Editor's
note: Agri-Pulse and The Chicago Council on Global Affairs are teaming up to
host a monthly column to explore how the U.S. agriculture and food sector can
maintain its competitive edge and advance food security in an increasingly
integrated and dynamic world.
Today,
more than 53 percent of the global population lives in cities. In 1900, this
was only 13 percent. In a little over a century, we’ve gone from a largely
rural world, in which most people were engaged directly in farming or related
rural activities, to one where most people buy their food quite far from the farm
gate where it is produced.
Consider
the enormous logistics feat that occurs each day around the world to unite
rural food supply with urban food need; for most, it’s taken for granted. Here
in the US, our strong infrastructure, logistics sophistication, and broad
networks of retail outlets ensure the sweat equity put in by farmers translates
to food on your plate that is affordable, diverse, and bountiful. But it wasn’t
always this way in the US. And in many parts of the world, it still isn’t.
This
year’s Council report on food security explores how the pressures of swelling
urban populations have previously transformed food supply chains across the
globe and how this trend is unfolding even now, particularly looking at South
Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
The
process of simultaneously increasing production and building the pathways for
its distribution is not automatic. We all know the statistics: by 2050 we need
to feed 9 billion inhabitants. What we may not consider is that increasing
production alone won’t get us there. If farmers are able to increase the
production of their dairy cows through improved genetics and animal health but
a proper cold chain fails to reach deep enough into their rural area to carry
the milk it to the consumer, not only does the farmer miss out on a promising business
opportunity but milk prices may remain too high for families who both want to
drink it and could benefit from its added nutrients.
So
what is missing to help get things from A to B?
We know from history that small and medium enterprises, like small
processors or traders, have a huge amount to contribute to the growth of these
changing supply chains. They are already operating in rural areas in emerging
economies and they also offer important off-farm jobs as farming families look
for other options to improve their livelihoods.
However,
there are also big opportunities for larger companies, both domestic and
multinational, to bring the benefits of scale, know-how, and financial capital
to bear on these supply chains. Investments are needed up and down the chain
from improving access to inputs on farm or developing food processing capacity
to ensuring healthy, prepared foods are available to urban populations that
spend increasingly less time cooking. For the entrepreneurs who can envision
it, opportunity
awaits. In Africa alone, it’s estimated that by 2030, the food and agriculture
industry will be valued at $1 trillion.
But
while there is a historical blueprint of sorts to determine where the emerging
food system might be headed, there is always room to ask how it can be done
better, cheaper, and with less environmental impact? With better eating habits that promote better health? With
greater inclusion for those who might otherwise be passed over in the
excitement be part of new market development?
Like
the cell phone leapfrogging the landline, emerging food systems stand poised to
innovate and remix the current technologies and standard operating procedures. Businesses
and entrepreneurs can grasp the vision and governments have to pave the way:
literally and metaphorically. Without good infrastructure, the physical
transport of goods will stand in the way of the most basic unity of supply and
demand. Without good infrastructure, water may not reach the farm to grow the
vegetables that health conscious city dwellers want. Equally bad, without good
policy to manage resources, the water may not last.
The
policy environment is just as important as the physical infrastructure. For
rapidly changing food systems, this means sophisticated and enabling policy
that considers everything from setting base interest rates to secure land
titling to food safety regulations. Thanks to new developments in data
collection, making better informed decisions should get easier in the coming
years. Still, governments will need support to develop and adjust policy. Civil
society has many roles to play in assisting this process—from think tanks analyzing
critical policy issues to human rights groups elevating the voices of the
marginalized. Civil society must also be
actively at the table.
What’s
clear from all of this is that there is room for everyone to work toward a food
system that feeds us all and serves us all. Food security is a necessary
starting point for global security. The US government has long ago realized
this particular truth, as well as the many other reasons that make agricultural
development a worthy cause. Indeed, Feed the Future has been a stellar example
of how good seeds bear good fruit in time. We look forward to continuing this
important dialogue with all of you at our Symposium on April 26th
and in the months to come.
About the author: Alesha Black is the Director of
the Global Food and Agriculture Program at the Chicago Council on Global
Affairs. To learn more about Alesha,
visit: https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/expert/alesha-black