BCPC contributors explored what was needed for food production to be truly sustainable.

The conference, Pests and Diseases 2002, was held in Brighton from November 18-21, and discussed the world's ultimate challenge – to provide enough food to maintain life.

Results of the symposium are printed in The Global Challenge: Sustainable Food Production, which recognises the link between food security and economics.

In the report, Jacques Diouf – the director general of FAO, is quoted as saying: 'It is a moral responsibility of all societies, communities and individuals to ensure that hunger is eradicated. It is the suffering endured by the world's hungry that keeps the commitment foremost in our minds, yet increasing recognition is also given to the fact that hunger and malnutrition act as an impediment to economic growth and welfare improvements.' Under the chairmanship of Mike Calvert of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, the symposium considered some of the market demands and impinging factors that have developed with time and how situations vary between the major regions of the world.

John Chapple of New Millennium, Qingdao, China, offered an insight into Chinese crop production systems and practices. Globally China has 25 per cent of the world's population and only seven per cent of the world's cultivable land. So it is unlikely that China will become a dominant force in world agriculture.

Questioning market driven trends in production systems in the developed world, Dennis Avery from the US Centre for Global Food Issues warned of their potential impact on global food sufficiency.

Describing a model developed by Nestle, Eduard Bruckner, from Vervey, Switzerland, presented a food processor's view of food-material supply. The final paper, by Sir Brian Heap of Cambridge University, gave an informed insight into what the next 25 years of food production might bring.

Copies of the report are available for £15. For more information call: 01 89 34 27 27.