Scotland’s demands for food are becoming increasingly complex…and contradictory.

The Director of SCRI, Scotland’s world-renowned centre for research on crops and plant breeding, says the global food crisis will combine with climate change to present Scotland with new dilemmas.

Professor Peter Gregory, in a lecture called “Scottish Food in a Changing Climate” at the University of Abertay in Dundee, also looks beyond our shores. In particular he warns that the growth in the global population – to about 10 billion by the middle of this century – is unsustainable.

“I think the world’s agricultural system may be capable of feeding 10 – 12 billion people, but the costs in terms of pollution and damage to our eco-systems would be unthinkable,” he says.

For Scotland, he forsees some advantages in climate change – with warmer temperatures and a longer growing season.  But there are downsides too: some plants that need lower temperatures – such as soft fruits - will suffer and pests and plant diseases we have not seen before are likely to spread North to Scotland.

Professor Gregory’s lecture highlights some anomalies in our food consumption patterns.  Food has become a smaller proportion of the overall household budget, mainly thanks to the supermarkets. But shoppers display a bewildering variety of behaviours:

• they want fat-free foods as well as chocolate
• they want out of season fruit and vegetables from overseas but high quality “local” produce too
• obesity levels are soaring but the food we buy contains less and less energy.

SCRI’s Director has welcomed the Scottish Government’s Food Strategy consultation exercise; the results are due out soon.  And he predicts that a forward-looking food policy that embraces climate/energy changes could result in major benefits to the people of Scotland.

“Scottish Food in a Changing Climate” is tonight at 6 pm in the main lecture theatre, Kydd Building, University of Abertay, Dundee. It’s Professor Gregory’s inaugural lecture at the University of Abertay. His presentation is available below.

• PDF file: Scottish Food in a Changing Climate (2 MB)

More information from:

Phil Taylor, Head of Communications, SCRI, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 5DA. Tel: +44 (0)1382 562731