The United Nations predict that the global population will swell to almost 10 billion by 2050. Achieving ‘food security’ for all those people is possible, as the essential cause of food insecurity is not lack of supplies, but their unequal distribution.

Dr Emel Aktas, Senior Lecturer at Cranfield School of Management, advises that the key areas for change to achieve a state of food security are around: 

• the need for greater understanding of the whole life cycle costs of a single item of fresh produce;
• seasonality, and our expectation of unlimited choice at all times of the year; 
• the expectations of perfection, for the naturally grown to match the standardisation of man-made products, leading to huge amounts of rejected fresh produce;
• work with food retailers to address food deserts, only providing licences for premises when they can demonstrate they are equally locating themselves in ‘desert’ areas;
• support for technologies that reduce the potential for waste.