Food: a global development challenge

Food is a basic need, a pleasure, a culture, a religious marker, an ethical and environmental challenge, an economic resource, a manifestation of power, and a political battle ground.

Exploring the links between food, ecology and conflict

We deal with and distribute global food resources in ways that may not be ethically, environmentally or economically sustainable.

Technological development opens new opportunities for food production, but also redefines what we think of as edible, good and right.  But technology cannot decouple food and nature - all of us, urban or rural, rich or poor depend on the goods and services that ecosystems provide for our livelihoods.

Hence, ecosystem degradation is a global concern, but the technological and economic ability to adapt is not equally distributed.

Food can be a source of conflict, around tables, as well as among nations.  Globalization processes have consequences for how we solve these various challenges related to food production, and consumption at all scales and levels.

Five courses

The BSRS 2013 will be organised in the following parallel courses:

1. The Economics and Politics of Global Agriculture and Trade (coordinated by the Norwegian School of Economics).
2. The Aquatic Food System (coordinated by the Department of Biology, UiB)
3. Biodiversity and Food Production (coordinated by the Department of Biology, UiB)
4. The Global Food System (coordinated by the University Museum of Bergen and the Department of Geography, UiB)
5. Micronutrient Research for Global Health (coordinated by the Centre for International Health, the Department of Medicine and the Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, UiB)

Further information on these courses is now available on the BSRS website. The online application form can be accessed here, and the deadline for applications is 17^th of March. The applicants will receive a response on 26^th of March. Students may apply for up to two courses, stating their 1^st and 2^nd choices.

A wide range of activities

The five courses will be bound together by joint lectures by high-profile keynote speakers, plenary discussions, and activities that promote societal involvement. In addition to the doctoral courses, a set of plenary sessions and public meetings will reach out to the wider community in the overall perspective of global challenges.

The BSRS will feature a number of keynote speakers, who are all prominent scholars in their respective fields:

• Thomas Winfried Menko Pogge, Director, Global Justice Program, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs, Yale University, USA

• Emma Marris, environmental writer and reporter, USA

• Dr. A. Atiq Rahman, Director, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, Bangladesh

• David Blandford, Professor, Agricultural and Environmental Economics, Penn State University, USA

• Julie Guthman, Professor, Division of Social Sciences, University of California, USA

• Peter Kareiva, Chief Scientist, The Nature Conservancy, USA

• Mr. Serge M. Garcia, Director (retired), FAO Fisheries Management Division, Belgium

• Dr. Ambekar E. Eknath, Director General of NACA, Director for the Central Institute for Freshwater Aquaculture,  India

• Kjersti Fløttum, Professor, Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen

• Livar Frøyland, Director of Research at the Norwegian National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES)