The speaker Clarke Willis was introduced by Chris Morris. They have been friends since Agricultural College.

The talk was entitled – FOOD SECURITY

Clarke started be giving a brief history of his career.
He was born and lived in Derbyshire until he went to College.
He is currently working for Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) in Norfolk.
The group provides independent and ethical advice to farmers.

The future of Food Security in the next 50 years will require innovation when 100% more food will be required to feed the world.
In 25 years food will not be grown in soil but grown vertically indoors using hydroponics.
It will be in a controlled energy environment with many advantages.
This will greatly reduce the amount of water required (by 95%) and land required (1 acre instead of 250 acres).
Other benefits are local grown crops, green energy, no pesticides, consistent quality, long shelf life, no need to wash crops and optimal taste. The growing process will be AI controlled.

At present farmers are growing and selling on their crops. If farmers processed their crops before selling them on they could increase their profits 8 fold. This is happening in Norfolk at a special 100 acre site assigned to this purpose. The site has 13 units. Mustard and mint are the main crops currently being processed and these are exported to 25 countries. All tomatoes and strawberries sold in UK are grown in UK using hydroponics.

Some land being made available by vertical farming is being returned to nature, landscaped and available for public use.
Greater use will be made of robotics to cover labour shortages. 

There was a Q&A session followed by a a vote of thanks.

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