As the 7 billionth person is born, Professor Timothy Swanson addresses the key issues relating to food security and agricultural production in the Graduate Institute's latest podcast episode. He tells why the world is facing a train wreck of three converging factors: massive habitat change; population growth; and species extinction. The solution is increasingly dependent on the rate of technological change as 50% of the worlds’ food base is the four carbohydrates: wheat, maize, rice and potatoes. The density of these crops' agricultural production is leading to pests adapting at an alarming rate. This ‘Red Queen’ race, so called because science is running to stand still, describes a small portfolio of germ plasm produced at high rates in order to maintain high mean yields. Alternative strains of seeds were initially supplied by traditional farmers. Their value has increased and ownership has become a hot issue. As traditional alternatives narrow, we will have to ‘stay tuned’, says Professor Swanson, to see if further innovations are made available.

Find out more in the podcast interview carried out by Alumna and former BBC journalist Katy Anderson.

Timothy Swanson holds the André Hoffmann Chair of Environmental Economics. He has graduate degrees in law and economics, completing his PhD at the London School of Economics under the supervision of Nick Stern. Previously, he was the holder of the Chair of Law and Economics at University College London, a lecturer at Cambridge University and the Research Director for the UK’s National Centre on Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE). Recently, he has led research teams on issues dealing with: environmental governance in China (for the China Council and the ADB), biodiversity management domestically and globally (for various developing countries as well as the European Union’s BioEcon programme), EU water management, as well as intellectual property rights and biotechnology regulation (EU and European Science Foundation). He has advised many international agencies (OECD, UNEP, World Bank) on issues dealing with burden sharing and institution-building under international environmental agreements such as the Montreal Protocol and the Convention on Biological Diversity. His publications appear in journals which focus on economics, international affairs and development, environmental studies, as well as law and economics.

Professor Swanson is the Director of the Institute's Centre for International Environmental Studies. CIES focuses on the social and economic issues relating to international environmental problems.