One of the key objectives of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Nutrition for Development is to undertake cross-party Parliamentary visits to UK science and research hubs to understand examples of British innovation to address malnutrition and food insecurity.
In October, the APPG’s Co-Chair, Steve Race MP, visited the University of Exeter to hear more about its global malnutrition and food insecurity portfolios, with a focus on the impacts of climate change on food and farmers, and how we need to build resilience into the food system, ahead of COP30. Lord Oates, Chief Executive of United Against Malnutrition and Hunger (UAMH), which provides the Secretariat for the APPG, also joined the visit.
The University of Exeter’s Food Security Portfolio directly addresses ecosystem modification, nutrition, climate change, and destructive economies, with an aim to develop and deliver sustainable social and economic solutions at scale across development assistance countries and marine environments. Exeter’s Food Systems and Planetary Health research aims to help foster food production that is resilient to climate change, operates within ecosystem boundaries and delivers improved human nutrition. With academic and civil society partners in Fiji, the Caribbean, and Philippines, it is working with local food producers and retailers, and with local communities, to co-design and evaluate interventions for better population nutrition. Interventions are designed to be economically, socially and ecologically sustainable.
Under their Public Health, Nutrition and Sustainable Diets theme, their research explores the challenges and opportunities for solving public health and planetary health problems related to nutrition. Exeter’s world-leading climate work and satellite imagery, in collaboration with the Met Office, can predict weather patterns and is supporting farmers to become more food secure and less vulnerable to extreme weather events.
During the visit, the delegation met with a number of Exeter’s academics – led by Stuart Brocklehurst, to learn more about the role of British scientific research in improving the nutritional quality of crops for human and livestock consumption. In the first session the delegation looked at Malnutrition from a health perspective and heard from Professor Conny Guell, a Professor of Anthropology of Health and Environment at the European Centre for Environment and Human, as well as Professor Jo Bowtell, Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. Then the delegation looked at malnutrition from a Weather and Systems Perspective, hearing from Thomas Crocker, Science Manager in the Climate Security Team at the Met Office and Dr. Rebecca Sandover a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography.
The delegation was also visited the Global Meteorological Simulator (GMS), led by Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Richard Lindsay. The GMS is a cutting-edge plant growth chamber facility designed to study plant health and disease under realistic weather and climate conditions. Gaining insight into how plants and their interacting organisms respond to environmental factors is essential for addressing future food security challenges. The GMS was purpose-built to provide a highly flexible and customisable platform for simulating diverse environmental scenarios. It supports a broad range of research – from plant physiology to intricate interactions between plants and pollinators, pests or pathogens.
It was a packed and interesting day, which not only demonstrated the strength and breadth of the UK’s agricultural research and innovation but also highlighted the importance of maintaining consistent funding streams for research and development, given that research programmes such as these cannot easily be turned off and on.