Hort Connections: Growing Our Food Future

Author: Kate Cook

One of the great things about Hort Connections is its ability to bring together the many groups involved with fresh produce and facilitate discussions that are vital to the industry moving forward. In order to make sure that you haven’t missed out on any of this important information, we have put together an overview of some of the panels and sessions run during the conference so that we can continue these discussions here at the Melbourne Market.

Kicking off the conference was Adam Liaw, food columnist and television presenter, who took a broad overview on the topic of “Growing our Food Future” and engaged the audience through focusing on the increasing demand for fresh produce and how marketing produce on the simple basis that “Vegetables are delicious” is actually an important strategy. He spoke on the findings of the EAT- Lancet Commission Report on Food, Planet, and Health, and how Prof. Walter Willet MD was quoted saying that “transformation to healthy diets by 2050 will require substantial dietary shifts. Global consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes will have to double”.

It seems that the future of fresh produce will be overwhelmingly positive if companies take advantage of these food trends and the rising need for sustainable and healthy lifestyles that all point toward increased produce consumption and diets rich in plant-based foods. CEO of AUSVEG, James Whiteside, also weighed in on this during the conference by saying that “there is no doubt that of all the opportunities for Australian agriculture — it’s horticulture that the world will turn to.”

During the State of the Industry Panel at the conference, the emphasis was on technology and data. Angeline Achariya, a Monash University researcher, spoke about how the trends that we are seeing in the fresh food space are now moving beyond health and wellness to a higher specificity: the “intersection of personalisation”. Her insight into the research highlighted the ways that food has the potential to become more personalised for individuals, in fact it is already happening with new technology that can analyse an individual’s DNA and design a diet specifically for that person and their lifestyle. With this in mind, her recommendation was for businesses to look at where they are investing and what they are bringing into the marketplace that can adapt to this specificity.

There were so many great discussions and debates that were furthered during this conference and it is well worth reading some of the articles that have been written on these talks if you missed out. The centrality of these talks to the convention overall cannot be understated — it is well worth planning ahead for the 2020 Hort Connections conference in Brisbane and making sure you will be free to attend and have your say in these vital conversations.