Empty grocery shelves, virtual queues on e-commerce grocery stores offering limited options, videos of milk dumped in the drain, euthanized livestock, rotting ripe crops buried in the ground, the fear and anxiety of an immune system impotent against an invisible enemy.
2020 portrays the absurdity of modern society.
Global hunger and food insecurity is in the rear view mirror. The number of people “marching towards starvation” spiked from 135 million to 270 million as the pandemic unfolded; that’s the warning of David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) last December. He stressed that “Famine is literally on the horizon and we are talking about the next few months. ” Welcome to 2021.
Things must change. We took an impromptu, elongated pause…
We learned to be more precise and are learning to reflect upon our values and actions. Frankly, we asked and continue to ask ourselves a lot of questions based on the brutal facts and realities of our modern world.
Prior to the pandemic, we already knew 30-50% of all food produced globally is never eaten.
The value of this wasted food is worth over $1trillion. 1 in 9 people on this planet go to bed hungry. 2 billion lack the sufficient nutrients while more than 2 billion are overweight or obese.
The shocking reality of our vulnerable food supply chain, the never-ending list of global health problems and the impact of climate change have led to a possible paradigm shift.
So, where do we go from here?
In Jordan Peterson’s new book Beyond Order, he identifies that “opportunities lurks where responsibilities have been abdicated”. Right now, it is arguably the most exciting and fascinating time for any entrepreneur, investor, law maker, visionary and even consumer.
The pandemic has exacerbated the threshold of the flawed system we have put in place (the real problems in the world), creating a need for methodical solutions that demand change.
As homo-sapiens, we have the unique skill-set of rapid mobilization through the narratives we create and strongly believe in.
The pandemic has transpired the dire need for a better alternative to what we already have.
Rigid and wasteful supply chains, animal husbandry that requires up to 80% of agricultural land, 1/3 of global arable land used to grow their feed in mono-cropping methods, inefficient use of finite resources, unhealthy, chemical-filled production processes backed by large corporations that prioritize profitability.
Our production system – harming more than nourishing our bodies and our planet – is in turn hurting us.
Many of us are trying to tackle it. Policy makers, private and public companies, consumers understand the need for a different approach to food production as we work towards more sustainable, healthy, production methods.
But for now, for those of us that have the privilege to consciously create and execute the solutions to the problems we have caused, the market has signaled its willingness to try.
The global pain is more personal than ever having affected people from all walks of life.
The problems are complex. But the solutions we offer need to be simple and seamless for meaningful adoption. They are convenient, consistent, transparent, affordable, accessible, safe, trustworthy, adaptable and scalable to truly meet the current needs; These characteristics will help us define what is better for us.
Undeniably, this is only the prologue, but it’s one that is worth the work; we have a starting point with a collective consciousness for change.