The IGP announces the Spring 2019 programme for its Soundbites and Director's Seminars series

The Institute for Global Prosperity announces the programme for the Spring 2019 Soundbites and Director's Seminars series at UCL. The theme for this series will be global prosperity and food, curated by Dr Matthew Davies.

Click here to see the programme

Global Prosperity and the Future of Food Systems

The last century has seen incredible diversification, intensification and globalisation of food systems. The world now feeds vastly more people than it did 100 years ago. People have more choice and generally better nutrition. But this trend has not been even and global food systems seem increasingly out of control. Many people remain under-nourished, and food security is a major issue today in the Global North as well as South. These challenges are caused variously by climatic fluctuation, conflict, political and economic crises and the vagaries of global markets. Worrying also are global trends towards over-nutrition and the increasing prevalence of non-communicable disease. Global food inequalities of many kinds interact recursively with inequalities of wealth, health, geography, gender and education to amplify socio-economic problems. Industrial agriculture and the winnowing of diversity threatens the resilience of food systems and contributes to environmental degradation and pollution. As the global population grows towards 10 billion the stresses on production systems will become evermore acute. At the same time climate change will cause shifts in the spatiality of production and increase uncertainty.

What changes are required to ensure the future of global and local food systems? A prosperous future must be one in which food systems act synergistically to promote prosperity rather than undermine it. Production, access to, and control over food must be universal, just, sustainable and resilient. This series of seminars will examine the possible futures for human food from a range of perspectives and scales, asking the question of how we can re-shape these systems for a prosperous 21st century.

The full programme for Spring 2019 can be found here. 

The Soundbites and Director's Seminar series 

The Soundbites and Director's Seminars series are public events hosted by the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity, and open to all. They are held regularly throughout the academic year in the main UCL campus, Gower Street. Each series features both Seminars and Soundbites, mixed intermittently. 

Soundbites are a platform for professionals and entrepreneurs who are leading in their field. Speakers are innovators and inspiring actors working in new and traditional sectors, outside of academia. The Soundbite gives the audience an insight into how their organisation contributes to sustainable and inclusive prosperity.

The Director's Seminars are an opportunity for audiences to get an in-depth theoretical perspective on sustainable and inclusive prosperity. These Seminars are given by academics who are pushing for new ways of thinking and new ways of researching society's grand challenges.