Alternative food can help feed humanity

The conference participants set themselves the task of considering the problem of global food security from different angles and discussing breakthrough technologies and alternative food sources that scientists around the world are already developing today.

The Executive DIRECTOR , member of the board of directors of the Efko Group of Companies, Sergey Ivanov, in his speech emphasized that the problem of hunger is very “multi-layered”. “The world is divided into two parts. Half of all mankind, 4 billion people, live on an agrarian diet - 300 kg of food per year per person, or 1.5 thousand kilocalories per day. The rest is an urbanized world living on an urban diet. They eat a lot - an average of 900 kg of food per year, or 3.5 thousand kilocalories per day per person, spend a lot on food, and produce a lot of waste. These two worlds do not understand each other. Some are looking for what to eat, others are struggling with obesity. And this is a serious problem,” he said.

Ivanov also voiced the UN forecast, according to which in the coming decades the food agenda in the world will be determined by Africa and Southeast Asia, because it is there that the largest population growth occurs. In particular, by 2050 the population of Africa and Southeast Asia will increase by 2 billion people, and the total human population will grow to 10 billion. At the same time, an additional 2 billion urban population will appear within the population with the same problems of obesity, excess calories and waste. Thus, two trends stand out: an increase in the number of people and the transition of a large part of humanity from a rural diet to an urban one.

“Today there are 1 billion people in Africa who consume 800 million tons of food. In 2100, there will be 4 billion people who will consume 8 billion tons of food, that is, Africa alone will consume as much food as the whole of humanity produces today, ”Ivanov cited the figures. Statistics show that the demand for food will increase.

The threat of mass starvation due to an increase in the population already faced humanity in the 1950s-1950s. However, there was no humanitarian catastrophe. The American breeder Norman Borlaug named the discovery of ammonia synthesis as the main factor in avoiding the tragedy, which made it possible to establish the production of nitrogen fertilizers. In 1970, the scientist received the Nobel Prize as one of the fathers of the Green Revolution. Sergei Ivanov drew attention to the fact that mankind paid and continues to pay a high price for the "green revolution" of the 1970s.

“The food system provides 30% of greenhouse emissions, 2 billion hectares of forests have been destroyed, we have lost 30% of the world’s arable land due to soil degradation, the destruction of biodiversity is called the sixth mass extinction of species and the first for which man is responsible,” Ivanov listed. “Today’s destruction of biodiversity is called the sixth mass extinction of species and the first for which man is responsible.”

Thus, it is necessary to act simultaneously in two directions. Firstly, to correct the environmental consequences of the “green revolution” - to create an alternative to nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers, to work on a variety of cultivated plant varieties that are resistant to weeds, pests and diseases and a hotter climate, to minimize the use of agricultural machinery running on petroleum products. Secondly, it is necessary to look for new sources of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, Ivanov said. Efko Group of Companies has been dealing with this problem for a long time and considers and evaluates in detail all the possibilities known to science today.

“We live in a new world, and science has offered us a lot. We have deciphered the human genome and we have the opportunity to rethink what nutrition is ,” Ivanov noted. — There has been a breakthrough in the study of the microbiota, the biotechnological revolution has caused the cost of precision fermentation (a technology that allows the programming of microorganisms to produce animal products) to fall. In the 2000s, only very wealthy scientists could afford to engage in this direction, and today it is already a mass movement. You can synthesize proteins, fats, get MILK from a test tube. A lot of money is going into this industry."

So, the company steMeat is engaged in the creation of cellular MEAT. Its founder Danil Maklakov says that today 400 g of meat can be grown from 1 g of cells in two days. And not only from muscle cells. The company has already achieved a reduction in the cost of its product to 1780 rubles. per kilogram. Increasing production volumes will further reduce the cost.

As for insect protein, Efco doesn't think it can play a big role in the planet's food security, but they think it's a very interesting source of feed protein.

In addition to meat and in vitro milk, vegetable alternatives are a promising area, Ivanov said. Moreover, not only agricultural crops, but also algae , microorganisms can serve as a material for alternative proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The latter, from the point of view of scientists, deserve special attention. Thus, Sergey Portnov, CEO of Biopraktika, said that a bioprotein created from natural gas is an alternative to fishmeal and soybeans. At the same time, it can be produced in any quantity, regardless of the climate and sown areas.

Sergei Ivanov states that there is no single vision of the problem of how to feed 10 billion people in the world yet. Transnational corporations, realizing the need to reduce the burden on the environment, have not agreed on what a sustainable food system is. Pessimists believe that the point of no return has already been passed and recall the theory of Malthus. Conservative optimists believe that the problem of food shortage does not exist, there is uneven production and distribution, and plant-based alternatives are a very insignificant segment of the food industry, almost a statistical error. There are adaptation advocates who think that humanity will adapt and scientists will "figure something out." There are objective grounds for all these points of view. According to Ivanov, a "green revolution" is needed,