Current food system is "vulnerable", warns report

The University of Cambridge study said that maggots, algae and kelp should replace rice, wheat and maize if the world is to offset environmental threats.

Radical changes to global food systems are required to safeguard the future of food supply amidst challenges like climate change and damage to the environment, warns a new report.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge says that maggots, algae and kelp should replace rice, wheat and other crops if the world can continue to feed itself, researchers at the University of Cambridge say.

Researchers say that global malnutrition could be eradicated by farming foods including spirulina, chlorella, larvae of insects such as the house fly, mycoprotein (protein derived from fungi), and macro-algae such as sugar kelp. 

These ‘future foods” can change the way the food systems operate, researchers say.

They can be grown at scale in systems suitable for urban settings as well as isolated communities such as those on remote islands, reducing the reliance on global supply chains.

At present an estimated two billion people do not have secure food supplies, including nearly 700 million who are undernourished and about 340 million children deficient in key nutrients.

The researchers analysed around 500 published scientific papers on different future food production systems. 

It said the most “promising systems” like insect breeding greenhouses, reduce exposure to the hazards of the natural environment by farming in closed, controlled environments. 

“Foods like sugar kelp, flies, mealworm and single-celled algae such as chlorella, have the potential to provide healthy, risk-resilient diets that can address malnutrition around the world,” said Dr Asaf Tzachor, a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at the University of Cambridge and first author of the report.

He added: “Our current food system is vulnerable. It’s exposed to a litany of risks - floods and frosts, droughts and dry spells, pathogens and parasites - which marginal improvements in productivity won’t change. To future-proof our food supply we need to integrate completely new ways of farming into the current system.” 

The report says it is dangerous to rely on food produced through conventional farming and supply systems, which are at risk of serious disruption from a variety of factors beyond human control. 

It said the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted this vulnerability: government-imposed restrictions on travel disrupted food production and supply chains across the world.

In parallel, recent environmental challenges to food systems include wildfires and droughts in North America, outbreaks of African swine fever affecting pigs in Asia and Europe, and swarms of desert locust in East Africa, also mean an overhaul of food systems is needed.

“Advances in technology open up many possibilities for alternative food supply systems that are more risk-resilient, and can efficiently supply sustainable nutrition to billions of people,” said Catherine Richards, a doctoral researcher at Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and Department of Engineering.

She added: “The coronavirus pandemic is just one example of increasing threats to our globalised food system. Diversifying our diet with these future foods will be important in achieving food security for all.”

The researchers say that reservations about eating novel foods like insects could be overcome by using them as ingredients rather than eating them whole: pasta, burgers and energy bars, for example, can all contain ground insect larvae and processed micro- and macro- algae.