WSA Staff Seminar Series: Dr Ashok Ranchhod Seminar
- Time:
- 16:00 - 17:30
- Date:
- 11 February 2015
- Venue:
- Harvard Suite (Room number: 3032), Winchester School of Art
For more information regarding this seminar, please email Professor John Armitage at J.Armitage@soton.ac.uk .
Event details
The Futures of Genetically Modified Foods: Global Threat or Panacea?
Abstract:
Food is arguably the most important product of consumption, which is essential for sustaining life. Food contributes to the continuous regeneration of our bodies and provides the basic energy for living.
On the other hand, food can be a source of exquisite hedonic experiences and has strong cultural connotations related with refinement and fashion, especially in well-developed countries and wealthier social communities.
Despite the green revolution introduced globally in the 1970s, the exponential growth of human population creates significant challenges for the future. Nearly 870 million people suffer today of malnutrition, most of them being localized in the poor countries from Africa, Asia and South America.
On the other hand, climate change and environmental degradation are currently reducing the available agricultural land, and creating extreme climatic conditions, which result in additional problems to feeding the world population. Some possible alternatives envisaged by food futurologists include insects, laboratory-grown meat, or algae.
The other major intervention is through the use of Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs). This lecture attempts to present and analyse the situation of genetically-modified foods, and, on this basis, to propose a series of scenarios regarding their future evolution and impact on human society.
Speaker information
Dr Ashok Ranchhod,Ashok Ranchhod, BSc., MSc., MBA, PhD, FCIM, is a Principal Teaching Fellow at the Winchester School of Art. He was recently appointed as Emeritus Professor at Southampton Solent University where he was a Research Professor in Marketing. In 2011 he completed his role as the Director of the Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA), the top Communications School in India. Ashok has published extensively on e-marketing in Journals such as the International Journal of Advertising and the Journal of Information Technology. He has undertaken consultancy work for major organisations and has written case studies on companies in several different sectors of industry for the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Prior to his work in academia, he was the Managing Director of Microplants, a biotechnology company based in Derbyshire. In addition to the published papers he has received prizes for his papers at the Academy of Marketing and The British Academy of Management. Ashok (with Calin Gurau) has also published the second edition of Marketing Strategies: A Contemporary Approach published by FT Pearson. Currently his research is into Digital Marketing, Serious Gaming. He leads a team of research students in these areas. He is Director of the Games Design Hub, where he is co-leading a team of researchers with Dr. Gary Wills looking at the role of games in areas such as art, health, business, social good and education. He has published over fifty papers so far. Ashok has been an External Examiner at Henley and Ashridge Business Schools. He holds Visiting Professorships at Napier University (Scotland) and the University of Canberra. In recognition of his services to business and marketing he was made a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing in 2000. He is also a member of the Design Research Society and the SIG in Design Management.