The National Food Strategy: Rebalancing our ‘protein economy’
August 3, 2021
This post is written by Prof Andy Salter. July saw the publication of the long awaited second part of the National Food Strategy. Part 1 of the report was produced in July 2020 and was originally intended to provide an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the UK food system. However, this was ‘hijacked’ …
Diversity of duckweed sites in Elgin, Scotland: Part four in a botanical tale of exploring natural variation around us
July 28, 2021
This post is written by Kellie Smith. After a successful duckweed hunt in the South East and West of England, featured in my previous blog posts, we then made our way north. We were headed to Scotland to see whether duckweed coverage was equally dense as in southern England and if different species compositions prevailed. …
A tale of rhynes and reens in the South West corner: Part three in a botanical tale of exploring natural variation around us
July 21, 2021
This post is written by Kellie Smith. See her previous posts about the great duckweed hunt here. The next exciting stop off point on our duckweed tour is the South West. In this case, the South West region refers to the ridge between Wales and England – Bristol, on the English side and Newport, on …
The National Food Strategy: our Director responds
July 15, 2021
This post is written by Prof David Salt. We welcome the publication of the National Food Strategy today. Since 2017, the Future Food Beacon has spearheaded transdisciplinary research on food systems, clear in the knowledge that our food systems must change in order to preserve population health and the health of the planet. The current …
Duckweed hunting in the South West: Part two in a botanical tale of exploring natural variation around us
July 7, 2021
This post is written by Kellie Smith I introduced the great duckweed hunt in my previous blog starting on the South East coast. The quest takes me this week to the other end of the South, the South west corner, particularly St Austell and the Cornwall region. It turns out Cornwall is quite far! Why …
The great duckweed hunt! Part one in a botanical tale of exploring natural variation around us
July 5, 2021
This post is written by Kellie Smith. Welcome to our new series, showcasing duckweed! We have written about duckweed before, but these posts showcase PhD candidate Kellie Smith’s fieldwork hunting duckweed around the UK. Kellie is an avid duckweed collector and researcher in Food and Agriculture at the University of Nottingham. She is passionate about …
Take control of your career #3: Preparing a fellowship – the secret is the 3Ps
June 29, 2021
This post is written by Peter Noy. Dr Peter Noy is the Associate Director for Research at the Future Food Beacon. His work mentoring early career researchers is integral to his key responsibility for coordinating and developing successful funding bids for the Beacon. When thinking about fellowships it is important to remember the three Ps: …
Pint of Science, in Greek
June 15, 2021
This blog post is written by Niki Tsoutsoura, PhD candidate with the Future Proteins Platform. Pint of Science is a worldwide, annual science festival, communicating science in an informal setting. It started in the UK by bringing scientists to pubs and cafes to present and explain their complicated research projects in a way ordinary folk …
The importance of food safety
June 7, 2021
Today is World Food Safety Day! The foods we eat need to be safe for us to consume, not only for human health but wider planetary health, economic prosperity and sustainable development. There are systemic interconnections between the health of people, animals, plants, the environment, and the economy. We all have a role to play …
Statistics in the GeoNutrition project – by Murray Lark, Christopher Chagumaira and Alice Milne
May 28, 2021
The intriguing message from our recent Nature paper (Gashu et al., 2021) is that the concentration of essential dietary micronutrients (like zinc and selenium) in locally-grown staple crops depends on where you look in the landscape. This was found in two African countries with contrasting cropping and food systems, but a shared common challenge of …
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