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SUMMARY:Can GM crops help to feed the world? - Professor Sir Brian Heap
DTSTART:20150506T120000Z
DTEND:20150506T130000Z
UID:TALK58921@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:32077
DESCRIPTION:The reasons why food security has become such a key issue in t
 he international agenda are numerous - demand exceeding supply\, land use 
 degradation\, and sporadic price increases leading to social unrest.  Curr
 ently the world has more than enough food\, but some 1 billion people stil
 l go hungry.  Food redistribution is only part of the solution.  Appropria
 te and intermediate technologies all have their place\, and conventional p
 lant breeding remains as great an influence as it has for hundreds of year
 s.  \nThe advent of molecular plant breeding throws up core questions abou
 t what it is that scientists seek to do when building new genetic traits i
 nto seeds.  Even though they can improve yield and disease resistance\, an
 d provide health promoting properties\, solutions have provoked both hopes
  and fears.  Do they result in a fundamentally altered relationship of hum
 ankind to nature?\n\n*Professor Sir Brian Heap* is Research Associate\, Ce
 ntre for Development Studies\, University of Cambridge\, Honorary Professo
 r University of Nottingham\, and former Master of St Edmund’s College\, 
 Cambridge\, and Project Leader\, _Biosciences for farming in Africa_.  As 
 a biological scientist with doctorates from Nottingham and Cambridge\, he 
 published extensively on endocrine physiology\, reproductive biology and b
 iotechnology\, and was Director of Research at the Institute of Animal Phy
 siology and Genetics Research (Babraham\, Cambridge and Roslin\, Edinburgh
 ) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). 
  Elected Fellow of the Royal Society\, he held posts as Foreign Secretary\
 , Vice-President\, and editor of the Philosophical Transactions of the Roy
 al Society\, Series B.
LOCATION:Biffen Lecture Theatre\, Department of Genetics\, Downing Site
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