Source: Pictet Asset Management
Yet this must not come at the cost of sustainability. Soil, for instance, is an essential resource for 95 per cent of the food that we produce. But today, 33 per cent of soil has been degraded, and this is not easily reversible: it can take up to 1,000 years to produce just 2–3cm of fertile top soil2.
Dealing with this will be a major challenge, but it also represents an opportunity for companies able to provide solutions, such as precision monitoring tools enabling the accurate application of fertilisers to correct soil imbalances. At the same time, rising incomes in the developing world are boosting demand for higher nutrient-content food products such as animal protein, which tend to require significantly more critical resources to produce them.
Better farming machinery and food production systems are essential and our strategy supports ongoing technological innovation in this area. Investing in companies that adopt best-practice farming techniques will lead to increased efficiency, less waste and lower costs due to economies of scale.
Every year, food loss amounts to an estimated economic cost of USD 750 billion.
Today, 50% of time spent eating in the US is dedicated to snacking, making it challenging to maintain a balanced diet.
From food producers to distributors, all the way through to the consumer, all will have a role to play. And nowhere is change more necessary than when it comes to increasing efficiency to reduce waste.
With food losses occurring during harvest, processing, transport and storage, there are many opportunities for companies to increase efficiency. Innovations include anti-microbial packaging that helps to prevent damage during transport and maintain food safety, while innovative sensors on food packaging can help avoid confusion about ‘use-by dates’, reducing the vast amount of food thrown away by consumers.
Around 20% of the global population suffer from a poor diet.
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