The Big Interview:

Professor Louise Fresco

We’re on the threshold of an unprecedented challenge for our food system; how will we feed the world’s population whilst reducing the carbon emissions produced by the food chain? Global thought leader Professor Louise O Fresco shares her insights.

Feeding the world without starving the planet

By 2050, 9 billion people will inhabit the planet and two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities. Fewer and fewer people will be involved in growing the food we eat and the process of urbanisation will consume more land that has previously been used for growing food.

Without proper planning this will put a devastating strain on both our food systemand the environment.

Food is already a source of great confusion, with individuals and societies struggling to work out what is best to eat in times of climate change, obesity and concerns about animal welfare. How we address these issues will have far-reaching effects on the environment and our ability to feed the booming global population.

So how can we feed everyone and address the carbon emissions produced in the process?

One increasingly popular theory is that we all give up, or drastically reduce, our intake of meat. There is little doubt we all eat more meat than we need to, but cutting it out of our diets entirely would actually be detrimental to the environment. In fact, meat is essential to a sustainable world.

There are several reasons.

Large parts of the world cannot be used for crops. They are too hot, too cold, too dry or too steep for anything other than grazing. These grazing animals provide valuable protein, whereas the wildlife that would otherwise takeover would simply make their own contribution to greenhouse gases in the form of methane. Permanent pasture has some of the best carbon capturing qualities of anyland and not using it to extensively graze ruminant livestock does not make any sense.

Of course, another major source of methane is food waste. Currently, up to 500 calories of food per person, per day are being wasted. Much of that food is inedible for humans, but if we could at least use that waste to feed animals which provide us with other nutrients, we are already a lot better off.

This is not to say meat production is ideal. Animal production does have an impact on the environment through its emission of greenhouse gases, but we still need to provide the world’s population with protein, so clearly something has to change.

Fundamentally, we need to rethink what we eat, how we producefood and rebuild urban societies’ relationship with how their foodis produced.

Another suggestion is that re-introducing traditional local foodsystems is the answer.

Whilst local food production certainly has a key role to play inre-establishing the link between cities and farms, this is not enoughto meet the challenge of feeding the world’s growing population.

The attraction of eating carrots grown just a few miles from home is of course understandable. Shopping local is surely the quickest way to reduce your carbon footprint and if we all did it the world’s problems would be solved, right?

The future will see complex distribution systems, involving drones and meals produced in local community kitchens

Not quite. In a growing, rapidly urbanising world, small farms simply cannot feed billions more people, especially as many of these farms in the developing world are focussed on producing commodities for export or are primarily concerned with feeding the farmer’s extended family.

Even in the UK, shopping exclusively at farmers' markets is simply not an option for the vast numbers living on a limited income.

Plus of course, rapid urbanisation and a growing middle class has led to big changes in dietary preferences and consumer behaviour, and local food systems are not always able to adapt to these trends.

It is therefore important that food is produced at an affordable price and at a scale that allows it to be shipped to cities.

The industrialised farming which increased agricultural production worldwide between the 1950s and late 1960s has done a remarkable job of producing more food. However, it’s now accepted the system is far from perfect, resulting in environmental damage, chemical usage and communities dependent on global commodity prices and is in need of reform.

The solution is to make this industrialised food production more sustainable, environmentally friendly and morally acceptable.

I envisage a food system with centralised food production zones close to cities. These highly industrialised systems will produce most of the food we need, much of which will be plant-based.

There will be complex distribution systems, involving drones for drop-off of shopping as well as pre-prepared meals produced in local community kitchens designed to reduce food waste. In addition, people may become interested in supplementing their diets by growing their own food, with balcony gardens and neighbourhood allotments popping up in urban areas, helped along by new agricultural techniques and technologies.

These are all changes that can and are being made. Whilst progress needs to be more rapid, we are already seeing a move to more plant-based diets in many Western societies and more awareness of improved land management combined with a greater focus on reducing food waste throughout the food chain. Developments such as vertical farms are bringing agriculture back into cities and even some supermarkets.

But much more needs to be done. Food systems need to be tightly integrated and co-ordinated to ensure they can react to the changing demands of urban societies. The food system needs to utilise technology such as robotics to improve production, better logistics and packaging to reduce food waste and the development of more added-value products in countries that depend on perishable commodities for export.

It’s clear there is no blanket solution to the challenges ahead, but by looking closely at labour use and technologically driven efficiencies, I am confident we can develop an efficient industrialised food system that will meet the challenge of feeding our growing population with the added benefit of minimising the growth in carbon emissions.

Professor Fresco is the President of the Executive Board of Wageningen University & Research, Europe’s leading academic agri-food organisation and research and development centre, and one of the foremost global thought leaders in the food industry. She also gave The City Food Lecture at London's Guildhall in February 2020.