How Will the World Feed 10 Billion People in 2050?

In the face of rapid population growth, sustainability will become even more important in the future to ensure sufficient food. So how will the world feed a population of 10 billion in 2050? At the seminar "Sustainability, the Future of Food and Gastronomy", the answer to this question was sought and the measures that can be taken were emphasized.

Altınbaş University Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Department organized the "Sustainability, the Future of Food and Gastronomy" Seminar. In the seminar moderated by the Head of the Department Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özge Seçmeler, Prof. Dr. Nezih Besim Müftügil made important determinations on the sustainability of food.

Prof. Dr. Nezih Besim Müftügil, who is also the consultant of Turkish DO&CO, pointed out that there is a lot of waste in the production-consumption process in the food chain; according to United Nations data; 1/3 of the food produced in the world is wasted before it is consumed.

Stating that food losses in our country are between 25-40% depending on the type of food, Prof. Dr. Nezih Besim Müftügil said, "In order to minimize these food losses and greenhouse gas formation caused by agriculture and livestock activities, important changes should be made in the entire food chain process according to the sustainability approach. In order to protect the food we have such difficult access to, these losses must first be eliminated."

Prof. Dr. Nezih Besim Müftügil said that the gastronomy sector is developing rapidly in our country and reminded that the sector has reached the capacity to serve 22 million people a day and said, "Gastronomy, which grows by 10-15% every year, has the capacity to host more than 60 million foreign tourists a year. The food chain that feeds such a large sector, defined as from soil to table, is affected by global warming. Agricultural activities cause 25% of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global climate change. In particular, methane gas emitted from the mouths of animals after ruminating during animal production accounts for 68% of the total methane gas emitted from the world."

Mentioning the problems created by the environmental pollution caused by coal, petroleum products and natural gas fossil fuels used by developed countries for energy production during the industrialization process in the last 100 years, Müftügil explained how global warming affects the decrease in productivity in food production:

"The use of fossil fuels causes the formation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This leads to an increase in the temperature of the atmosphere, and humanity faces a vital threat such as global warming. An increase of 1.1 degrees C in the surface temperature was enough to disrupt the world's climate balance. Droughts, thirst, forest fires, floods and storms, decline in species, and decreased yield in food production, which we have witnessed more frequently in recent years, have emerged as serious threats to life."

Reminding the warnings of scientists that global warming will accelerate if no measures are taken, Müftügil said, "It is obvious that this will cause irreversible problems. Therefore, sustainability is now a matter of survival for the world." and listed what the gastronomy sector needs to do:

"Every stage of gastronomy's journey from soil to table should be carried out according to sustainability principles from now on. Two trends stand out for this. The first of these is to turn towards healthy food and especially plant-based nutrition. The other is to reduce waste and prevent wastage in gastronomy businesses. These approaches shaped by sustainability will contribute to the spread and consolidation of the perception of "sustainable gastronomy" in the sector."