Dave Larson of Cargill Speaks at NEDPA Conference
Monday, March 15th, 2010
This year the Northeast Dairy Producers Association annual conference brought many important topics to light. In the wake of recent activist media attacks on our industry, the conference organizers wisely put animal welfare and food security on the agenda.
The first speaker was David Larson from Cargill, who has held various positions at Cargill including President of Animal Nutrition. He just retired after over 40 years with Cargill, where he was most recently the Executive Vice president and a member of the Board of Directors.
Cargill’s purpose is to be the “Global Leader in Nourishing People” and Larson talked mostly about the need to feed a growing world population. He used a series of slides depicting food production and annual incomes and a growing population. There were several take-home messages:
· The world population is going to rise significantly and although food production is increasing it will need to increase even more in order to keep up and to alleviate world hunger. This was also supported by the another speaker from Elanco who showed that the world needed 100% more food by 2050 and that technology could account for 70% of that increase (50-100-70 initiative)
· As incomes increased to a mere $4000 per year and above, consumption of grains stabilized (the rate of increase slowed down) but meat continued to climb significantly. Meat and airy consumption are closely linked.
· The rate of increased production of grains in the last 15 years has been met with an equal increase in demand and a significant percentage of that increase is from ethanol and biofuel. 40% of the increased demand acceleration for grains is due to fuel. Using food for fuel is a continued threat to world hunger as it increases the competition for food and increases costs for grains that could be feeding people.
· The increase in grain production has been achieved primarily through using technology to increase yields and not by using more land base. This is increasingly important in a growing world population.
· North America, South America, Australia and just recently Eastern Europe (former Soviet Union) are net exporters of food. Asia, Africa/Middle East and Western Europe are heavy importers and as their populations grow they will rely even more on other countries for their food supply.
· Increases in access to food for the world’s poorest people are tenuous. It took 15 years to reduce the number of people considered “hungry” from 1.2 billion down to 750 million. With the current global recession, it has only taken 2 years for that number to go back up to 1.1 billion. Countries with large populations of “hungry” people are the cause for much of the world’s political instability.
· The US food system is a $1 trillion industry and employs over 16 million people.
· Consumers will continue to demand safe, affordable, healthy and delicious food. They will also demand that the animals used in the production of food be treated more humanely. Sustainability from an environmental standpoint and transparency in the way we produce food are also keys to our future success.
