Feature: Israel promotes international brainstorming on the worldwide food scarcity coming challenge

by Nick Kolyohin

Israel's sponsored the International Summit on Food Technologies from the Sea and the Desert to tackle the global challenge of food and water security.

According to the United Nations, food security means that all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.

"Sea the Future," the conference that took place in Israel's southmost coastal city of Eilat from Tuesday to Thursday on the shores of the Red Sea, looked for solutions to that pressing issue.

Oded Forer, Israeli Minister of Agriculture, told the participants, "among the challenges over the next decade, we are touching on one of the most important points for humanity. Food security is our main challenge."

The event was an initiative of Israel's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to promote cooperation and innovation in aquaculture and desert agriculture as part of global efforts to address food security.

Many countries in the world cannot continue to grow food as they used to in the past due to the changing climate, global warming, growing population, and lack of resources. As a result, there is an urgent need for new cutting-edge technologies and methods in agriculture.

"Everything can wait, but not agriculture," said Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, in 1947, reminded Forer and added that 75 years later, the situation remains the same.

Global agriculture has undergone multiple revolutions in history.

The first revolution was the transition from hunter-gatherers to sedentary societies during the Stone Age.

The second revolution, beginning in the 17th century, was when populations moved from personal agriculture, where everyone grows according to their own needs, to commercial agriculture.

The third revolution began in the 20th century when intensive agriculture was promoted, with the understanding that as the world's population continues to grow, and food production for everyone must be addressed.

"To meet this crisis, we need a fourth agricultural revolution. A technological revolution that will allow humanity to grow with methods that are suitable for a rapidly changing climate, for arid areas, and for water and soil challenges", stressed Forer.?

Participants in the conference emphasized that to find the necessary solutions, all nations of the world must join hands to learn from each other's experiences and share knowledge for the greater good.

The world population is projected to reach 10 billion by 205, with demand for food expected to rise by 60 percent while climate change threatens current farming food systems.

In this new reality, aquaculture and desert agriculture play a significant role in food security, according to the summit organizers.

The Israeli government recently launched a program to find new protein sources from the sea and desert, by which Israel leverages its innovative agriculture sector and unique climate and landscape that includes several seas and deserts.

Vladimir Rakhmanin, Assistant Director-General at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),?was one of the keynote speakers at the conference, and he showed that about 828 million people worldwide are affected by hunger, and their number has continued to rise constantly in the last few years.

In addition, around 2.3 billion people in the world were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021, so in summary, "globally today, about 3.1 billion people are unable to afford a healthy diet", which is about forty percent of humanity, noted Rakhmanin.

The challenges of producing sufficient food for a growing global population with limited national resources is becoming much more challenging over the years.

We are looking for a scientific breakthrough to feed 10 billion people by 2050, and "I am absolutely sure that we can do it." We still have an abundance of resources, said Rakhmanin.

One of the challenges is that "we are not using our aqua resources wisely." Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is one of the greatest threats to the aquatic ecosystem and the people who rely on it, according to Rakhmanin.

The global aquaculture industry market is approximately 260 billion U.S. dollars, with top-value industries such as tuna that has a 40 billion market, shrimp with 38 billion in 2021 and 85 billion projection by 2030, and salmon with 18 billion in 2021 and 36 billion U.S. dollars projection by the year 2030.

Another problem is global food loss and waste, part of it is because fishers are unable to preserve or process part of the fish on time, so they just throw it away.

Many developing countries, especially the least developed ones, still lack adequate infrastructure, services, and know-how for adequate onboard and onshore handling and preservation of fish.

And part of the loss is due to consumers who don't use the food properly and throw it away instead of eating it. It is estimated that up to 35 percent of the global fisheries and aquaculture production is either lost or wasted every year, stated Rakhmanin.

Agriculture is also heavily impacted by water scarcity, a global challenge that already negatively impacts an increasing number of countries.

Water shortages will be exacerbated by climate change, and as a result, water scarcity is projected to impact 60 percent of all countries and communities around the globe, according to FAO.

Dr. Barry Antonio Costo-Pierce, president and CEO of Ecological Aquaculture Foundation and professor at Nord University, another keynote speaker at the event, pinpointed the water challenge.

By 2040 the highest water stress is expected to be in areas such as the middle east, parts of north and south Africa, most of Asia as well as Australia, Chile, the U.S., and some European countries like Spain and Italy, showed Costo-Pierce in his presentation.

Vladimir Bula, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry in Moldova, said to participants of the conference, "you can learn from Israel's experience of utilizing water in agriculture, and all countries should join together in order to fight hunger and food shortages."

During the summit, Israeli and Bahrain's agriculture ministers signed on Wednesday a historic agreement on cooperation in the fields of agriculture, livestock, and food security.

The event also was kick starter for the implementation of Israel's government resolution to invest 170 million shekels (about 48 million U.S.?dollars) in the development of the Eilat region as a national and international center for the production of food from the sea and the desert.

Israel has dozens of companies that will benefit from that decision, start-ups in the industry of aquaculture and desert agriculture in areas such as cultured fish, microalgae, vertically integrated biotechnology, land-based seafood production, and vertical farming agriculture. Enditem

Nick Kolyohin

尼克?柯留辛

Ник Колехин

Никита Сергеевич Кулюхин

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