The government's chief scientist, John Beddington, recently spoke at the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) of the vital need to incorporate scientific innovations into the British agriculture industry. He believes this is necessary in order to avoid food shortages due to the ever-increasing population, even going as far as to say that the world needs to produce up to 50% more food by 2030 to keep up with demand.
The technologies Mr Beddington focused on in his speech were genetic modification (GM) and nanotechnology. He explained how these innovations would enable British farmers to grow a larger amount of crops using less land, as well as improving efficiency and production in all areas of the food supply chain.
If Mr Beddington's ideas are to come into effect, this will mean that a great deal of investment will need to be made in order to train the relevant specialists in these fields, and a large number of new food jobs within various technical and scientific areas will become available.
Although the government has been supportive of research into GM technologies in the past, Mr Beddington's ideas were not so well received by environmentalists. Protestors, including Prince Charles, have warned that these technologies run a very high risk of negatively affecting nature's delicate ecosystems.
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