Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, and an active climate analyst, author and contributor to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, delivered keynote remarks and inspired delegates to apply a net-positive perspective to rethinking the future of protein. He encouraged the group to create more sustainable, collaborative, transformative partnerships in order to address the burning challenges we face. “We are literally playing with the future of humanity, Polman noted. “The world has been incredibly flexible and increased its capacity to absorb our CO2 emissions, but it’s run out and we are very close to a negative tipping point.” He urged AgriVision delegates to take action toward science-based targets to support sustainability goals. "The cost of not acting has become significantly higher than the cost of acting and being less bad isn’t good enough anymore,” Polman cautioned. He observed that companies that apply such a change in mindset are increasingly differentiating themselves and performing better than their peers.
During a panel conversation, participants considered how a surge in climate-focused food labels is raising regulators’ and consumers’ concerns about greenwashing. As advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) accelerate, panel participants also looked at how AI is influencing the feed-to-food sector today, and debated how AI will affect decisions across the value chain in the future.
Today’s consumers are increasingly influencing how the food they purchase is produced and marketed. Acknowledging this trend, Imke van Gasselt, VP Health & Sustainable Diets at Ahold Delhaize, shared a retailers’ perspective on efforts to improve transparency in the supply chain.
Other areas of the program delved into Nutreco’s research and development efforts to discover novel protein sources that can reduce environmental pressure on the planet. From a supply chain perspective, Abhay Hanjura, co-founder of Licious, delivered a Bollywood-inspired presentation, The Great Indian Meat Story, to describe how India is deploying on-demand meat delivery channels. Brett Stuart, president of Global AgriTrends offered a deep dive into data, sharing findings from research that will influence protein production, retail, consumption, and circular models moving forward. Dr. Keith Sumption, Chief Veterinary Officer of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, delivered cautionary remarks about risks posed by zoonotic disease spill-over. Collectively, nearly 20 speakers remarked on ideas, innovation, and strategies for leveraging policy, technological innovation and social tailwinds to meet projected protein demand in the next half-century.
Remarking on the event, Fulco van Lede, CEO Nutreco, stated,
