Co-CEO DSM on Thursday stressed the deep link between climate change and food systems, stressing the importance of fast travel and the use of technology to meet the challenges it creates.
Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe”, Geraldine Matchett said that food systems are “one of the major causes of climate change, with about 25% of … greenhouse gases coming from agriculture and food.” They were also, she said, “one of the biggest victims.”
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “food systems” cover everything from production and processing to distribution, consumption and disposal.
A key element in this is agriculture, which is prone to climate change. Indeed, the FAO described climate change as having “both direct and indirect effects on agricultural productivity, including changing patterns of rainfall, drought, floods and the geographical redistribution of pests and diseases”.
Given the above, it is not surprising that many consider the challenge of producing enough food while simultaneously adapting to climate change and mitigating the environmental footprint of agriculture to be immense.
At the end of this year, these topics will be addressed in detail at the COP26 Climate Change Conference and the UN Food Summit in Glasgow and New York, respectively.
Looking ahead to these events, Matchett described himself as “very optimistic”. She added: “When there is an emergency, but there are also a lot of innovations that are already here to fix this, we can move.”
Matchett went on to explain how he believed a renewed focus would be on agriculture at COP26.
“I think one of the key actions to be promoted … is for each country to incorporate agricultural space into their targets,” she said.
There is a “very easy to understand reason why this was very difficult at first: it is because the food space is not a few big companies or corporations, there are millions of farmers, there are millions of families.”
Acknowledging that the coverage of this area was very wide, Matchett also addressed how things can change for the better through carbon sequestration and other technologies related to agriculture and animal husbandry.
The US Geological Survey describes carbon sequestration as “the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide”. By tearing it down further, carbon sequestration can occur naturally – through forests, for example – or through man-made artificial systems.
“There are many things in which you can turn the farming community into heroes that help solve climate change and, at the same time, make you feel better,” she added. “So there’s a great opportunity and that’s what’s beautiful about that space: it’s full of opportunities.”
Ideas and innovation
Perhaps an example of this is the Cauca Climate-Smart Village project in Colombia, an initiative that has focused on developing agricultural practices that are expected to be both sustainable and resistant to future challenges.
Ana Maria Loboguerrero is the Head of Global Policy Research at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security.
In an interview with CNBC last year, Loboguerrero said the Cauca project co-generates evidence with farmers about “practices, technologies that can help us increase productivity and food security, that can help us adapt to change. climate change and variability and which can help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “
On Wednesday, in a discussion at the World Economic Forum, moderated by CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick, the notion of using new technologies and innovations in agriculture was reinforced by PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta.
“The concept of demonstration farms is proving to be very strong,” he said.
“So building demonstration farms where we have the new techniques and where … the farmers in the neighborhood go and learn from their colleagues, this is a huge concept (and) we have many demonstration farms around the world.”
“The (second) concept we are working on, together with the World Economic Forum and other colleagues, are the innovation centers,” Laguarta said.
“There is a lot of money … a lot of ingenuity, entry into fintech technologies, in … other fields – there is not enough in agritech”, he continued.
“And I think we can play a role – and big public sector companies – in building innovation hubs, bringing technology and innovation closer to the farmer.”