Couple of interesting 'facts' from the Alltech virtual conference

[SJG]

Some interesting talks at this years virtual conference. A guy called Jack Bobo came out with a couple of interesting thoughts that I believe worth sharing;
1. Perception. Farmers get the blame for global deforestation. In fact you can argue that we are the reason that there is not a great deal more deforestation. The hard work and innovation of the agricultural sectors over the last 50-60 years has increased production per acre by almost 3-fold. If this had not happened we would have needed an additional 1 billion hectares to be pulled into production - this would have predominantly been rain forest. Ergo, Agriculture has 'saved' a billion hectares of rain forest - roughly a third of existing forests.
2. Over the next 40-50 years, farmers will need to produce more food to feed the growing world population than has been produced in total over the last 10,000 years of human civilisation....

 

[averageguy54]

Interesting information. I think farmers need to be putting pressure on the supply chain beyond the farm gate to reduce wasteage as part of the solution. I'm not able to present numbers but there is a phenominal amount of food going in the dust bin. This would help relieve the stress on farms to produce more.

 

[SJG]

Yes they quoted that figure as being 30% of all food production - mainly consumer-side in the developed world and mainly supply-side in less-developed countries. His main thrust was that there is no magic bullet and the answer was a combination of less waste, changing diets, novel foodstuffs and, most importantly, increased agricultural productivity, which he claimed will account for 50-60% of the uplift required.

 

[GeorgeC1]

Some interesting talks at this years virtual conference. A guy called Jack Bobo came out with a couple of interesting thoughts that I believe worth sharing;
1. Perception. Farmers get the blame for global deforestation. In fact you can argue that we are the reason that there is not a great deal more deforestation. The hard work and innovation of the agricultural sectors over the last 50-60 years has increased production per acre by almost 3-fold. If this had not happened we would have needed an additional 1 billion hectares to be pulled into production - this would have predominantly been rain forest. Ergo, Agriculture has 'saved' a billion hectares of rain forest - roughly a third of existing forests.
2. Over the next 40-50 years, farmers will need to produce more food to feed the growing world population than has been produced in total over the last 10,000 years of human civilisation....

Well huge swathes of the crucial amazon rainforest is being cut down to make way for Beef production.

 

[averageguy54]

Yes they quoted that figure as being 30% of all food production - mainly consumer-side in the developed world and mainly supply-side in less-developed countries. His main thrust was that there is no magic bullet and the answer was a combination of less waste, changing diets, novel foodstuffs and, most importantly, increased agricultural productivity, which he claimed will account for 50-60% of the uplift required.

That high! I suspect that a goodly portion of the supply side in undeveloped countries could also be tied to consumers being picky.
I suspect also that their figures on population growth are merely an extrapolation of current growth figures, which is the easy way to do it. It is an easy way to spread fear and concern among our elected officials which will result in favourable results for the big ag companies.