Jacqueline McGlade, Gresham professor of environment, Gresham College, giving a talk entitled "Why our crops are turning toxic?", on the Earth Stage, at New Scientist Live 2019
Climate change poses serious risks to the safety of our food supply not through crop failure alone, but by making plants toxic. This is happening via cyanogenesis which causes nitrates and prussic acid to accumulate in plants as a means of protection, plus increasing levels of fungi-producing mycotoxins on crops such as maize in Sub-Saharan Africa and now southern Europe. Scientists are already working to mitigate these risks looking at traditional varieties of crops and seeds that are better adapted to climate change - but can the shift in production happen fast enough or will it be blocked by agroindustries? Jacqueline McGlade is currently a professor at Gresham College, University College London and the Maasai Mara University. Previously chief scientist of United Nations environment programme and executive director of the European Environment Agency, she is passionate about community science and natural prosperity , open data and earth observation. In 2013, her work was recognised through the Global Citizen Award. She has published more than 200 research papers, global and European environmental and risk assessments and policy analyses, and has produced award winning films and Myriam McGlade (born May 30, 1955) is a British-born Canadian marine biologist and environmental informatics professor. Her research concerns the spatial and nonlinear dynamics of ecosystems, climate change and scenario development. She is currently Professor of Resilience and Sustainable Development at the University College London Institute for Global Prosperity and Faculty of Engineering, and Professor and Director of the Sekenani Research Centre of the Maasai Mara University, Kenya. She was Executive Director of the European Environment Agency from 2003-2013, where she was on leave from her post as Professor of Environmental Informatics at University College London.
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