Developing the Next Generation of Food Scientists

Globalization, water scarcity, climate change, and food insecurity are some of the critical issues creating a new leadership challenge for the food science profession. At the same time, many of today’s leading food scientists are reaching retirement age. With that in mind, it has never been more urgent or more important to make sure we are developing a pipeline of bright young people who are qualified and ready to enter the field. They not only must replace the leaders of our profession, but also address the critical food issues facing the world.

As food scientists, we touch the future everyday with our innovations. But there is no greater way to leave an indelible legacy for the future than by Promoting careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and specifically food science. To remain competitive in the global food marketplace, companies must attract the best minds to build a workforce of diverse, talented food science professionals. Within the next decade, the demand for food scientists in the United States alone will increase 10%, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor.

And the importance of food science is growing even more rapidly in developing countries. During my trip to India last month, I talked to food industry leaders who were expanding their R&D facilities and adding staff. I visited government and academic food research labs developing new processing technologies to reduce post-harvest losses and provide value-added food products. And I saw cutting-edge nutraceutical work combining food science with  a 3,000-year-old tradition of using herbs and spices as medicinal remedies.

Food science offers a variety of career possibilities, but many of the most promising students are not aware of the opportunities that exist within our field or  the impact that food science has on the global food system. That’s why Feeding Tomorrow®, the Foundation of the Institute of Food Technologists, is leading an initiative called Food4Thought to promote food science as a career, showing students how they can make a difference by becoming a food scientist.

Food4Thought will raise the visibility of the profession and help create real-world experiences to share the wonder of food science with students. Specifically, Food4Thought will position food science as a key STEM field by offering resources to students and parents and creating education immersion programs to introduce food science as a career of choice.

Innovation in food science and technology is a necessary ingredient to feeding a global population predicted to reach nine billion people by the year 2050. We must act today to ensure that tomorrow’s food scientists are ready to meet the challenges of our global food system: food security, food safety, food quality, and nutrition.

Facing these new challenges, the food scientist of tomorrow will take on many new roles—as a collaborator, an advocate, and a visionary. It will take collaboration with professionals in a myriad of disciplines to solve our pressing global food problems. Food scientists will need greater visibility with the public, regulatory agencies, and also nongovernmental organizations that transcend borders. Most importantly, food scientists will need a macroscopic view of the world, not just the view from their microscopes.

As you go to graduation ceremonies this spring or see stories on the news about the new wave of college graduates, consider how many of those young people could have entered the food science profession. Perhaps they chose other paths because no one exposed them earlier in their educational lives to the exciting field of food science.

Vital contributions from food science, which are necessary to feed our future population, will not happen without considerable support for the development of the next generation of food scientists, and their much needed innovation and advancements will not happen in a vacuum. We need to push policy makers and our profession toward solving the crisis at the nexus of food, water, and energy. Go to FeedingTomorrow.org to learn more about the 100 scholarships Feeding Tomorrow awarded for the 2012–2013 academic year to undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in food science. See the impact of Feeding Tomorrow’s commitment of $100,000 a year to scholarships and how you can contribute to building the next generation of food professionals who will use food science and technology to solve some of the world’s critical food issues.

John Ruff,
IFT President, 2012–2013
[email protected]