3 minute read
COLD CHAIN
THE 2022 CHALLENGE, HOW CAN THE HAVES HELP THE HAVE-NOTS?
Mark Mitchell, Chairman of the Australian Food Cold Chain Council (AFCCC) wants us to look out for those less fortunate than ourselves.
In my new year review of projects that need tackling in 2022, I was inspired by the 100People Project, a not for profit foundation in America that helps people facing all sorts of emergencies, like food shortages, in very practical ways. Simple enough, but unlike many charities, they inspire themselves and many others by breaking the earth’s human population down to just 100 people.
The deprivations that face many people in developing countries are suddenly brought into very sharp focus, which is hard to ignore. For example, if 100 people lived on earth, 15 people are underfed, one is starving and the rest are either overweight or normal weight; 87 people have clean water, but 13 people don’t; 77 have somewhere to live, but 23 don’t; 44 have the internet, but 56 don’t; 75 have a phone, 25 don’t; only seven attended college, the rest didn’t; and just one person controls 50 per cent of all the money.
So what does all this have to do with the work of the AFCCC, and why is is relevant in a country that has so much refrigeration and transport technology and so much money? I feel a burning imbalance, Australia wastes so much food, yet we have bloated industries involved in the cold chain who really should know better and who should start thinking about how our advanced technologies and know-how can be transferred to those in the world who need it most.
Throwing money at it just doesn’t work any more, in fact, I doubt if this ever worked. These global numbers are telling us that developing communities don’t have any chance of accessing the technologies they need to improve their food supply and their cold chain processes.
We don’t seem to be able to allocate resources and funding for those who need it most.
Certainly, supplies of clean water and nutritious food are affected in many countries because of conflict, both political and violent, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying to come up with strategies to share our technologies and resources. And the 100People chart points accusingly to that one person who controls 50 per cent of all the money, that one person could be represented by countries just like Australia and the financial and banking systems that back them.
It is frustrating for us at the AFCCC because the global food loss and waste
problem is easily split right down the middle between the developed world and the developing world. The developing world doesn’t waste anything in its supply chain or in the home, it is all lost at the farm, pre-harvest, whereas in the developed world, the majority of our food is lost somewhere in the supply chain and in the home, post-harvest. This disparity points clearly to the need for an efficient cold chain, with proper refrigeration and better transport facilities so that the food that’s grown can reach consumers instead of left rotting on the ground.
So I challenge all those who have anything to do with in the cold chain in Australia to think about how we can arrange a technology transfer to those communities who desperately need a robust cold chain for survival.
Having issued the challenge, I must own up to the fact that AFCCC doesn’t have the answer and I wish we did.
I’m hoping that my adoption of the 100People principle might trigger similar concerns in others. AFCCC would like to act as an influencer to bring practical changes to the way the world’s food is grown, transported and managed.
Global food shortages are a world problem, not just something that happens in underdeveloped communities. Surely
countries like Australia have an obligation to put food on every plate. We seem to find the will and the money to throw at so many other grand schemes.
The AFCCC has plenty of ideas, but no solution just yet. Perhaps you readers of PowerTorque have some answers, and if so, we would welcome them.
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