Over the next 20 years, the number of people living on Earth will continue to grow exponentially but the arable land will not increase. How can we feed this ever increasing population if the land we have available to grow food remains the same, making less food available per person?
In a session organised by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) during the BioVision 2012 meeting taking place at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, researchers from Germany and Egypt gave their vision on how science and technology can help us remain food secure in the future.
“The most obvious solution is to quadruple our meat production in the next 20 years, which is impossible and unhealthy,” said Hannelore Daniel, a professor of molecular nutrition at Technische Universität München, Germany.
Mark Bücking from the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME-AE, Germany adds that by 2050, the world will need 100% more food then we are producing now. To manage to feed the population, 70% of this food must come from efficiency-improving technologies. More efficient food waste management will also be required. Currently, around 30% of the food produced in the developing and developed world ends up as waste.
There are already many scientific and technological innovations in food security and food chain management, but he stressed that more scientific innovation and interdisciplinary research will be crucial to meet the world’s increasing demands.
Lamis Ragab, a pediatrician at Cairo University, Egypt, added that the research conducted most be collaborative and cross-border, with easy and accessible communication of results. “Research on its own is not that helpful, but we need to work together to overcome the problem.”
Daniel provided clear goals for research in order to meet out increasing demand of food:
- Provide more foods of high nutritional value
- Promote healthy eating
- Provide health-promoting environments
- Provide political leadership that pushes for healthy lifestyles
“In short, we need a healthy diet for a healthy life in the future,” she says.