SciBar at The Vat & Fiddle: Shahin Rahimifard on How to Feed 9 Billion People in 2050

Environmental impacts are increasing, even though lots of initiatives have been set up, which means that they are increasing slower, the net impact is still bad. Less bad is no longer good enough. By 2050, we are predicted to have 9 billion people on the planet - we will need more food and more energy - radical change is required. If consumerism stays high and technology does not advance quickly enough, we will be left with an unsustainable planet - we need to improve our technology AND reduce our consumption. 

There are more than 6,500 businesses in the food sector in the UK, directly employing around 400,000 people. There is an annual turnover of £13billion and by 2022, another 75,000 new recruits will be needed.

What is sustainable food?

• No waste
• Health impact (what is healthy?)
• Local
• Ecologically responsible
• Fair and accessible 

4 billion tonnes of food are produced annually around the world but we waste a third of it. In developing countries, this waste is due to a lack of infrastructure where they can't pick, transport or store the food. In the UK, most of our food waste is "post-consumer" ie after people have bought it. 11% of people in the wold are malnourished - simple mathematics tells us that there is enough food for everyone. There are questions that we need to ask about this waste food so that we can work out what we can do with it - Is it still packaged? How much protein does it contain? What bacteria is there? Is it inside its best before date? Once we know this, we could potentially be able to extract ingredients from the waste to make more food.

We are running out of oil and gas and, at present, renewables aren't coming on-line fast enough to keep up with demand. This is a problematic in the food sector as it uses such a huge amount of energy in production. Massive amounts of water are also used to create our food.

In the UK, on average, there are 88 fast food outlets for every 100,000 people. We already know that eating fast food more than twice a week can lead to weight gain and an increase in insulin production. This is one of the reasons that obesity is at an all-time high in the UK, while there are also increases in type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Good customisation, where salt, sugar or fat could be removed for an individual in the processing stage could potentially be achieved by flexible automation, making processed food more personal.

Supply chains for the food industry are so complex these days - is there really resilience there? Can we rely on it? There are huge benefits from eating locally besides just the improved reliability of the food chain, including better shelf life of food and less environmental impact. However, eating locally will mean that we need to prepare to have variance in the foods that we eat - no more strawberries in December.

So, to feed 9 billion people in 2050, we need to reduce our consumption, especially our waste, improve our technology, eat sustainable, local food and find a way of producing healthier, more personal food. But before then, we need to eliminate child hunger - the food that we waste could already comfortably feed everyone so why aren't we doing it?

SciBar returns to The Vat & Fiddle on the 29th of November at 7:30pm where Peter Wigmore will talk on The Hippocampus - A Memorable Part Of The Brain.

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