer simple answers." "It seems to me there isn't going to be one big solution, no magic seed, no miracle crop, not even a single technological leap." "Perhaps the best we can hope for is to understand that food is a precious resource which we can no longer take for granted." "Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd" "E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk"