A Warming Meal

Everyone knows plants are sensitive to the climate that they grow in. So what will climate change do to the food we eat?

Talk to Tim Wheeler, a crop scientist at the University of Reading, about how the climate affects the food that’s grown. What happens when a plant is subjected to elevated carbon dioxide or temperature? And how can we predict the way plants will react in the future? It’s difficult enough to predict the climate, let alone how crops will behave in it…

Legumes get bacteria to do the work of taking in nitrogen from the soil. Giles Oldroyd from the John Innes Centre is looking into how these microbes could be made to work for other plants, which would mean a reduction in fertilisers added to the soil – good news, since these additions only generate more carbon dioxide.

Giles doesn’t just have a hand in what’s going on with the plants. There’re also economics and politics to consider – changing what we grow and eat is far from straightforward.

And what about adapting plants to survive their ‘new’ conditions? Amy Strange is researching how plants naturally adapt to cope with variations in their environment. Her work could give us greater control over the flowering times of crops.

How might this research affect the food on your plate? Or should we be changing what we put on our plates to combat climate change?

Tara Garnett runs the Food Climate Research Network. She’ll be talking about how we can change what we eat now to leave a smaller carbon footprint. Is it all about locally grown produce?

Event organised by:
The Science Museum

Speakers

Tara Garnett, Food Climate Research Network, University of Surrey
Giles Oldroyd, Department of Disease and Stress Biology, John Innes Centre
Amy Strange, the Dean Group, John Innes Centre
Tim Wheeler, Reader in Crop Science, University of Reading