The DSM co-CEO on Thursday emphasized the deep link between climate change and food systems, stressing the importance of moving fast and using technology to address the challenges it creates.
In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe”, Geraldine Matchett said that food systems are “one of the biggest causes of climate change, with about 25% of … greenhouse gases coming from agricultural and food space.” They were also ‘one of the biggest victims’, she said.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, ‘food systems’ cover everything from production and processing to distribution, consumption and disposal.
An important gear in this is agriculture, which tends to be affected by climate change. The FAO has indeed described climate change as a direct and indirect effect on agricultural productivity, including changing rainfall patterns, droughts, floods and the geographical redistribution of pests and diseases. ‘
Given the above, it is not surprising that many consider the challenge of producing enough food, adapting to climate change and reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture at the same time, a big surprise.
Later this year, these topics will be discussed in detail at the COP26 conference on climate change and the UN Food Systems Summit, which will be held in the Scottish city of Glasgow and New York respectively.
In view of these events, Matchett described herself as ‘very optimistic’. She added: “If there is (a) a realization that there is urgency, but there is also a lot of innovation that is already here to fix it, we can move on.”
Matchett further explained how she thought a new focus on agriculture would be placed at COP26.
“I think one of the most important actions that is going to be taken … is that each country should include the agricultural space in their targets,” she said.
There is a “very understandable reason why it was very difficult at first: it’s because the food space is not some big business or enterprises, but millions of farmers, but millions of families.”
As the scope of this area was very wide, Matchett also touched on how things can change for the better through carbon sequestration and other technologies related to agriculture and livestock.
The United States Geological Survey describes carbon sequestration as “the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide.” If you break things down further, carbon capture can occur naturally – for example through forests – or via artificially designed systems developed by humans.
“There are many things where you can turn the farming community into heroes to solve climate change and at the same time be better off,” she added. “So there’s a great opportunity, and that’s what’s fun about that space: it’s full of opportunities.”
Ideas and innovation
Perhaps one example of this is the Cauca Climate-Smart Village project in Colombia, an initiative focused on developing farming practices that hope to be sustainable and resilient to future challenges.
Ana Maria Loboguerrero is Head of Global Policy Research at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security.
In an interview with CNBC last year, Loboguerrero said that the project in Cauca provides co-evidence with farmers about ‘the practices, technologies, that can help us increase productivity and food security, that can help us adapt to climate change. increase and volatility and this can help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ‘
During a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, chaired by CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick, the idea of using new technologies and innovations in farming was reinforced by PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta.
“The concept of demonstration farms seems to be very powerful,” he said.
“So, to build demonstration farms where we have the new techniques and where … farmers in the neighborhood are going to learn from their peers, it’s a big concept (and) we have a lot of demonstration farms around the world.”
“(The) second concept we are working on, with the World Economic Forum and a few other colleagues, is innovation hubs,” Laguarta said.
“There’s a lot of money … a lot of ingenuity, that goes into fintechs that go into … other fields – there’s not enough going into agritech,” he continued.
“And I think we can play a role – including large companies in the public sector – in building innovation hubs, in bringing technology and innovation closer to the farmer.”