As I arrived at the Alltech meeting last week, one of the
first people I met wanted to know what I was interested in learning about. My response caught her off guard when I said that
I try to come with an open mind. I have
tried to come with a vision of what I think I am going to learn and I always
learn so much more and in a far different area than I ever dreamed, which
brings me to my take aways from this year’s symposia.
First, a few facts that I gathered during the meetings:
We live in a world of food extremes. In the United States, there are more people
battling obesity every day while there are 805 million people around the world that don’t get enough food to lead a
healthy, active lifestyle. Think about
that. One out of every 9 people doesn’t
have enough food.
Hunger and malnutrition is the number 1 killer in the world. |
Nutrition is the cornerstone that affects the health and wellbeing
of all people, rich and poor.
And while there are those starving around the world,
affluent consumers are much more empowered when it comes to food
purchases. They want food that is
tastier, juicer, and healthier, but above all they want a consistent
product.
As farmers, we are hearing a lot about how the world’s population
growing and the challenge to feed a
population of 9 billion by 2050. But
what about all the food that is wasted?
Dan Glickman, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, shared
that 38-40% of all food that is grown is wasted:
20%
is meat and dairy
20%
is oilseeds
30%
is cereal grains
30%
is fruits and vegetables.
The true cost of food waste is high. Food shortages leave an undernourished
population that often leads to political instability.
Aidan Connolly of Alltech posed this question:
How can we increase shelf life to decrease food waste?
Walter Robb of Whole Foods stated that affluent consumers
care more about values than price. While
the demand is growing for higher-end grocery stores like Whole Foods that demand
organic and non-GMO products, where does that leave the 809 million around the
world that are hungry?
As I listened to Raymond McCauley of Singularity University,
I felt more hope that we will be able to feed not only a planet growing in
population, but also a population that is gaining wealth and demanding more
protein and higher quality diets. He
talked of the use of genetically modified yeast to make a vanilla substitute in
the lab and the possibility of producing cocoa in a bioreactor. He talked of lots of things that were way
above my scientific knowledge that has me excited about the future of science!
While I am not completely comfortable with a hamburger grown
in a petri dish, I personally don’t see the science that makes me believe that organic/non-GMO
is the only way to feed my family. I
believe the answer to feeding the world is somewhere in the middle of those two speakers that we presented one right after the other.
Here are some questions that I had after listening to the
speakers:
How can we improve shelf life? Is it OK to improve shelf life with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s)? How about irradiation? Nitrates? Nitrites?
Why is it OK with affluent consumers to demand all farmers
produce non-GMO and organic food when other practices achieve higher yields to
feed the 809 million hungry around the world?
If they truly believe in values above price, why are they more important
than other consumers?
Before we blame poor storage and infrastructure in
developing countries for the food losses around the world, we need to look at
ourselves first. Sixty percent of the world's food losses
occur in Europe and the United States.
What can we do to decrease food waste?
Each and every one of us can do better.
My friend Janeal, Meat Counter Mom, has some great ideas on food waste and why we in the U.S. and Europe can be choosy about our food. I encourage you to read and try to implement a few ideas in her post. Want to take stopping food waste further? How about Dr. Capper's suggestion of starting a "Pigswill Revolution"!
The Alltech meetings always make me think. Has this post made you think about your food waste? What can you change today to help?
-A Kansas Farm Mom
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