Technology is the paradigm of food safety

Globally, the insertion of technology and disruptive innovations in agriculture is pointed out as one of the main factors to ensure food security. In the last one hundred years, the fundamentals of agriculture have undergone some changes, but the challenge is to break some paradigms to leverage speed and scale of production.

These two variables are imposed in the face of the numbers projected for the growth of global population: the planet is expected to surpass the mark of nine billion inhabitants by 2050. The Food and  Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that our collective food production will need to increase by 60% to accommodate this growth.

The only viable answer to this challenge is the massive use of Farming 4.0, making it increasingly present in the field of  artificial intelligence , robotics,   cloud computing ,  vertical gardens, and other modern tools and techniques.

The application of so much technology should be crucial to solving a central problem of contemporary agriculture: the preservation of soil quality for the future.

Numerous factors are affecting the balanced and sufficient presence of microorganisms in the soil. Climate change represents a relevant item, with regions of the planet going through a desertification process, due to the soil greater exposure to high temperatures and excess solar radiation.

However, another decisive factor has been the use of traditional agricultural techniques with the acceleration of crop cycles, without giving nature enough time to recover the soil.

Experts such as   David Montgomery , Ph.D. in Geomorphology from the University of California, warn of the consequences of this practice. In his book   Dirt:   The Erosion of Civilizations  , the author explains that soil degradation occurs in the long run, not in a single catastrophic event, and the process to reverse it is expensive and slow.

Thus, Farming 4.0 gains strength as a lifeline. Investments in vertical gardens are multiplying across the planet in initiatives such as the company Plenty Unlimited, which is building a unit whose production will be nine million tons of vegetables per year. Compared to traditional techniques, the facilities of this company produce the equivalent of a football field in the space of one of the goals: a 350-time smaller area. And no pesticide use!

In India, Farming 4.0 is expressing itself in a large cloud computing project, whose sharing and processing of information collected from agents throughout the production chain – from seed producers to sales networks to the final consumer – form big data that returns important information to ensure productivity and product quality, as well as combat waste.

However, some experts point out the need to adapt food customs to new sources of protein, especially animal protein. In addition to advocating for the digitization of the agricultural sector, Mohammed Ashour, founder, and CEO of  Aspire Food Group ,  recommends greater insect participation in our menus.

In Canada, after inaugurating a warehouse with state-of-the-art technology for cricket production, he says he uses only 12 hectares to produce 12 million of these insects per year, while the annual production of livestock in this area would be only six cows. In addition, thanks to embedded technology, water consumption is a small fraction of what ruminants demand.

Either with the traditional menu or innovations in our dishes, changes to agriculture will be imposed, in the coming decades, in search of food security. The use of disruptive technologies and innovations is a survival factor for part of humanity, as well as a survival factor for rural producers.

The first to embark on the path of major innovations will have gained productivity and cheapened product prices on a scale sufficient to bring about changes in local and regional markets. At this point, whoever stands still, betting on the same way of always planting and harvesting, will assume the risk of bankruptcy.

Let’s face it, this won’t be the first time we’ve witnessed technology breakthroughs triggering profound change. Do you consent?