Feeding the future..........more of lectures from Guelph University.

Guelph Conference cont……… I should finish up with Guelph, however, I do think this is all important except for when the politicians came to talk to us, or when the librarian came to discuss what they offer which you can find on line. Don’t get me wrong, it was all good, however, I would like to stick with what I think is of benefit for you, so I may continue with more recent seminars etc……Our second last professor whom I would like to introduce is Evan Fraser who lectured on Feeding the future, climate change etc.. He is a professor of Geography. He has authored books. He indicated that the population is seven billion and growing. Also, with climate change, food will be more sparse and expensive. He reminded us of the potato famine where a quarter of the population died. He showed us slides which revealed that from 2008 - 2011 - an unfair food system where some starve and others have an abundance of food. Does it sound like a production problem? No, it’s about equity and distribution as well. Last generation or so there has been an increase in obesity and also the most malnutrition. What should we eat? Fruit and vegetables 50%. In the future we should be producing more nutritional foods. In Vancouver they throw out 80,000 dollars of food away. Waste and equity is just as important. At the University of Guelph, food for thought has received a grant. A screen depicts a tractor driving itself and functioning better than one would manually, and can tend the soils. Robotic arms identify ripe tomatoes and takes it. Program smart tractors, actually work the land. This can reshape the land of farming. The green revolution was about homogenization. New technology will provide transparency. Now we can discover what is in the meat. They went to a restaurant and had sushi. They ordered tuna but it was not what they received. It was a fish that is banned in many countries because it causes an orange diarrhea. They now have bar codes on the label which you can scan and it will provide you with all information so it is harder to provide food fraud. The prof continued how we all know that there is a war for data ownership. Farmers are saying no and asking where the value is for them. Our food system is being susceptible by cyber criminals. The lesson - technology change means new people will gain power especially around data. This is a big change. Labour upheavals are inevitable. There will be winners and losses. There are four jobs for every OAC grad entering Ontario’s fast food and agriculture. The gap between grads and employer needs is expected to grow. There will be an increase in the number of new hires over the next five years. Check out www.uoguelph.ca/oac/sites. 1. >25 of Canadian jobs will be heavily disrupted by technology. 2. The economy is expected to add 2.4 million jobs over the next four years. 3. There will be those who can adapt and those who cannot which will cause a larger gap. Conclusion: Be pragmatic: be aware of incentives and on the look out for trade offs. Change the training environment. Seek a portfolio eg. Rwanda, on world bank, extraordinary successful. Increased crops by 4X. He was there. They met HIV positive women and asked them how this increase in productivity affected them. With assistance malnutrition decreased among the children. We have to change our paradigm. What will work in our country, may not work in others. Guelph has been provided with a grant to use funding to address food security, to improve life which is the motto of the university. arrellfoodinstitue.ca frasere@uofguelph.ca 57/58 is the average age of farmers. There will be a huge turnover. Will have to train differently. Any errors found in this blog will be only my fault and not that of the speaker. Next week I will like to talk about Sexuality and Aging which I will also utilize as part of my own education hours. How could I forget this one? So there are two more blogs for University of Guelph. I do like it whenever I go there.