COST Foresight 2030: Benefitting from the Digital Revolution – Food Security Workshop Report

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Introduction Excerpt

At the World Food Summit in 1996, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defined “food security” as: “When all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”

The COST Foresight 2030 Workshop on Food Security, held in Bruges, 30 June to 2 July 2009, had three principal objectives:

• Identify major trends, driving factors and challenges for the three pillars of food security: (1)
  food availability, (2) food accessibility, and (3) food safety up to 2030.
• Define potential scenarios for food security, focusing on Europe in a globalised world, and
  developing countries.
• Identify key Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Communication and Computer Sciences and Technologies (CCST) that could contribute to – and should be invested in – to reach food security by 2030.

The workshop was an international, multidisciplinary exchange among experts, including COST
Science Officers. Among the areas of expertise represented were agricultural economics, toxicology,
nutrition and dietetics, plant genomics, famine early warning systems, development, labour and
human rights, micro-electrical engineering, agro-systems, and food policy, systems and science.