Food security: intensification of agriculture is essential, for which current tools must be defended and new sustainable technologies invented

To spare land for amenity use and to preserve natural habitats, including those for ecosystem services, food production must be intensified on land which is presently farmed. Current tools, such as pesticides, although largely unsustainable in that they require seasonal application, must be defended against the growth of legislated restrictions being imposed without recourse to scientific evidence. This is the only practical short-term approach to increasing food production without taking more land for agriculture, but more sustainable approaches delivered via the seed must be invented, including by genetic modification (GM), in order to replace seasonal inputs in the future. Eventually, perennial arable crops will be needed, thereby replacing seasonal land preparation, but, for full benefits to be realized, all crop protection and nutrition will need to be delivered via the planting material. Governments, and particularly those in the EU, must embrace risk analysis in which advantages, as well as potential hazards, are accommodated. The precautionary principle is not an appropriate approach to the registration of new technologies for achieving food security in a world suffering both climate change and rapid population increase.