Sainsbury’s Judith Batchelor on the future of food — data, science, technology

How will we, on the same amount of agricultural land we now use, to grow enough food for 9 billion people by 2050 — and in a way that’s sustainable?

Here is Sainbury’s Judith Batchelor talking on the subject.

Here she mentions three issues:

1. That 50% of their produce by 2020 will be British sourced, and they will quadruple their fairtrade offer. (I’m unclear how big a deal the first of these is. After all, the UK already is over 60% self-sufficient, so why the big deal about this 50% target?)
2. To make their supply chains more transparent. This will be achieved by enabling all data and info accessible to all. (By “all”, I’m guessing she doesn’t mean thee and me. An open data policy seems a tad unlikely.)
   It’s data, she says, that will enable the agricultural end of the supply chain to do their bit; 50% of the environmental impact of our food and 50% of the waste is right here. Getting as much info to the smallholder as to the big grower will play a bit part in getting this right.
3. The role of science and technology — from understanding toxins to crop modelling.

She also mentioned Sainbury’s 20 targets for 2020, which you can download here.