We'd Like To Mention

Glance at the Brick Steakhouse menu in downtown Guadalajara, Mexico, and familiar brands and logos appear: There's Certified Angus Beef. Snake River Farms, based in Idaho. Black Onyx Beef, from Rangers Valley feedlot, in New South Wales, Australia. Wagyu Japanese beef.

Meanwhile, on the tiny Faroe Islands, halfway between Norway and Iceland in the North Atlantic Ocean, a grocery store in Torshavn -- population 14,000 and capital city of Faroes -- reveals a limited amount of locally grown meat for sale. Instead, there is meat from different European countries, even meat from Argentina, more than 7,000 miles away. In exchange, the Faroes ships its salmon to Argentina, as well as U.S. and Asian markets.

These examples show the world's incredible ability to connect food producers to customers from some of its largest cities to some of the most isolated places. As the earth's population grows, this is even more important. The United Nations estimates the 8 billionth person was born somewhere in the world last November. By 2050, global population is expected to hit almost 10 billion.

Yet, food insecurity grows. President Joe Biden told the U.N. General Assembly last September as many as 193 million people face "acute food insecurity," up 40 million people in just a year. Last year's Global Food Security Index report is equally grim: "At a time when global food security is of utmost importance, the Global Food Security Index (GFSI) shows that the global food environment is deteriorating. After hitting its peak in 2019, the GFSI has since declined amid skyrocketing food prices and hunger on an unprecedented scale." Between 2019 and 2022, food costs rose 11% internationally. At the same time, safety nets were declining to help people access affordable, safe, nutritious food.

In the last three years, we've seen how vulnerable the food supply chain can be when challenged with a pandemic, lingering drought and record-low rivers in many areas, the Russia-Ukraine war, avian influenza outbreaks and even a big container ship going aground in the Suez Canal during a sandstorm.

Luis Fernando Haro Encinas, director general of Mexico's National Agricultural Council, says the world faces challenges, and a population of 10 billion will require more services and food. "We need to increase the food production almost 60% compared to now, so this is a big challenge for all of us."

"We need leaders who can envision the future of food and agriculture," explains David Leishman, agricultural counselor with the U.S. Embassy in Paris, when he spoke to journalists last summer in Denmark.

America's farmers and its ag sector are among those visionaries who will lead the way to meet that challenge. In this special issue, we discuss food insecurity but also look at some future food trends, crops farmers plan to grow, technology they'll use and even new ways to grow their crops and process their animals more efficiently. Our farmers are already adapting. A hungry world is counting on us to continue to help lead the way.

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-- You may email Elaine at elaine.shein@dtn.com, reach her on Twitter @elaineshein or call 402-214-8531.

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