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From Dirt to Dish: Rethinking Food Production and Consumptionย ๐Ÿฝ๐Ÿ”ฅ

Written byย Marcus Parade onย Digilahย (Tech Thought Leadership)

๐‹๐ž๐ญย ๐ฎ๐ฌย ๐ข๐ฆ๐š๐ ๐ข๐ง๐žย ๐ฐ๐žย have over 8 billion gorilla’s ๐Ÿฆ๐Ÿฆ living on our planet โ€“ would you say we have an overpopulation of gorillas?

As I find overpopulation very visible on our planet, the question arises, how can we feed all our people more sustainable, if our population worldwide is estimated by the UNO to be around 10 billion by the year 2050?

๐ƒ๐ž๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐งย ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซย ๐Ÿ๐จ๐จ๐:

๐ˆย ๐ฐ๐š๐ฌย ๐ฐ๐š๐ฅ๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ ย ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐กย ๐šย dearย ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐ย strolling through endless acres of golden cornfields stretching as far as the eye can seeย ๐ŸŒฝ๐ŸŒฝ

He said: “Oh Marcus, it feels so nice to be outside here in lovely nature?!”

I also love walking along golden cornfields and yet the fields feel to me only partly being in nature. Putting it baldly, we were also walking in simple production fields for farming products. We didn’t see animals nor insects.

๐ŸŒฒ๐ŸŒดย ๐ƒ๐ž๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐งย ๐ก๐š๐ฌย ๐›๐ž๐ž๐งย going on steadily since the last 10.000 years and an end is not in sight. The crazy race for more farmland, driven by climate change and an ever-growing population, is a ticking time bomb that is likely to trigger ecological collapse on a global scale.

1st. circle is from 10.000 years ago. 2nd. circle from 300 years ago. 3rd. circle from 5 years ago.

The question is, how do we feed all people, as further deforestation for more farmlands can in my opinion not be the solution.

In turn, around 1/3 of all food produced for human consumption in the world is lost or wasted every year. Where does it all go?

It is lost during production or wasted at the consumer level. At the same time around 10 % of our world population are starving.

๐–๐ก๐š๐ญย ๐œ๐š๐งย ๐ฐ๐žย ๐๐จย ๐›๐ž๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ?

We can change our consumer behaviour, as the production such as for meat needsย ๐„๐๐Ž๐‘๐Œ๐Ž๐”๐’ย amounts of more energy, water, space as well as emissions into our atmosphere. AND, less than only 20% of our worldwide farmlands are used for the direct consumption by us humans.

A staggering 80% of our planet’s farmland is devoted to livestock feed, biofuels, and other non-food crops, leaving precious little for direct human consumption.

๐–๐žย ๐ง๐ž๐ž๐ย ๐›๐ž๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ซย ๐ž๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐ข๐œ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ข๐ž๐ฌย ๐ข๐งย ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซย ๐Ÿ๐จ๐จ๐ย ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐๐ฎ๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐งย ๐š๐ญย ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅย ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ฅ๐ฌ.

New agricultural technologies can be game changers such as:

1.๐Ÿ’ฆ๐Ÿ’งย More precise watering solutions directly reaching the roots

2.ย ๐Ÿšœ๐Ÿ›ฐย Better efficient machines with more precision farming

3.ย ๐ŸŒฑโ˜ฃย Biotechnology with genetic modification of plants to protect them better and produce more.ย ๐ˆ๐งย ๐š๐๐๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐งย bacteria can be created producing nutrients like proteins.

4.ย ๐Ÿ’ก๐ŸŽฒย Use of AI (artificial intelligence):

AI-poweredย ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ง๐ž๐ฌย ๐š๐ง๐ย ๐ซ๐จ๐›๐จ๐ญ๐ฌย ๐Ÿค–ย ๐œ๐š๐งย ๐›๐žย your farm’s new best friends – they collect real-time data on crop yields, plant health, and soil moisture levels. It’s like having a personal assistant who knows everything about your plants.

Self-driving tractorsย ๐Ÿšœย and drones can be equipped withย ๐€๐ˆ-๐ฉ๐จ๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ๐ž๐ย ๐ฌ๐ž๐ง๐ฌ๐จ๐ซ๐ฌย ๐ญ๐จย optimize crop planting, fertilizing, and harvesting. With their precision and efficiency, they can help reduce labour costs and increase productivity.

AI can be like the ultimateย ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ฒย ๐œ๐ก๐š๐ข๐งย ๐๐ž๐ญ๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐žย ๐Ÿ•ต. It can analyse all data from the very beginning up to table to help optimize logistics and reduce waste. It’s like having a personal assistant who knows everything about your plants and how they travel to us.

When it comes to crop monitoring, AI has aย ๐ž๐š๐ ๐ฅ๐žย ๐ž๐ฒ๐žย ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘ย that even most farmers can’t beat.. AI peering deep into the heartย ๐Ÿ’šย of crops to detect even the slightest signs of disease or pests, empowering farmers to take proactive measures and safeguard their precious yields.

Around 70% of our freshwater is frozen, around 29% is groundwater and the rest is surface water. Source of chart: Netafim

๐€๐ง๐ย ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅย ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌย ๐›๐žย ๐ž๐ง๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก?

Improving the production of food on our planet Earthย ๐ŸŒย is a complex issue that involves various stakeholders including farmers, governments, researchers, and consumers.

While overpopulation remains one of our main challenges is the production of our food a central challenges for our common future of our climate and us humans.

Let’s embrace our future and change for better sustainability and life.ย ๐Ÿ’›๐ŸŒน๐ŸŒž

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