Will food be more sustainable in a decade's time?

  • 07 Jan 2015
Tara Garnett
Tara Garnett
Helen Green


Tara Garnett
Founder, Food Climate Research Network "We need to do three things. First, we need to produce food without encroaching further on to forests and uncultivated areas -- and we need to prioritise food rich in micronutrients rather than just calories. Second, we need to make nutritious food affordable and available to all, and penalise waste. And third, we need to shift away from eating too much meat and dairy, and encourage more sustainable eating patterns."

Fredrika Gullfot
Founder and CEO, Simris Alg "In general, the future of food, as is the case with energy and materials, is plant-based. It is about disrupting the entire supply chain of the food industry, which heavily relies on unsustainable commodities such as palm oil or animal ingredients from industrial farming. Newcomers such as Hampton Creek's "egg" from plant protein or "fish oil" from algae simply eradicate the atrocious exploitation of the planet."

Hugh Grant
Chairman and CEO, Monsanto "The world's population is expanding fast, but resources are not. To meet this demand sustainably, we must do more with less. The good news is there are solutions, including better seeds, precision agriculture tools and different agriculture systems. So the real question is can we commit to an 'all-of-the-above' approach? If companies, universities, NGOs and farmers work together, we're capable of creating a sustainable food supply for all."

Pierre Ferrari
CEO, Heifer International "The path to sustainable food is through healthy soil: a valuable, delicate ecosystem teeming with microscopic life. Food can be grown in a way that enhances soil fertility, returning organic content and nutrients and improving soil's ability to retain water. Doing so will not only feed us today, it will ensure fertile land in the future. Training, equipping and connecting to markets the world's 500 million smallholder farmers and herders is key."

Rose Wang
Cofounder, Six Foods "In order to ensure food is sustainable in the future, we need to shift the world's protein food supply from meat-based protein to alternative protein sources, such as insects. Insects use 2,000 times less water, produce 100 times fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and use ten times less land than cows. Plus, per calorie, delicious critters such as crickets have more protein and have half the fat of beef."

Per Pinstrup-Andersen
Agricultural economist; chairperson of UN Committee on World Food Security "Action by science and governments is needed to adapt food systems to climate change and extreme weather, including development and dissemination of crop varieties tolerant to salt, drought, floods and new crop pests. Investment is urgently needed to make plant nutrients available to farmers in developing countries to reduce current soil mining."