People, Profits, Planet: A short history of agriculture.
The agriculture industry is tried and true. From humans first ventures into farming, just 9,000 years ago, the industry has done things the same way for hundreds of years, family farms passing knowledge from generation to generation. Agriculture's ability to innovate has been limited by the scarcity of data; even as the industrial revolution brought fertiliser, the green revolution brought irrigation and genetic selection has improved performance, the challenge is to measure performance improvements when variations caused by climate, soils and management are so great.
The number of people directly involved in agriculture and food production has significantly decreased all over the world, including the US. In the late 18th century, about 90%1 of Americans were involved in farming. Today, it's about 2.5%. Even in China, where 35% of the population farm2, the middle class is increasing in size and people are moving off the land and into cities and urban areas.
Clearly consumers are more and more removed from food production, creating a gap in understanding and knowledge with respect to the business of agriculture and food. As a result, a myriad of challenges have ensued. What challenges does agriculture face?
AN INDUSTRY MISUNDERSTOOD
The realm of food and agriculture is replete with misconceptions or even ignorance about how food is produced, where it comes from, what labels mean, etc. The lack of education on the part of the consumer causes a great deal of strife for the agriculture industry. Unfortunately, by the nature of being fragmented the industry has an uphill battle.
Animals start on one farm and often change hands at least once if not more before heading to a processing facility, a packaging facility, grocer or supermarket, to finally being purchased by the consumer. With some species, such as cattle, multiple actors are involved in their transfer and this can make tracking individual animals particularly difficult. This is another factor disconnecting producers from consumers.
When agriculture is challenged with questions about food sourcing transparency, or the lack thereof, this presents a challenge. It is further exacerbated by consumers’ desire for local production, an impossible concept given their dual desire for variety, freshness of seasonal or perishable produce, meat, milk and eggs. Fresh fruit, flowers or vegetables are generally not available year round in any one country as an example. Other aspects of food production could be undesirable, if produced locally. Who wants to live down the road from a big pig farm or cattle operation?
Truthfully, many consumers don't know where their food comes from or how it is grown. They also have limited understanding of labels or what specific stamps or accreditations mean. Consumers think they want organic and non‐GMO, but often won't pay for either. Surveys demonstrate they regularly misunderstand what different labels even mean. How can agriculture accommodate consumers desires when surveys say one thing, but dollars something completely different? Certifications are both time consuming and costly to producers, so working hard to comply only to have your sales fall flat is frustrating.
‘Prosumers’ present another challenge. These are a segment of consumers who make purchasing decisions based on personal beliefs and values and often use social media to further announce their position or vocalise their concerns. Issues such as animal welfare or chemical and pesticide use are often blown into bigger issues than is actually the case for the average consumer, making farmers feel berated for how they produce food.
To combat some of these concerns, a new group of agriculture enthusiasts are on the horizon. ‘Agvocates’ are members of the industry, such as farmers or producers, or other observers in segments within the chain that help to alleviate consumer concern and clear up many of the questions circulating around food production and the industry itself. Through blogs, Tweets, Facebook and Instagram, agvocates send out positive messages relating to how food is grown and produced, what life is like on the farm and how many in the industry perceive themselves.
Social media offers the opportunity for people to connect directly with the farmers or food producers. Direct conversations and questions or concerns can be addressed immediately and resolved. While social media has certainly been a challenge for this as in other industries, in many ways for agriculture it has also been a blessing.
FEEDING 11 BILLION PEOPLE
Perhaps one of the most obvious challenges within the agriculture industry is its task of feeding another 2–3 billion urban people in the next 30 years. That's 70% more food than is currently produced and with limited resources, food production needs to become more efficient.
This can be achieved in several of ways. Technology is the first and most obvious. While agriculture hasn't always been an early adopter, ‘Agtech’ as it's become known has greatly increased in size and scope. Take Israel for example, where over 450 agtech companies3have surfaced in the last few years ranging from IoT data collection and analytics software for traditional agriculture to alternative proteins, such as grasshoppers or crickets.
The primary software technologies that can be the most disruptive are based on artificial intelligence (including machine learning) and IoT. On the hardware side, drones, robots and sensors will probably have the most immediate impact on collecting data for analysis and interpretation. These technologies allow for real time collection and analysis of the entire farm, something not previously feasible.
Agriculture knows it needs to change. Technological advances are supported by all in the food production chain, from corporations to venture capitalists. Investments in hackathons, incubators and accelerators are being supported by larger companies, in contrast with internal research and development departments being the primary source of innovations. Corporations are realising that they need to tap into newer, fresher thinking and the new startup ecosystem of agtech has proven very effective at providing that fresh insight4.
PRODUCTION EFFICIENCIES
One more challenge for agriculture stems from issues raised about current production practices. In the middle of the last century, farmers discovered that the continuously feeding of antibiotics sped up growth in production animals, even those without illness. That made low levels of antibiotics a standard feed ingredient. Concerns about their use, however, have been circulating for some time now. Government bodies have lately become involved, issuing new regulations concerning their use.
There are alternatives to the use of antibiotics as a growth promoter. Research through nutrigenomics (the study of how nutrition affects the genome) has shown that feeding animals specific probiotics (mannose rich fraction of yeast), vitamins and minerals can in fact boost an animal's growth productivity and in a much more healthy, natural and sustainable way. Evidence also shows that these supplements keep animals healthier, mitigating the need for antibiotics to combat illness. The challenge of this feed alternative is threefold:
Producers can be conservative and slow to change, and unless forced to find an alternative, would prefer to feed antibiotics as they have in the past.
Some of the new supplements are more expensive, especially if used in combination, these ingredients cost marginally more than antibiotics so even if producers end up with a superior product, it is often enough to say no. This is also a concern for production animals that transfer hands more frequently. Why would the breeder feed ingredients to make an animal larger when the benefit are realised by someone else down the road?
The feed supplement industry offers an array of products ranging in quality and depth of research. When farmers or producers try alternative supplements in their animals’ diets of a lower quality, and the results are not effective, farmers have spent additional money on a product that didn't perform, making it even harder for those with good products or technologies to succeed.
ARE THE CHALLENGES TO AGRICULTURE DIFFERENT THAN OTHER SECTORS?
Without claiming that other industries don't suffer similar challenges (fragmentation, misunderstanding, etc) the connection between consumers and their food is intimate. Much is lost between the origins of food and the people that consume it. Not only that, but food safety is still a concern in many countries. Every slip by the agriculture community that allows a food to reach the consumer that is unsafe, be it E. coli in spinach or glass shards in peanut butter, further raises consumer concerns and distrust. Given the strong connection people have with food, both as a need and as a form of expression and culture, this is not an area that is easily forgiven.
One technology that can alleviate misunderstandings, questions, concerns of consumers and also allow for traceability and trust is blockchain. Blockchain can be considerably helpful to the agriculture community in alleviating these concerns by tracking and tracing food production throughout the process. This would greatly help with food safety concerns and recalls, potentially saving the industry a great deal of money. It would also help consumers to better understand where their food comes from and how it is sourced. While some companies such as Walmart are testing blockchain, it is not easily implemented and the very fragmentation that it tries to fix is the biggest challenge in instituting such a technology across the food supply chain.
Overall agriculture represents one of the greatest, if not the greatest opportunities to implement disruptive technologies5 with immediate benefits for consumers, farmers and the environment. Its success depends heavily on the soft skills of communication, positioning and old fashioned salesmanship. RW
Notes
4https://www.wageningenacademic.com/doi/abs/10.22434/IFAMR2017.0089
5https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/disruptive‐digital‐technologies‐power‐transformaidan‐connolly‐7k‐/
Published in Research World, Volume 2018, Issue 72, October, pages 34-36
