The Future Is Not What It Used To Be: How Digitization Will Revolutionize The Food System

11,000 years ago. That is approximately the last time our global food system saw a profound disruption when grains and animals became widely cultivated for food. Our time for change is up. The same advances in digitization, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data that transformed the healthcare, retail, cybersecurity and financial services industries are about to utterly transform the way we cultivate, produce, distribute and consume food.  

As many already know and are concerned by, the food journey the world currently is on is not sustainable. We share a planet currently inhabited by 7.8 billion people. By 2050, it is projected the population will balloon by another two billion. This will require an estimated 50% increase in agricultural production to feed everyone. At the same time as the number of mouths to feed increases, so does food waste and packaging — while fresh water supplies and available farmland are shrinking. 

The pandemic has made the speed of this digital transformation all the more urgent. The food system was not prepared or advanced enough to shift and meet demand during this time. However, there is hope: digitization can and will completely transform and impact every link in the food value chaifjjj including agriculture, processing, packaging and purchasing — enabling us to be more prepared and ready to face future challenges.