Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Food, Feed and Fuel; facing the challenge of the century with plant science 

Simon McQueen Mason, Professor of Materials Biology, University of York

We are reaching the limits of the Earth’s capacity to support the human population in terms of providing food, energy and clean water. At the same time climate instability brought about by global warming is causing instability in global crop yields and water availability. We need to decarbonise our activities and move away from burning fossil fuels. Using renewable plant biomass to replace petroleum can provide a key component in this move. The question of how we can achieve this without impacting on global food security will form the major topic of this talk.