29 October 2021 - On the second day of the Feedinfo Summit in Geneva, a panel was asked to give a very long-term view on the future of the animal protein supply chain – all the way to 2070.
They shared their view on how the sector can be made recession-proof and what food will look like in 2070.
Threats identified from the get-go included the perception of the industry, which isn’t always positive.
“We have to evolve animal husbandry and transform it into a solution,” stated Johan De Schepper, Chief Innovation Officer, Royal Agrifirm Group.
Grazielle Parenti, Global VP Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, BRF also said: “There’s a lot of work to do on the narrative and we need to motivate people.”
Jan Vanbrabant, Chief Customer Officer, DSM Animal Nutrition and Health, also evoked the human factor: “It’s clear we will have jobs in 2070 but the challenge will be to fill the skilled positions and creating the kinds of jobs that will be necessary then.”
“We have a tendency to talk ourselves down. If we communicate more positively about ourselves and do a better job at that, we can attract younger talent,” he added.
Other threats identified were the industry's inability sometimes to join forces on key themes such as sustainability, animal disease challenges, food insecurity, or even macro factors like income inequality which needs to be reduced across the world or meat consumption can suffer.
The role of meat will be somewhat different in 50 years. Meat will certainly still be on offer, the panellists agreed, but it will certainly be produced in a more sustainable way, with different good practices.
“Meat has an important role in human nutrition,” said Adriano Marcon, President, Cargill Animal Nutrition. “Our industry was efficient in the past 50 years and I think it will be even more efficient in the next 50 years. I’m very bullish and we will eat meat for all the right reasons.”
Irit Ben-Dov, CEO of Miloubar, meanwhile, mentioned the promise of growth in meat consumption in developing regions of the world such as Asia and Africa. By 2070, they will likely be larger consumers.
Alternative meats also present an interesting challenge or opportunity, depending on how you perceive that market. But the panellists don’t expect them to disrupt animal protein in the foreseeable future.
What the sector can do is provide better traceability and transparency, and bring information about the animal protein narrative to the consumer.
It is also important that the sector acknowledges that you can’t please everyone.
“We as a sector have to accept that some people have issues with the way meat is produced, e.g. animal slaughtering. And we mustn’t forget that there are people with food intolerances,” Cargill’s Marcon pointed out.
“Ultimately it’s the consumer who dictates how things will shape out for protein, be it of animal or plant origin,” commented De Schepper.
