Food security key to future strategies

Abu Dhabi - Individuals can also make personal effort to reduce food wastage, minimising food mileage, through buying local or even growing their own food.

Ensuring food security and public health should be at the centre of renewable energy strategies so as to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a UAE minister has said.
During the Federal National Council-International Renewable Energy Agency joint parliamentary forum, held in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Al Mehairi, Minister of State for Future Food Security, said the tools and technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are becoming a reality.
She said that technological advances, such as artificial intelligence, hyper-connectivity, renewable energy, gene-tech and fully automated industry and transport are changing how we live, work and socialise.
"If we are to meet the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs), we must ensure that these technologies are deployed in a way that is positive for humanity as a whole; that the dividends are distributed equally; and that no country or continent is left behind." 
She highlighted that the UAE has embarked on its own transformative journey towards a suitable, diversified economy. "The UAE has doubled its seafood production in just the last year. We are farming local and high commercial value species using technologies adapted to the UAE environment. We are, quite literally, growing fish in the desert." 
She said urban farming is also on the rise in the UAE. The minister pointed out that even as governments are formulating strategies to safeguard natural resources, the private sector also has a critical role to play. "Individuals can also make personal effort to reduce food wastage, minimising food mileage, through buying local or even growing their own food."
jasmine@khaleejtimes.com
 

• UAE
• Abu Dhabi