If we rethink food, we can change the world
Munich: At the Global food Summit on March 20 and 21, 2019 in Munich, Stephan Becker-Sonnenschein, Head and Founder of the Global Food Summit, explains also on behalf of the Curators:
"We want to give the future of food a voice. We need a 'next generation of food' if we are to sustainably feed nine billion people by 2050, most of whom will live in cities. This does not only involve renunciation scenarios, it also requires innovations, such as those we have seen here in Munich, and it demands global networking and knowledge exchange. And this is exactly what we stand for," says Stephan Becker-Sonnenschein, Head and Founder of the Global Food Summit 2019, summing up the two-day conference.
The Global Food Summit 2019 took, for the first time, place in Munich, at the invitation of the Bavarian State Government, represented by the Bavarian Food Cluster. Previously the event was based in Berlin. The theme of this year's conference on 20 and 21 March 2019 was: "Foodtropolis – Are cities changing our perception of food and nature?
Around 250 participants from Asia, Africa, America and Europe, scientists, start-ups, associations and companies met in the Residenz in Munich to exchange experiences. The partner country for this year's conference was Canada, represented by the Canadian Embassy in Berlin.
"So far, we have thought of food production in linear processes, but we have to think in circular processes," says Barbara Swartzentruber, Executive Director of the Canadian city of Guelph. Barbara Swartzentruber led the official Canadian delegation of scientists, start-ups and representatives from the city and associations of Guelph at the Global Food Summit 2019.
In his presentation, Guelph presented a unique concept for the world's first "Circular Food Community". "If we rethink food, we can change the world," says Barbara Swartzentruber. The Canadian concept could serve as a model for other cities following a similar approach. For Guelph's circular economy approach, the city works closely with the surrounding region. The aim of the concept is to provide residents with a healthier diet, produce less waste and ultimately create more jobs: by developing a centre of science with an associated business and start-up scene around food innovations.
The highlight of the first day, on 20 March 2019, was the welcoming address by the Bavarian State Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forestry, Michaela Kaniber, and the keynote speech by Her Excellency Mariam Al-Mehairi, Minister for Food Security and EXPO 2020 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE aims to become the world's number one regarding food security by 2051.
Winner of the "Start-up People's Choice Award" was the Israeli start-up "Redefine Meat". It produces "meat" from vegetable products. Redefine Meat won the race just ahead of the Munich start-up Noyanum, which wants to reduce food waste with the help of artificial intelligence. Professor Klaus Josef Lutz, CEO of BayWa AG, opened the session with a call to promote start-ups to facilitate their start.
There was also an official delegation from the Netherlands at the Global Food Summit in Munich with representatives of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Solution Institute (AMS) and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Germany.
The second day was opened by Bernhard Krüsken, Secretary General of the German Farmers' Association. His approach was to understand urban farming and classical agriculture as peaceful coexistence and complementarity. Bernhard Kowatsch from the World Food Programme of the United Nations presented simple but effective ideas from Africa. For example, the H2Grow project helps refugees in Chad with simple hydroponic containers to grow fresh animal feed for their goats, thus increasing milk production in the refugee camp by 250 percent.
Dr. Michael Binder from EVONIK presented the "Veramaris" project, in which farmed salmon receive all the nutrients they need, but purely from plant protein. To date, two kilos of wild fish are needed to produce only one kilogram of farmed fish. With this project EVONIK wants to present a solution to the overfishing of the seas. However, for the production of vegetable proteins for fish food, energy is consumed and Co2 is released. These resource costs must be balanced against the "Sustainability Goal 14, Life Under Water".
The traditional mining company K+S KALI GmbH in Kassel presented its new Urban Farming App at the Global Food Summit in Munich. The Urban Farming App comprises six categories: Events, weekly markets, restaurants, farms, urban farms and stores. The Global Food Summit 2019 is also displayed under the events category.
The Global Food Summit is held twice a year. Once as scientific workshop within the framework of the International Executive Program (IEP) at the University of Berkeley, and once as a conference in Germany, Munich.
The next Global Food Summit in Germany in 2020 will take place from March 24 to 26 in Munich.
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