The demand for animal feed in Asia and the capacity of Latin America to produce sufficient amounts of agricultural commodities are crucial to the future of the world food supply. This was one of the most important conclusions of the Future of Food seminar, which was held on 28 November in Brussels; the seminar was organised by Schuttelaar & Partners and Wageningen University.
An international group from the business community, science, politics and civic organisations conducted a future analysis with five renowned speakers, with the aim of mapping out the long-term prognoses (15 years) of the global food system.
The demand for food and agricultural products will increase rapidly in the near future. There will not only be more people, but more people will also be earning higher incomes, especially in Asia. This means that the demand for animal products, and therefore for animal feed, will increase rapidly. In 10 years, China will be consuming half of the world pork production. Moreover, everywhere in the world more and more people are living in mega-cities, and both husband and wife have full-time jobs. This means that people on all continents will become increasingly dependent on processed food, which is purchased at the supermarket.
Crises
The food situation is being affected by multiple crises. Under the surface of the issues in newspaper headlines, there are a number of chronic problems that are linked together. These chronic problems concern not only the food and credit crises, but also health differences, terrorism, energy supplies and environmental degradation. In addition, obesity is becoming an increasingly important health problem in many countries; in Brazil for example, this has become a more serious problem than malnutrition.
To ensure sufficient food for everyone, investing in science and technology is crucial. During the last 20 years, investments in these areas have been seriously neglected. But technology by itself is not enough; technology works only if it is embedded in responsible policy. In order to prepare for the future, the food sector must also ensure that it links up with other conceptual fields such as the ICT sector.