Jack Bobo: The Role of Innovation in Transforming the Global Food System
This time last year, our network heard from global food expert Jack Bobo, CEO of Futurity around what a post COVID-19 world could mean for our sector. During that session Jack issued a challenge to our group:
”The next 30 years are the most important in the history of animal ag. We’re going to need to double protein by 2050 to feed the world’s population. The chances that alternative protein developers can deliver on this are pretty small and so there is room for dramatic growth for both animal and alternative protein. The current efforts to demonise each other can be counterproductive and therefore how can we co-exist and leverage each other to meet this goal of feeding the world’s population?”
Well, while we’re still grappling with shifts brought about by COVID-19, we’re also working through big conversations around the future of food systems, currently via the United Nations Food Systems Summit, to address climate change, nutrition, food security and, as COVID-19 has reinforced, food safety.
This week, Jack has published a white paper titled - The Role of Innovation in Transforming the Global Food System, which places emphasis on the role of innovation in delivering a food system that benefits people and the planet. However, it also outlines what the agriculture sector has achieved so far through innovation alongside the positive impacts and, a need to reframe the conversation to best meet the world’s demands moving forward.
“By framing the current food system as the problem and, by contrast, low-input food systems, such as regenerative and organic farms, as the primary solution to the ills caused by food production, new initiatives may limit the range of policies and technologies available to address the problems. Positioning the current food system as broken may also undermine confidence in the food we eat and limit future innovations that advocate intensification along with regeneration. Initiatives aimed at transforming the food system cannot succeed in delivering the benefits desired without acknowledging the role innovation played in the past and ensuring that it plays an equally robust role in the future.” - Exec Summary.
