Current patterns of food production are unsustainable – but short-term disruption is not the solution, according to futurist Tony Hunter. “Instead, we need to think about how we use technology to reimagine the global food system in the coming decades,” he says.
Tony Hunter is a food futurist, food scientist, author, and strategic foresight consultant specialising in the future of the food, beverage and agriculture industries. He will be speaking at the Future of Nutrition Summit in Frankfurt as part of Fi Europe in November.
As the global population tops eight billion, the pressures on food production systems have never been greater. “We know that our current global food system has reached, or possibly breached, planetary boundaries,” says Hunter, a food futurist and consultant based in Brisbane, Australia.
“There will soon be nearly 10 billion people on the planet and potentially a billion pets, which can consume as much protein as a human. There will be more people in Nigeria by 2050 than in the whole of the continental US. China has only 9% of the world’s arable land but around 17 % of the world’s population. How are we going to address these challenges and supply populations with enough food?”
Hunter suggests that disruption of the global food system is not the solution. A short term dramatic and comprehensive shift from animal to plant-based protein, for example, can’t be scaled up fast enough to fill the protein gap. “Instead, we need to think about how we reimagine the global food system in the coming decades,” he says.
According to Hunter, this will involve the application of novel technologies, to help humanity achieve more with less. At the Future of Nutrition summit, he plans to discuss some of the five key technologies that he believes will drive the future of food: alternative proteins, cellular agriculture, genomics, the microbiome, and synthetic biology.
“As one example, I think that mycoprotein could have a major influence on protein supply,” he says. “The technology is more easily scalable than some other new technologies. One company I know of is using excess dates to grow mycoprotein, which technology requires little or no arable land.”
Those five key technologies will in turn be accelerated by three other technologies – AI, sensors, and quantum computing. Hunter believes that AI in particular will have a massive long-term effect on both industry and consumers.
“All of this will lead to what I call a ‘TECHXponential’ food future,” continues Hunter. “What I mean by this is that food is now technology. It is everywhere we look, from farms and manufacturing processes through to the final consumer. And one thing we know is that technologies advance exponentially. So food is now technologies advancing exponentially; The future of food is TECHXponential”.
Hunter sees part of his role as interpreting what these technological advances will mean in practice for the food industry, and how innovations can best be harnessed.
“We know that simply doing more of the same will not end well from a climate change perspective,” he says. “So how can we use technology to produce food more sustainably, to feed growing populations and middle classes? How can we grow more food using less resources?”
Key to this will be applying technologies that decouple food production from arable land and fresh water – what Hunter calls the ‘twin tyrannies’ of food production. “This is about how we feed the planet, sustainably, equitably, and healthily,” he says. “At the Future of Nutrition Summit, I’ll be looking at new technologies, showing that there are choices that can be made, and suggesting how we can reimagine the global food system.”
Hunter launched his futurist career to specifically address this need. He says that he became increasingly aware, not only of new technologies coming through the pipeline, but also of the fact that the industry needed help in understanding how new technologies will affect the future of the food industry.
On top of this, things are evolving incredibly rapidly. Hunter recalls that he has had to change slides the night before a conference, such is the pace of change.
“Industry needs to know what these technologies mean for their future and their consumer’s future, and how these can be managed,” he explains. “I noticed that there were not many specialist food futurists out there, which is why I entered the space. In particular, I focus on tech that impacts food, both industry and consumers. Given my background, I’m able to look for things that other people might gloss over and identify signals of change pointing to the long-term future of the food industry.”
Find out more about the Future of Nutrition Summit here: https://www.figlobal.com/europe/en/whats-on/agenda/summit.html
Read more about:
Fi Europe
