75 stories, solutions for 75 years

How will we feed 9+ billion people sustainably on planet Earth by 2050? While the question is fairly straightforward, the challenges are multiple. But the answers and solutions are also manifold. And the Institute of Food Technologists—through its FutureFood 2050 program—will illuminate both the challenges and solutions in its 75 interview articles with thought leaders around the globe and a documentary film.

Why 75 interviews? IFT is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year and wants to showcase how food science and technology is enhancing—today and tomorrow—the safety, availability, affordability, and nutrition of our global food supply. 

The first three interview articles were published recently on our website www.futurefood2050.com. They include geneticist M.S. Swaminathan, winner of the first World Food Prize; Catherine Bertini, former Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme; and mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor, who is working with NASA on 3-D printing of food for long space missions. 

Grain Mountains and Hungry Millions
In the article “Birthing a new era of sustainable agriculture” authored by Mridu Khullar Relph, M.S. Swaminathan discusses how his work in agriculture contributed to the “Green Revolution” in India that helped to feed millions and what’s needed now to produce food sustainably. “I think we need a new phase in our agriculture, which has to be pro-environment, pro-woman and prosmall farming,” he says.

“It’s not a question of one green revolution, or the second or third,” says Swaminathan. “We need an evergreen revolution, which I define as increase in productivity in perpetuity without ecological harm. That is what we’re now working for: technologies for sustainable agriculture.”

One of those technologies is biofortification, a process through which crops are bred to increase their nutritional value, such as rice fortified with iron or wheat fortified with zinc. These crops can be enhanced through either conventional plant breeding or technology such as genetic engineering.

There are three kinds of hunger in India, Swaminathan explains. “One is purely inadequate food consumption or undernutrition,” he says. The second is protein hunger, with half of the population vegetarian, unable to afford pulses (crops harvested for their dry seed) and lacking the will or the money to buy milk and eggs. The third type is hunger caused by micronutrient deficiencies in vitamin A, vitamin B12, iron, zinc and other nutrients. In fact, despite being self-sufficient in terms of food production, India claims the dubious honor of having the largest number of undernourished children, women and men in the world.

“It’s what I call the Indian enigma,” he says. “Grain mountains and hungry millions.”

The Role of Women Farmers
Authored by Ann Meyer, the article “Women hold key to hunger solutions” examines the role of women in overcoming hunger. “The single most important development [for combating hunger], if it was implemented worldwide, could be to educate girls. In so many places, that’s just not the case,” says Catherine Bertini, a Syracuse University professor of practice, public administration and international affairs. Most of the farmers in the world are women, she says, yet they receive less education and training than men.

Education is also critical to changing eating habits in developing countries, Bertini believes, and gender can play a major role here too. A radio program in Ghana, for example, might teach people how to grow tomatoes and use them in their diet. But in order to reach the women who do the growing and cooking, the program needs to air when women would be available to listen to the radio and when their husbands are not controlling the knob, says Bertini.

Distributing food in developing countries can be more effective when women are involved, says Bertini. During her tenure with the UN, she determined the best approach involved directing the food to women because they were going to cook and serve it. “Then we had to listen to them about what they needed. We had to work with chiefs in villages to try to get them to listen to women about what they wanted,” she says.

As a result of Bertini’s efforts, women now receive more than 60% of the World Food Programme’s assistance. 

3-D Printing of Food
In the article “3-D food printing reaches for the stars” authored by Howard Wolinsky, Anjan Contractor discusses his work in 3-D printing of food for both earthly and beyond applications. Contractor along with his collaborators from North Carolina State University’s Dept. of Food, Bioprocessing & Nutrition Sciences and International Flavors & Fragrances are working with NASA scientists to produce a pizza using 3-D printing.

Ultimately, the 3-D devices could be used to print a variety of foods for space voyagers by mixing powder ingredients with water, oil and flavors, and the printer could even be linked with favorite recipes from home, says Contractor.

He also believes 3-D food printers have the potential to address hunger in developing countries, particularly in refugee camps and war zones. “The idea is that if we can store the powdered food ingredients for a very long time, then why not utilize that for refugee camps where the food supply is a big issue?” says Contractor.