By John Stromblad
Food is moving towards the top of the political agenda as it involves some critical global issues such as sustainability and security of supply now impossible to avoid. With a growing global population against the backdrop of climate change, food production will eventually increase in the coming years to accommodate demand and dairy, which is central to a healthy balanced diet, will become the core of food security.
Consisting of high nutritional value, dairy products have ― naturally ― been the basic food in the diet of many populations. Today, ensuring dairy food security but in a sustainable way is a huge challenge for the dairy sector. As a result, efforts are being made to improve innovation and productivity in the dairy industry, especially with sustainability in mind. Extensive research on a wide range of related fields such as farm and diseases management, animal feeding, sustainable application of science, and technology to milk and dairy production have been conducted. At the same time, suitable dairy policies have been implemented to pursue an intrinsic food safety and respect for environment.
Furthermore, forums and conferences gathering experts from all over the world have been initiated for better future of the dairy industry. Having said that, as a global citizen working for a daily product food processing company stressing green and sustainability management, I attended the World Dairy Summit in Auckland last year and this year the summit recently took place in Parma, Italy in mid October.
The IDF World Dairy Summit represents the unique opportunity to meet and debate with top level representatives of the world dairy sector of various stakeholder groups including dairy farmers, dairy suppliers, processing industry, governments, international, regional and national partner organizations and academia. Involving 1,500 leading farmers, manufacturers, barn owners and institutions from 80 countries, “sustainable food security” was the theme of this year’s summit.
During the Summit, how science and technology can contribute to environmentally sustainable and socially responsible dairy production was explored, highlighting the outstanding collaboration in a series of five joint IDF/FAO conferences in key areas of sustainable dairy production. Among the various key themes that have been discussed during each session for three days, challenge for sustainable dairy chain was raised. As the imbalance between consumption and available resources has manifested its effects over recent years, especially in the area of food security.
This has resulted in malnutrition which was historically present in specific regions of the world and now is widely spreading across the globe. In order to gain a better understanding of the future needs and expectations of the dairy industry ensuring sustainability, a round table which touched on a range of topics such as climate change, food security and population growth, agriculture in a globalized economy have been conducted.
Food security issue does not only apply to developing or third world countries. Many parts of developed countries have experienced food scarcity and they definitely need to be prepared. Countries in the world should continuously work together to find effective solutions to prevent food scarcity witnessed in many parts of the world. In the United States, one of the largest food producing countries in the world, approximately one out of six people are food insecure, including 17 million children, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Moreover, the growing population is also creating significant tensions on the food commodities markets, with an expected 9 billion people by 2050 and unexpected changes in food consumption trends notably in the emerging economies.
With proactive leadership role, the global society has been building up pioneering work to come up with various solutions in dealing with different aspects of food security issues. As an OECD country, but a nation experiencing water scarcity that may easily lead to critical food scarcity if not carefully watched, South Korea should step up to prevent the main causes of food scarcity such as developing innovative solutions and technologies. It is our never-ending task to ensure food security by continously sharing and disseminating information, increasing efficiency, maximizing value and cutting-edge thinking for all dairy stakeholders. It is indeed our obligation to establish a foremost platform for our future generation to successfully achieve food security,.