JFS: Vol 80, Number 4

Editorial

Food Science Needs for 2050 The Institute of Food Technologists has introduced a Future Food 2050 program (www.futurefood2050.com) that, as the name implies, is projecting the world food supply needs in 2050 and advancements required to meet those needs. Another organization, the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFOST), has offered their view in a report titled “Global Visions for the Role of Food Science and Technology to meet Societal and Technological Challenges” (found at: http://globalvisions.iufost.org, edited by A.-M. Hermansson and P. Lillford). As stated, their aim is to – “Determine the current status of food science related strategies to address societal and technological changes by regions and nation states to facilitate development of recommendations on collaboration, changes of programmes and best practices in food research technology and innovation worldwide, with a focus on post farm-gate practices to address issues of growth, security, sustainability and diet and health.” Before going much further, a distinction should be made between agriculture and food science. As the IUFOST report states, food science deals with post farm-gate. Providing enough nutrients to feed the world requires a combined effort by agriculture to optimize production practices to maximize nutrient output and food science to optimize preserving those nutrients in safe, desirable, and affordable foods. Moreover, agriculture, food science, and health professionals should be working together to realize the optimal quality of food. What is the current status of food science in working towards preparing for 2050? Food science seems to have mostly followed classic approaches over the last few decades, making steady progress in many areas. However, gradual incremental changes may not be enough to prepare for 2050 – we should be placing more emphasis on exploring groundbreaking changes and their possible implementation into various cultures around the world. One such change, for example, would be the use of insect proteins in foods. However, a thorough quantitative analysis on whether this route would actually help our planet to improve its capacity to endure (i.e. sustainability) is not easy to construct. Currently, it is difficult to judge whether this insect route will be a revolutionary change or merely using another nutrient source and our existing toolbox of methodologies. Some countries are well organized in their agriculture-food strategy, but it remains to be seen whether this leads to drastically innovative routes. In the least, a well-organized approach should lead to all stakeholders talking to one another and therefore making a conciliatory and concerted action more likely. Such a compromise, however, may prevent groundbreaking changes. To that end, perhaps reinventing oneself may be the necessary step for achieving advancements. One of the biggest challenges to preventing problems from developing is that it is easier for societies to rally around finding a solution to an existing problem than it is to develop systems to prevent problems. Indeed, targeting a cure for a specific type of malnutrition (e.g., goiter) or decreasing obesity is

precise with measurable goals. In contrast, assuring food security and wellness forms a more diffuse goal with a long-term horizon. This diffusiveness makes the formulation of a strategy difficult. This is made more difficult by the fact that food security and wellness tap into many other disciplines (economy, health, culture, sociology . . . ) and vastly different local circumstances, which, to make it even more complicated, show mutual interdependencies. This makes food science part of a larger overall complex system. In considering the food science needs for 2050, one should remain congruent with the overall system needs. With this, one starts to face a problem for which a reductionistic approach does not suffice. We will need a non-reductionist approach. The first paradigm shift needed step to meet the needs for feeding the world in 2050 may be embracing a complex systems approach instead of the classic reductionistic approaches. Observing the ability to feed the world as a complex system takes a pluralistic, cross-disciplinary view and includes, among the many disciplines, food science. Food scientists will not walk alone in this quest. The usual practice of integrative approaches within food science (e.g., food microbiology, chemistry, and engineering) will make its practitioners amenable to a nonreductionistic approach. Food science should become a distinctive and integrative part of research proposals aiming at the 2050 challenges. We have a few suggestions based on the report “Global Visions for the Role of Food Science and Technology to meet Societal and Technological Challenges”, and our analysis. Food security, that is, assuring a safe, healthy, nutritious, affordable, and enjoyable food supply, should be part of every globally important event (such as the G7 conference), as it is fundamental to the overall stability of each and every country. The scientific depth of understanding of how to best provide food should be similar to the depth one aims for in understanding and controlling diseases such as AIDS and Alzheimer’s. This means an integrated, cross-disciplinary, and non-reductionistic approach that addresses scientific, societal, and industrial aspects of providing food. Governments should consider investments in global food security issues as a way to prevent crisis. As an example in the field of human disease, would it not have been better to have prevented the onset of AIDS rather than trying to cure the disease once it started? We are constantly reviewing the literature to recommend dietary practices for optimal health or disease prevention; however, implementation of diet adjustments requires overcoming challenges of affordability, accessibility, likes/dislikes, and cultural practices, just to name a few! A possible action for any food scientist is to make the above non-reductionistic approaches become a growing part of food science. This should be included in conferences and as part of the educational curriculum. According topics within that approach may be, for example, “sustainability and food science”,

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“molecular basis of food, nutrition, diet and health” or “machine learning methodologies and their applications to food science.” With the above, we hope that the first action for any food scientist after reading this is to be inspired and become familiar with the document mentioned, as well as others that address ways to provide an adequate food supply to a growing world population. One of the unique aspects of the “Global Visions for the Role of Food Science and Technology to meet Societal and Technological Challenges” report is that the web site has a system for you to contribute to the report. We hope you take advantage

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of this unique opportunity to lend your voice to a cause that affects us all. –Erik van der Linden, Ph.D. Professor of Physics and Physical Chemistry of Foods, Wageningen Univ., The Netherlands Theme director “Sensory and Structure”, Top Inst. Food and Nutrition, Wageningen, The Netherlands –E. Allen Foegeding, Ph.D. Editor in Chief, IFT Scientific Journals