Today the food arena is witnessing a massive transformation owing to factors like population growth, shifts in urbanization to global economic development. Globalization of the food chain has transformed the industry’s safety risk profile. Rising demands for skillfulness is influencing the safety challenge. And all of that is occurring while refrigeration and refrigerants are being reworked upon from the ground up because of worry over energy and climate. One can say that the world of food is now coming face-to-face with fast-moving pressures that have washed through numerous industries, and none of those industries have looked the same a decade later. The food industry will be no exception. Perhaps the most critical task for the executives who lead the food industry is not that of meeting the specific pain-points, but of redefining their fundamental orientation to incorporate the change that is constant, a scope that is global, and safety, skillfulness, and technological demands that will necessitate a new caliber of management.
Food production cannot keep up with the expanding global population. The world’s human population presently numbers around 7.6 Bn and is projected to reach 9 Bn people by 2050. To provide for that many people, current food production needs to enhance by 70 percent, as per the United Nations. However, the very question of how to improve food production bestows quite a challenge, as data from the Global Harvest Initiative records that from 2005 to 2019, an estimated 58 Mn less people will be engaged in agriculture, a decrease of 11 percent of the agricultural workforce.
According to a unique feature on the future of food, TechRepublic and ZDNet experts offer answers to this inquiry through features; interviews with farmers, entrepreneurs, and scientist; case studies; analysis; and prognostications focusing on the role technology plays in maintaining the population. Natalie Gagliordi speaks about John Deere’s actions to feed the rapidly increasing population, while Teena Maddox explores how precision farming, self-driving tractors, and IoT sensors quantify agriculture in bigger and better ways. Even though accuracy agriculture remains in its early stages, Charles McLellan takes an in-depth examination at two UK-based projects that are proving the feasibility and value of the concept.
Meal replacements make technology workers more productive, but can they solve world hunger is a question which Alison DeNisco Rayome ponders upon in her article. James Sanders describes how the Global Seed Vault intends to serve as the backup facility for seed banks around the world if environmental or political disasters destruct existing crops. Besides, Tom Merritt discusses the top five technologies that are making food smarter and healthier. Teena Maddox defines food- and agriculture-related terminology in her quick farming glossary.
Numerous solutions are being put across which include using AI to Synthetic meal replacement and installing crop modeling software that can enhance the productivity of agriculture and hence produce more food to work towards curbing world hunger and increasing farmer’s efficiencies.
