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Consumers, Experts At Odds Over Solutions To Global Hunger
The Center for Food Integrity | October 16, 2013 U.S. consumers and international food security experts agree: supporting the adoption of agricultural technology that leads to self-sufficiency and increasing support for smallholder farmers are important to addressing growing global hunger and malnutrition. The two solutions rate highest among consumers and experts in two separate studies conducted by The Center for Food Integrity (CFI). But support for the top solutions isn’t as strong among consumers, who also are at odds with the experts when it comes to increasing organic food production and direct aid in the developing world. Sixteen recognized leaders on food security issues from seven countries were asked to rate 14 potential solutions to global hunger in the Global Hunger Solutions 2013 survey, part of CFI’s efforts to increase awareness of critical global hunger issues. Consumers were asked to rate the same solutions in CFI’s annual consumer trust research. “The proposed solutions are pressing because one in eight people, or 12.5 percent of the global population, is undernourished according to the United Nations,” said Charlie Arnot, CEO of CFI, “with the vast majority of the chronically hungry, living in developing countries.” On a scale of one to five, with one being “not at all important” and five being “critically important,” the experts rated “public policy that supports agricultural practices that lead to greater food self-sufficiency in the developing world” at 4.4, the highest expert rating; consumers rated the same solution at 4.0. Experts rated “the application of technology that increases agricultural production and reduces the impact of the environment” at 4.2, the second-highest expert rating; consumers rated the same solution at 3.9. Experts and consumers are at odds when it comes to providing direct food aid and increasing organic food production as solutions. Consumers rated “increasing direct food aid in the developing world” at 3.6, while experts rated the solution at 2.5 – the second lowest rating in the expert survey. The biggest disparity is seen when it comes to increasing organic production in the developing world. Consumers rated the solution at 3.6, while experts rated it 1.7, the lowest rating they assigned. “The gap between expert opinion and U.S. consumer opinion on hunger solutions reflects one of the ongoing challenges in addressing food insecurity,” said Arnot. “Building broader consensus around hunger solutions will help build public and policymaker support for those solutions. Focusing on solutions that have the greatest impact and broad support provides the best opportunity for success. Both experts and consumers support the adoption of technology that helps smallholder farmers build capacity to achieve self-sufficiency.” Other results include: “Improved food distribution in the developing world”: consumers 3.9, experts 4.1 “Educational support to smallholder farmers to encourage agricultural practices that maximize yields and minimize environmental impact”: consumers 3.9, experts 4.1 “Public policy that encourages the application of technology that increases agricultural production and reduces impact on the environment”: consumers, 3.8, experts 4.2. A majority of the experts in the 2013 Global Hunger Solutions report expressed optimism that global food insecurity can be solved. “It can be solved but it will require open minds on technology and agriculture productivity improvements,” said Aalt Dijkhuizen, president of Wageningen University & Research Centre, The Netherlands. “It will require using science to enhance agriculture technology, reducing waste, improving logistics and more efficient water technologies,” said Rolando Dy, executive director of the University of Asia and the Pacific Center for Food and Agribusiness. “But particularly in developing countries, you need to have good governance.” Left unaddressed, the food security experts feel continued increases in global hunger and malnutrition will lead to social and political unrest, environmental degradation and the failure of millions of people to reach full mental and physical capacity. “Hunger and malnutrition lowers human potential,” said John Lamb, senior fellow and principal associate for Agriculture and Food Security at Abt Associates. “It has physiological effects on the brain that lead to a loss of IQ. Spreading this problem over an entire population eventually leads to a two- or three-point drop in GDP for a country.” “If we don’t figure out how to increase food production while using fewer natural resources there will be severe environmental consequences – massive destruction of forests, loss of wildlife, biodiversity and carbon sequestration capacity,” said Bob Thompson, visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and senior fellow at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The full CFI Global Hunger Solutions 2013 report can be found at www.foodIntegrity.org. Continue reading
Banks Rediscover Love Of Solid But Dull Agri-Sector
Darragh McCullough – 17 October 2013 ‘You couldn’t walk a yard without hearing a fellow giving out about being turned down for a bank loan.” This was a typical comment at agricultural shows in recent years – until this year, that is. Several observers noted how little conversation the banks were generating at the Ploughing Championships this year. That’s a good sign. When the crunch came in 2008, every business was indiscriminately caught up in the paralysis that subsequently struck the banks. Solid agri-enterprises that had long-standing relationships with their bankers suddenly found their overdraft facilities being slashed and interminable delays in getting loans approved. Of course, farms were being treated no worse than any other business. There was also a small bubble of borrowing to be washed out of the agri-sector. The massive Farm Waste Management scheme that grant-aided a shed-building spree to the tune of 40pc led to a 25pc spike in overall borrowing in the sector for four short years. That has now fallen back to €4.5bn, according to the Central Bank. But the check in activity is much less pronounced than that in almost every other sector. Recent figures from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) show that while lending to the agri-sector has fallen by 12pc since 2010, the equivalent figure for hotels, construction, retail, transport and professional services are all multiples of this value. Only manufacturing, with a fall of 7pc, had a lower value than agriculture. At least part of the reason for this is the general ramping up of the value and volume of output from Irish farms in the last few years. Booming food commodity prices are encouraging farmers to invest. Banks have suddenly rediscovered their love of the solid, if slightly dull, assets that underpin the sector. ESRI research shows that the agri-sector had the lowest rate of credit refusal, compared to any other. Indeed, it appears that farmers are enjoying some of the cosiest arrangements going in terms of their financing facilities. They paid the lowest rates of interest at an average 3.7pc, compared to 5.9pc for professional services, according to the ESRI report. “We suspect that this is due to the abundance of collateral these firms can offer as security in the form of both farmland and equipment as well as to the availability of risk-free income streams through EU subsidy supports,” commented the ESRI researchers. The average farm loan currently stands at €78,000, but in reality a huge proportion of farms have no borrowings at all. It is only the intensive pig, poultry, cereal, fruit and vegetable growers along with dairy and a handful of beef farmers that have the cashflows to allow any form of regular borrowing. The dairy sector is the one that interests the banks most at the moment, with 18,000 operators, most of whom are viable operations with one eye on expansion when quotas go in 2015. Bankers know that indebtedness on most dairy farms is relatively low. A good farmer can handle borrowings of €4,000 per cow. In other dairy nations, both inside and outside the EU, the figure is often a multiple of this. So the Irish dairy farmer is a good bet. He’s the guy out there buying land at €10,000 an acre and securing loans at interest rates of 3.7pc. There is some concern about a possible dairy bubble forming on the back of the record prices that farmers are getting for their milk at the moment. The only hope is that our bankers have learned their lessons from the last party. Irish Independent Continue reading
Next-Generation Biofuels Are Inching Towards Reality, Gallon by Gallon
Advanced biofuels have been on the cusp of commercialization for years, but high prices and technological challenges have held them back. Is that starting to change? By Bryan Walsh @bryanrwalshOct. 11, 2013 Photo courtesy Novozymes Novozymes’ new plant in Italy is the world’s first advanced biofuels facility Whatever happened to next-generation biofuels? Made from sources like corn stalks or what straw that don’t compete with food, unlike current biofuels, next-generation biofuels were going to be greener and more efficient than corn-based ethanol, which is still the dominant source of biofuel in the U.S. When Congress passed the 2007 energy bill, it expected the country to be producing over 1 billion gallons of next-generation biofuels by 2013. But the advanced biofuel industry has developed far more slowly than lawmakers predicted, leading the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to cut the 2013 mandae for cellulosic biofuels to just 4 million gallons—and even that target could be difficult to meet, given that only 142,000 gallons are available now. It’s not that companies don’t know how to make cellulosic ethanol or biofuel from algae. It’s that they’ve struggled to do so cheaply and at a scale large enough to compete with oil. “The technology just hasn’t matured yet,” says Peder Holk Nielsen, the CEO of the Danish biotech company Novozymes, which has been involved in next-generation biofuel research and development for years. “It’s simply been too expensive.” But if the race to create workable next-generation biofuels has slowed, it’s far from over—and there may still be a few surprises. First Novozymes, which has been developing enzymes for industrial use since the 1920s. Earlier this week Novozymes, in partnership with the Italian biofuels company Beta Renewables, announced the opening of the world’s largest advanced biofuels facility. Built in northern Italy, the plant is the first in the world to be designed and built to produce bioethanol from agricultural residues and energy crops at a commercial scale. The facility will produce over 20 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol a year. “This plant was built with the purpose of demonstrating that the technology is possible,” says Nielsen. “Once we’ve built it, we can optimize it.” Cellulosic ethanol has been difficult to produce for the same reason that it’s impossible for the human stomach to digest cellulose, the material that makes up the tough cell walls of green plants. It takes specialized enzymes to break down cellulose into simple plant sugars, which can then be converted into fuel. (Humans lack those stomach enzymes, unlike cows, which is what allows them to digest grass.) Novozymes’ role is providing the industrial enzymes needed to break down the tough wheat straw, rice straw and arundo donax—a high-yielding energy crop grown on marginal land—that the Italian plant will be using. Those enzymes aren’t cheap—Nielsen notes that while the enzymes used to make corn ethanol cost 3 to 7 cents per gallons, those used for cellulosic ethanol run 30 to 40 cents a gallon. Bringing down the cost of those enzymes will be key to making cellulosic ethanol more than just a lab experiment. “We’re convinced that over time, it will be cheaper than gasoline,” says Nielsen. Novozymes isn’t the only company opening up a cellulosic ethanol facility. In 2014 plants from the ethanol company POET, Dupont and the Spanish firm Abengoa will begin producing next-generation ethanol, and the startup KiOR is already running a commercial plant in Mississippi that turns woody biomass into drop-in fuel. Still, next-generation biofuels companies will face daunting technological and market challenges, as a recent Economist article pointed out: Some observers doubt whether even the most sophisticated biofuels can compete with fossil fuels in the near future. Daniel Klein-Marcuschamer, a researcher at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, conducted a comprehensive analysis of renewable aviation fuels. He concluded that producing first-generation bio-jet fuel from sugarcane would require oil prices of at least $168 a barrel to be competitive, and that some second-generation algae technologies would require crude oil to soar above $1,000 a barrel (the current price is around $110) to break even. Mr Klein-Marcuschamer has made his model open-source in an effort to help the industry find ways to make biofuels more competitive. Even if second-generation processes can be economically scaled up, however, that might in turn highlight a further problem. To make a significant dent in the 2,500m litres of conventional oil that American refineries churn through each day, biofuel factories would have to be able to get hold of a staggering quantity of feedstock. That’s one reason why some next-generation biofuel startups have looked to find new markets for their technology. California-based Solazyme uses custom-built algae to develop better biofuels, and it has sold thousands of gallons of its product to the Navy for use in its ships. But while the company has a 30 million gallon facility in Brazil that should be producing algal biofuel by the end of the year, Solazyme has also branched into making oils for higher profit products like cosmetics, food and petrochemicals. “We view ourselves as a company that makes and tailors oils,” says Jonathan Wolfson, Solazyme’s CEO. “We don’t define ourselves as only a biofuels company.” To that end, late last month Solazyme announced a deal to supply roughly 3 million gallons of algae-produced oil to the consumer products giant Unilever over the next 12 to 18 months, beginning at the start of next year. Unilever has said it will only use sustainable agricultural raw materials by 2020, and Solazyme’s algal oils fit perfectly into that strategy. “We follow the technology in Silicon Valley,” says Wolfson. “We didn’t know what the technology was capable of, and now we can tailor oils we never would have envisioned.” Next-generation biofuels still face an uphill battle—and one where uncertain government policy remains a decisive force. Biofuels that are cheap—and don’t compete with food—could still play a major role in helping the world reduce the carbon footprint of transportation. But as smart companies like Solazyme and Novozymes show, biofuels could just be the beginning for this technology. Read more: http://science.time…./#ixzz2ht6emRoS Continue reading
