Fish bellies, fava beans & food security

"We call it the UK's Big Five: Salmon, Tuna, Cod, Haddock, and Prawns/Shrimp." Jessa Garibay-Yayen's research looks at consumer choices in seafood.

Garibay-Yayen's MPhil in Conservation Leadership has taken her on a voyage across the world of online recipes, to get to the underlying drivers of the "Big Five" and consumers who only eat fish fillets.

When it comes to other fish parts like heads, skins, bones, and trimmings, Garibay-Yayen research suggests "there's a lot of hesitancy because they're not familiar with how to prepare it…they're asking "how do I prepare a fish belly?"

"If we want to utilise fava beans...we need better bacteria in the soil," said Dr Nadia Radzman, Research Associate at the Sainsbury Laboratory.

Her talk shared the importance of "forgotten, neglected, underutilised" legumes like fava beans for replenishing barren soil, providing a high protein source whilst also reducing the symptoms of Depression, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

Alternative protein wasn't the only thing on the menu at the symposium. Technical solutions were shared by academics across plant sciences, land economy, zoology, business, geography, and engineering, on ideas from using AI to improving access to digital farming markets.

"Farmers are unable to plan what the climate will be like to manage their agricultural rhythm," said early career researchers DrJerry Chenand Elilini Hoole, who are using AI to help farmersunderstand, predict and manage climate changes.

"When we went to Gambia, West Africa...we found that people didn't remember millet," said Professor of Economic Security and Resilience, Shailaja Fennell. Her work is remembering "forgotten crops" like millets, which use less water than more popular cereal crops such as rice and wheat, and can withstand higher temperatures.