Mainstreaming Food Innovation: A Roadmap for Stakeholders
Foreword
- Tania Strauss, Head of Food and Water, World Economic Forum
- Shalini Unnikrishnan, Managing Director and Senior Partner, Boston Consulting Group
The global food system faces unprecedented challenges, driven by growing demands, declining arable land, increasing rates of malnutrition, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss. Innovation in food systems holds significant promise, but its full potential is not being realized due to scaling challenges.
Executive Summary
- Role of Food Systems:
- Contributes to 33% of greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of freshwater use.
- Addresses food insecurity affecting 10% of the global population.
- Current State of Innovation:
- Innovations are abundant but not adopted at scale.
- Barriers to scaling include high production costs, complex regulations, lack of co-creation, poor infrastructure, and inconsistent demand.
- Framework for Ecosystem Cooperation:
- Source: Identify and assess innovations.
- Shape: Adapt innovations to meet specific needs.
- Scale: Mobilize partners to drive adoption.
- Focus Topics:
- Soil Health: Technologies and practices to enhance soil health.
- Protein Innovation: Pathways for protein production.
Tackling Food System Challenges: Innovation Offers a Solution
- Current State:
- Technology promises to address food system challenges but is not fully realized.
- Key challenges: High production costs, complex regulations, fragmented markets, limited co-creation, and inconsistent demand.
- Need for Action:
- Urgent collaboration among stakeholders is required.
- Transform food systems through scalable and sustainable solutions.
Key Data Points
- Soil Degradation: Over 90% of global soils could be degraded by 2050, reducing world food production by 10%.
- Agricultural Workers: About two-thirds of the 700 million people living in extreme poverty work in agriculture.
- Population Growth: World population and per capita calorie consumption are expected to grow by 0.86% and 0.39% annually, respectively.
- Resource Intensity: Consumption is becoming more resource-intensive, leading to increased waste.
Call to Action
- Private Sector: Invest in research and development, make direct investments, and deploy market expertise.
- Governments: Foster collaborations, provide incentives, and support public research.
- Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society: Facilitate collaboration, uptake, and integration.
- Farmers: Invest in and co-design new technologies, sharing knowledge.
- Innovators: Engage with stakeholders to build adaptable solutions and seek high-potential funding and partnerships.
- Financial Institutions: Adopt a long-term perspective and source innovations with high scalability and sustainability potential.
Conclusion
Addressing the challenges in global food systems requires urgent action and collaboration. By unifying efforts to source, shape, and scale innovations, a coalition of aligned partners can create ecosystems that derisk investments and uptake by stakeholders through regulatory support, secured offtake, and increased adoption of food innovations.
This summary provides a clear overview of the challenges and opportunities in mainstreaming food innovation, emphasizing the need for collective action and collaboration across various stakeholders.