An interview with Ramez Naam

The following is an edited transcript of our interview with Ramez Naam, co-chair for energy and environment at Singularity University.

To listen to our entire conversation with Ramez, click on the player below:

I don’t want to dwell on the fact that you are a science fiction writer, but I think that’s kind of cool that science fiction predicts science sometimes, and I wonder if maybe that was an inspiration for you? If, like, some of the things you thought about as a science fiction writer, you are now working to try to make reality?

I wish I had that story. Science fiction is amazing and it’s amazingly fun. It does provoke things. My science fiction and my speaking and writing on energy and food are actually pretty distinct, to be honest. But, they both come from the same thing, which is a deep curiosity about the future.

Here we are in the coal state of Kentucky, and there are definitely still some myths here about solar energy and how expensive it is and how doable it is to replace fossil fuels. I think that is probably true throughout a lot of the U.S. still. Can you comment on what the actual state of affairs is and what the potential is for solar energy?

I can’t blame people for doubting what solar or wind can do because the world has changed so fast. When I was born, a solar panel cost $100 per watt of power. Now, it’s less than 50 cents per watt of power, so that plunge in price is really the big story.

A new coal plant costs about seven-and-a-half cents per kilo-watt hour. In Los Angeles, they now have a new solar plant at three-and-a-half cents per kilowatt hour. In Dubai, oil capital of the world, they signed a deal for solar at less than three cents per kilo-watt hour. Those are all sunny places, sunnier than Kentucky is, but the changes are coming.

The price of technology always comes down. Just like your iPhone is so much cheaper than the mainframe computer that has the same power, solar follows that same trajectory, so it’s now kind of inevitable.

Since technology has ramped up so fast and prices have come down, there still seems to be a thought by some people that we need some sort of silver bullet technology. Do you feel like we have everything we need, or we have all the tools we need now, or we just need to start implementing them faster?

That’s what Bill Gates, who I used to work for, talks about — the need for an energy miracle or energy breakthroughs — but I would say the cost of solar has come down by a factor of five in the last five years, an 80 percent price decline. That’s a miracle already, that’s a breakthrough, but it’s not any one scientific breakthrough. It’s just the continual progress of technology.

If there is one area we want more of that, it’s in energy storage. With batteries, you can use them overnight, but batteries have dropped in price by a factor of five in the last five years, too, and they are going to keep on dropping. I wouldn’t say we are going to deploy a lot of technology that we have now, or rather we are going to, and that’s going to lead to more research and further dropping of prices.

Another big area of study for you is agriculture and land use; can you tell us a little bit about what you think our goals should be there?

If you look at how we, humanity, have changed the planet, the number one way we have changed the planet is through agriculture and fishing. Half of the world’s forests are gone, and almost all of that is for agriculture. A third of the land area of the planet is used to grow food or graze animals.

We have to almost double the amount of food we produce in the next 40 years or so. It’s all about more yield. It’s about growing more food on the same land or less land. That’s the only way we can make it through the challenge of the next century of more people eating richer diets, eating more meat without chopping down all the world for us. That’s what it’s all about to me: higher intensity agriculture and more food out of that same acre.

What are some of the key technologies that you think will help us do that?

There is every sort of technology. We have better seeds, we have high-tech equipment that allows us to plant better, more precise irrigation, better applications of fertilizer and technology that scans the field and tells you where you need to apply fertilizer. Alltech has done an awful lot with animal feed that allows you to grow healthier animals that have better nutrition, so all of those play a role.

Can you tell me a little bit about Singularity University and the program there and your role in it?

I am the co-chair for energy and environment at Singularity University. Singularity University is really a think tank that does continuing education. We take executives and people in government and we give them a week of bombarding them with information about the cutting edge of technology. Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, robotics — and I talk about energy.

That sounds like a fantastic program. It’s great that you are trying to reach some of the people that need that information the most and that can put it to the best use. Are they all willing, or do you have to go out and draft them sometimes?

We are oversubscribed. There is a waiting list for every one of our programs because people see that technology is changing fast and if they want to survive and thrive in their company and in their government, they need to be abreast as to what’s going on.

Ramez Naam spoke at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference 2016.To hear more talks from the conference, sign up for the Alltech Ideas Lab. For access, click on the button below.

An interview with Dan Dhuyvetter

The following is an edited transcript of our interview with Dan Dhuyvetter, director of nutrition services, R&D and marketing for Ridley Block Operations.

To listen to our entire conversation with Dan, click on the player.

Can you start by telling us a little bit about why grazing management is important to the cattle industry?

The grasslands, or forage base, are the largest nutritional input for beef cattle operations, primarily within the cow-calf sector. Being the largest component of their diet, managing the forage properly becomes very important in terms of your herd production level as well as the economic returns from the land.

What are some ways that people can implement a successful grazing management program?

There are a number of different steps for improving forage management. Primarily, if you take a look at the grasslands, you want to make sure there is ample forage for cattle grazing, and all considerations should be given for managing the forage resource. When you manage cattle on grass, you want to take a look at the season of forage production, particularly when the forage or grasses are actively growing.

Then, how is it that you can optimize how that forage is harvested by your livestock? We often see certain areas within a location of a pasture that are not utilized or are underutilized in terms of the cattle. They don’t tend to go there for different reasons. They may not prefer the grass species that’s there or the terrain might be a little too rugged for them to actually get there. Some of the ways you can take a look at that, and we have done considerable research in this area, are by using block supplements, very palatable supplements that cattle seek out, and place those supplements in those areas and improve the forage utilization. We have seen as high as 15 percent improvement in the utilization of grasses in those locations that normally go underutilized, and now they are actually being harvested by the cattle. That’s in terms of up to a 600-yard or 600-meter radius from where you place those supplements.

There is certainly an environmental impact to this as well. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, in terms of impacting the environment by locating the supplements that you provide, one of the strongest things is as an attractant to those supplements. Cattle want to spend time by them. If you have grasslands that have waterways in them, or what a lot of people refer to as riparian areas, they (cattle) can do damage to the stream banks if they spend a lot of time down in those areas. Cattle tend to migrate there unless you give them a reason to stay off those areas by moving supplements further up out in the grasslands, where you want to have the cattle grazing. You can help protect those sensitive areas in terms of the environment.

The other thing that happens is, if you can better utilize the entire forage base, you just optimize your production from that land resource. You get more utilization of your forage base by using these supplements and putting them in strategic locations throughout your pasture.

You even have a block technology, the BioBarrel®, that is completely biodegradable. Want to talk a little bit about that as well?

Oftentimes, in placement of supplements, one of the battles producers face is the containers those supplements are in. What we have developed is a degradable container that, basically as the cattle consume the supplement, the container disappears or just goes away. There is no need to go back and pick it up; it just degrades into the environment.

Some of those containers are actually consumed by the cattle because it is fiber-based. Ruminant animals have that ability to digest fiber, so they can consume the container and there are no problems with it.

And there are no concerns with rain?

No. One of the things we did in the past couple of years is we introduced a technology called WeatherAll®, which is a (food-grade) wax coating that is put on during the manufacturing process of the container. What that wax coating does is it really prevents any sort of seepage or moisture from coming into the container during weather events like heavy rainfall periods or even slow drizzle-type rains. That container stays in place and holds the supplements as it is supposed to and, again, it matches it to the degradation rate that the supplement disappears.

Speaking of weather events, I want to segue to a recent article I read about the FAO using blocks as part of disaster recovery plans in certain countries. Do you want to comment a little bit about that and how blocks could be used as an operations plan for pending weather events or in recovery efforts?

Mother Nature is always an issue that livestock producers have to work with, and the uncertainty of what’s going to happen is one of those occurrences where preparedness is your best friend. For supplements you can put out in the environment, especially if there is a pending weather event that’s coming, you are able to get that nutrition out there where cattle can actually access it, given an event that may come and you can’t get to them in a timely fashion. Being able to place (block) supplements out in the environment (that are consumed over days and weeks at a time), where the cattle are can certainly help so you’re not scrambling after the (weather) event to try to get those cattle fed.

You mentioned WeatherAll®. What are some other new technologies, or are there other new technologies in blocks?

There are always different ways for supplements to be fed. The traditional or conventional way is to try and look at what is in the diet of these grazing ruminants and find out what it is you can provide to improve their efficiency. Over the years, actual use of the blocks supplements has started to broaden out, and using the blocks for grazing management, moving cattle around, has been something in more recent years that has been developed.

Additionally, using block supplements in confinement feeding — normally you think you bring all of the diet to those animals, why would you need a free-choice supplement? We have done work with the University of Wisconsin where we actually can provide low-moisture block supplement to dairy cows. The cows are high-producing dairy cows that are at risk, because of being fed high-starch diets, of subacute ruminal acidosis. By providing these blocks supplements that have buffering and alkalinizing agents in them, plus the ability for the cows to start licking the supplements to provide more buffering through their saliva production, we are able to help hold those cows (from reaching metabolic acidosis). We’ve got good documented proof, and actually a patent that’s been accepted, that it will hold them out of this acidosis condition. You maintain the health of the cow and improve milk production.

Another area is (a direct result of) the palatability on these blocks being so great and cattle and livestock seek them out. When you start calves on feed, one of the biggest issues they have is just getting them up to the feed bunk and wanting them to consume feed. By providing a palatable low-moisture block supplement, we can get calves encouraged to lick that supplement and then that stimulates their appetite to get on feed quicker. We have been able to cut death loss and calves’ mortality in half and improve average daily gains by at least a quarter of a pound a day. There are different applications to the blocks that we see beyond the traditional “just supply the deficient nutrient and move on.”

That’s fascinating, Dan, and very exciting. Before we wrap up, is there anything you would like to add about the future of block technology?

I think that the future of the block technology is extremely bright because of the flexibility of the different sizes and packaging material we are able to start utilizing within the delivery of blocks. Then also the broadening out to other species like wildlife and some of the things we can do to help on the environment side. We recognize that greenhouse gas emissions, or methane production, by ruminant animals has been singled out as a culprit. For us to help improve the fermentation efficiency, we can help limit how much of the greenhouse gasses — methane — are produced (by improving fiber digestion through self-fed supplementation on pastures). From our perspective, we think there is a great chance for us to utilize these free-choice or self-fed blocks to help improve those efficiencies and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.

A very exciting future indeed. Thanks, Dan.

Sure.

An Interview with Jim Stengel

The following is an edited transcript of our interview with Jim Stengel, former CMO of Procter & Gamble and the author of “Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies.” For Jim’s full bio, click here.

To listen to our entire conversation with Jim, click on the player.

Jim, you spoke earlier today about brands finding their north star, and you also were an author of a book called Grow. Is growth always good for a company? We have seen companies recently that have actually narrowed their focus a little bit because they felt like they were growing too much and in too many different directions.

I think a growth mindset is good, although option B is not good. Companies that are cutting costs and selling businesses may be doing that for a reason, but I don’t know how you build a culture of innovation, change and creativity if you don’t have a growth mindset. How do you attract talent if they don’t feel like they can grow their careers or opportunities?

I’m studying a lot of old and young companies now for a new book, and I look at companies like General Electric (GE), IBM and Ford. They are asking very different questions and expanding their view of their business, and I think they are creating new opportunities and attracting different kinds of talent. If you look at even GE’s corporate ads now, they are about the new kind of company they are: a digital company. They are seeking to recruit different kinds of people; they are reinforcing their culture in those ads. This is a company that has shed businesses and has restructured their business but is now thinking growth.

In their case, maybe it’s even keeping to the north star that you talked about, the innovation, and their focus now on innovation is taking on a digital component.

Yes — now they want to make the world work better by linking machines with better information. That’s their goal; they really want to transform the industry by bringing a digital mind and digital capability to the industrial world. It’s a beautiful thing.

In this landscape, how do you feel the role of the CMO is changing?

Well, the chief marketing officer today is a more important role in more companies. You can see there are more companies with CMOs, and there has been some analysis of companies that are growing faster than others. They typically have marketing as a stronger capability, and you’re seeing longer-tenured CMOs in that position.

Leadership is still very important. The way to motivate people, attract talent, bring out the best in people and set a direction for the company is still very important.

They have to be very comfortable with data analytics as well as creativity. They have to have both sides of their brain developed, and they have to be building an organization for the future that has those capabilities.

If they are relying on what they were good at when they were younger, it’s not enough. To me, great CMOs are curious and humble, creating a culture of curiosity, collective purpose and collaboration. CMOs today have to build the right capabilities but, actually more important, the right culture.

That leads into another question: You talk about ideals-driven companies. Is that idea built around transparency, and do you feel like companies are really moving to transparency, or is it just a marketing message?

No, I think they are moving to more transparency. Look at what’s happening in the beverage and food industry. Companies are being more proactive, more transparent. They are doing things they are not forced to do, but they realize consumers care and people have 24-hour access to any information they want. It’s an important part of being a brand today, so to me transparency is part of an ideals-driven philosophy. I think great brands and great business have a great ideal and have a reason to be; they have something that everyone understands. They need the behaviors to support that. If you’re Ford and want to re-invent transportation to get people from here to there in a more efficient and environmentally safe way, then your behaviors better be a part of that and support that. I think it’s part of being an ideals-driven company.

When we talk about growth, I think something that’s important for us as an international company is the idea of balancing centralization and consistency with localization in any market. Certainly that is something that you experienced with Procter & Gamble (P&G). What advice would you have for companies that are growing and becoming more international to balance centralization and localization?

I think the best brands have one purpose or one idea. They have a framework of what it means to their customers and employees, but then they allow the employees to have some freedom in that framework.

Alltech is one brand, so you want it to share a common purpose, have common characteristics, common behaviors and want people to share the same values about the brand. It has to be centralized and have an Alltech brand manager or franchise manager. Then if you’re in Russia, Italy or China, you want to give your local team the ability to seize opportunities to delight customers. They still have to be the values of Alltech and work toward the purpose of Alltech.

It’s a very delicate thing, but companies tend to go more decentralized. I think the trend is that you need more central leadership of the brand but then a very strong relationship with your counties. That’s what great brands do.

Lastly, what companies are on Jim Stengel’s watch list as far as doing marketing right, growth right and ideals-driven organization right?

Well, the good news is that there are a lot of them and a lot of them that are trying to move in the right direction. A brand that I don’t work with now but I know some people at and I just admire greatly is LEGO. Think about them: They have a very strong ideal and creativity and play. They are making content like crazy — movies, documentaries — endlessly innovative. Engagement scores are off the chart and they are still not satisfied with it. They enable their people to be free and creative, but they operate in a framework. They have a central leadership of LEGO, but the countries are able to capitalize on opportunities. Their profitability is growing. If you look at them versus their competition, it’s kind of night and day, so that’s one brand that I just think is doing so many good things.

From a corporate perspective, I like what Unilever is doing — a competitor of P&G. They really embrace trying to make a big growth goal. The way they get there is by reducing their impact on the planet. I think that has galvanized people to attract talent. They are doing very innovative and creative things with their brands that are good for the planet. This is a very large company that is pulling this off, so I like what they are doing.

I think GE is amazing to watch because their stock prices have begun to grow. Wall Street is beginning to reward what they are doing, and their culture is changing in a very deep way. They have strong leadership at the top from Beth Comstock.

These are a few I admire, but the good news is I think we have a movement in the kinds of things we’re talking about. There are more and more companies that are raising the game. They are behaving better, setting bigger goals and trying to make a difference. No one is perfect and stumbles along the way, but I do think we’re on a good trend. I am excited to see what happens next year.

Jim Stengel spoke at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference. Audio recordings of most talks, including Jim's, are now available on the Alltech Idea Lab. For access, click on the button below.

Did you know that 95 percent of the world's food comes from the soil? When viewed in the light of a projected 9 billion mouths to feed by 2050—and the need to produce 70 to 100 percent more food than we do today to meet that demand—preserving soils is unarguably crucial.

World Soil Day is an annual day of recognition that takes place Dec. 5th. It has positioned soils front and centre as a major resource in the quest for global sustainability. The effort in highlighting the importance of soil received an added boost when 2015 was designated the International Year of Soils.

At Alltech Crop Science we want you to join us in celebrating World Soil Day by sharing some interesting facts.

Did you know?

• Soil is the basis for food, feed, fuel and fibre production. It is the reservoir for at least a quarter of global biodiversity and therefore requires the same attention as above-ground biodiversity.
• Healthy soil is fundamental to food security and nutrition. Approximately 95 percent of our food comes from our soil.
• Soil is teeming with life – soils host a quarter of our plants' biodiversity.
• More than one third of our food goes to waste – and up to half of our households waste could be composted to help create new soil.
• 11ha of soils are sealed under expanding cities every hour in Europe.
• Healthy soils play a key role in the supply of clean water and resilience to floods and droughts.

Want to know more about soil and what it comprises of? Dr. Mark Gaffney hosted a webinar titled What lies beneath – The hidden side of agriculture. You can watch it here. You can also find out more on Alltech Crop Science and its research on crop production here.

Join us in celebrating World Soil Day our social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Click here to subscribe to our Top Crop newsletter

Produced by molds, mycotoxins affect animal performance and producer profitability in many ways. Why are they such a significant risk to your herd?

What are mycotoxins?

Mycotoxins are natural substances produced by molds in the field and during the storage of grains, feeds and forages. With over 500 diverse types of mycotoxins discovered (yes, there are over 500!), it is a prevalent issue that can negatively affect your herd’s productivity, efficiency and profitability.

How do mycotoxins affect your herd?

Pigs are extremely sensitive to mycotoxins. The presence of mycotoxins, even at low levels in feed, reduces performance in growing and breeding animals, affects immune and health status, and can ultimately lead to death.

As crop harvest season approaches, mycotoxin contamination will be an even bigger issue. Weekly Monday Mycotoxin Report videos have reported on the poor quality of wheat and mycotoxin contamination.

The Alltech 37+® mycotoxin analytical services laboratory is also currently conducting a 2017 Summer Harvest Survey of wheat throughout the U.S. and Canada. Final results will be released in a couple of months, but initial samples show high levels of DON, T-2/HT-2 and zearalenone.

According to Dr. Alexandra Weaver, a mycotoxin management expert from Alltech, these are key symptoms that producers should be aware of if DON, T-2/HT-2 and zearalenone are present:

• Lower feed intake and feed refusal
• Gut health challenges: damage to intestinal tract, increase in intestinal pathogens
• Altered immune status: increased susceptibility to other diseases, poor response to vaccinations
• Reduced growth rates
• Impacts on reproductive performance: abortions, reduced conception rates, increase in mummies or stillborn, increased variation within litter

What can you do?

Programs such as the Alltech® Mycotoxin Management program provide a tailored solution to help control mycotoxins through a combination of mycotoxin management tools, mycotoxin testing and nutritional technologies.

Effective mycotoxin management is about seeing the whole challenge, from the farm to the feed mill and from risk assessment to feed management. Being proactive instead of reactive will benefit you and your herd in the long run.

I want to learn more about nutrition for my pig herd.

Eating our way to improved intestinal balance and health

Unless you are suffering from an intestinal upset or are cleaning up the mess associated with an intestinal upset in your pets, you probably don’t often think about the health of the microbial population that inhabits your or your pet’s gastrointestinal tract (GI tract). However, over the last decade, it has become increasingly clear that the complex community of microorganisms residing in the GI tract not only influences digestive processes but also significantly impacts long-term and short-term health.

For optimum well-being, it is important to maintain an appropriate balance in the intestinal microflora. But what is that balance, and how we do we support it?

Nutrition strategies for a balanced GI tract

With the realization of the importance of microflora have come new nutritional strategies that influence microbial balance. Many are based on simple supplementation or diet changes, but their effects can be profound. These approaches are revolutionizing not only the way we view our gastrointestinal health, but also that of our animal companions.

Digestive aids that include specific feed ingredients, exogenous enzymes, probiotics, organic acids and plant-derived oils can be coupled with nutritional management practices to beneficially manipulate intestinal microbial populations. One of the most successful documented uses has been supplementation with small doses of yeast-based polysaccharides (prebiotic fibers) to influence the composition of the gastrointestinal microbial population.

We know that these supplementation strategies not only limit the proliferation of detrimental bacteria and pathogens, but are also associated with improved immune function and nutrient absorption. These approaches allow us to eat our way to improved health, but how exactly they work had not been understood…until recently.

Feeding the good microbes: The science behind the nutrition revolution

A nutritional revolution is at hand, with new tools for reliably demonstrating and predicting how dietary and supplementation approaches can influence the intestinal microflora and gastrointestinal health.

Detailed nucleic acid sequencing techniques now allow for an in-depth description of the composition, profile and function of the most beneficial microbial populations in the intestinal tract. It is now possible to clearly pinpoint the effects of nutrition on the critical components of these complex populations and to determine the most effective balance of intestinal gut microbes. Rather than focusing on individual types of microorganisms, these techniques allow us to identify the optimal microbial populations that promote good intestinal health. This clarity takes the guess work out of diet formulation and can strategically improve health, from the most minuscule gut microbes to overall well-being.

I want to learn more about pet nutrition.

If, as the United Nations suggests, agribusiness is Africa’s best hope for economic growth and prosperity, what will it take to achieve broad and lasting success?

“Agribusiness plays a vital role in Africa’s economic development,” said John Young Simpson, director at the Singapore-based Duxton Asset Management, a specialist emerging market agribusiness investment company. “Based on figures from the International Finance Corporation, agribusiness accounts for 25 percent of the continent’s GDP and a significant 70 percent of employment.”

Seventy percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land is on the African continent. And, according to a Cato Institute report discussing what African nations need to do to develop and grow, “between 1990 and 2012, the proportion of the population of African countries with access to clean drinking water increased from 48 percent to 64 percent.”

Yet, despite the seemingly abundant opportunity, noted Simpson, “industrial potential has not been reached, with farm yields among the lowest in the world, and this is in turn due to numerous challenges.”

A “United States of Africa”?: Attempts to bring cohesion to the continent

“The biggest obstacles would be education and lack of infrastructure,” observed Nick Smit, Alltech vice president of Africa and the Middle East.

In fact, in the view of the Stellenbosch-based Smit, a lack of infrastructure is the single most important obstacle to African economic progress.

The continent contains dozens of countries of varying degrees of political, civil, cultural and economic strife and stability, its peoples communicating in more than 1,000 languages.

In 1999, leaders of 53 African nations began attempts to pull it all together. By 2002, they had created a new organization, the African Union (AU), to succeed a foundering Organization of African Unity (OAU). South Sudan became the 54th member state in the summer of 2011.

Conceived by then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as a "United States of Africa," its structure is loosely modeled on that of the European Union.

The Constitutive Act of the African Union calls for “a culture of good governance, democracy, rule of law and popular participation.” There are plans to establish an African Economic Community with a single currency.

Some critics, pointing out that many AU leaders are the same individuals who presided over the OAU, an organization that became known as the “dictators' club,” question whether the AU can ever be truly effective in bringing the various players of the African continent onto the same page.

“Africa has suffered tremendously from this in the past and continues to suffer, even in times when progress is being made,” observed Aidan Connolly, Alltech vice president and chief innovation officer.

Adapting to the 21st century

“Development of infrastructure is typically a government-level investment,” said Mary Shelman, former director of Harvard Business School's Agribusiness Program. “But it requires a long-term view, which is difficult when governments mostly have short-term orientation.”

And in agreement with Smit, she added, “It’s challenging to see market-driven, private sector solutions if governments can't be trusted to stand by contracts and policies.”

The need for costly pipelines, dams, irrigation systems, highways, bridges and other forms of public infrastructure only mounts, however, as governments become pressed to come to terms with what looms just over the horizon.

“Africa Rising”: The role of agribusiness

“The population of the world is due to increase by 50 percent in the next 30 years, from 6 billion to 9 billion people,” noted Connolly in the white paper “A GLIMPSE™ into the Future: A Lens through Which to Consider ‘Africa’s Rising.’” “Sub-Saharan Africa alone will account for one-third of that growth, as the population more than doubles from over 1 billion in 2013 to at least 1.9 billion in 2050.”

Citing forecasts by the International Monetary Fund, he noted that Africa has averaged GDP growth of 5 percent annually throughout the past decade, “and that pace is expected to continue, with GDP projected to triple by 2030, achieving a sevenfold increase by 2050.”

According to a 2010 report from McKinsey & Co., this recent growth is the result of inflation reduction (dropping from 22 percent in the 1990s to 8 percent in the 2000s), a two-thirds decrease in budget deficits and general institution quality improvements.

Taken in combination, these factors have inspired The Economist magazine to coin the phrase “Africa Rising” to describe Africa’s burgeoning population and economic growth and the implications for agribusiness.

Much of this activity is concentrated in the southern two-thirds of the continent.

“Sub-Saharan Africa has a current food deficit in many countries and the promise of even larger future demand due to population and income increases,” said Shelman.

Anticipating and positioning now to efficiently and profitably meet that near-future explosion in demand may present an opening for smart, sustainable agribusiness.

“I believe very strongly that the number one way to feed people is to have affordable food, and the number one way to produce food affordably is to allow intensive agriculture the opportunity to produce efficiently,” said Connolly.

Africa restructures for more abundant food production

The good news is that these dynamics are increasingly being taken into account as African agriculture is restructured to accommodate rapid growth.

“We have seen the acceptance of the private sector and multi-stakeholder partnerships really take root, as well as the development of lobby and organization bodies such as the Rice Council of Tanzania,” said Simpson. “This is largely attributed to the government-led economic and political reforms thus far, with a recent initiative being the establishment of Africa’s biggest economic bloc that allows for free trade over 26 countries across the continent.”

Shelman adds that there’s been a positive shift from focusing only on improving farming to the development of value chains.

“Focusing solely on increasing supply leads to surplus production, which, in the absence of markets, causes farm-gate prices to fall,” she explained. “We now understand the need to develop markets at the same time as supply so product can be 'pulled' through, enabling prices to hold steady and farmer income to improve.”

Additionally, Connolly noted that “there are some challenges for which agribusiness is actually the best hope for progress, most notably in supply chain management, markets and innovation.”

China as Africa’s deus ex machina?

Simpson, stating that Africa has a potential to meet more than the needs of its own population, cited research at University in Munich supporting a commercially oriented approach to land use, with sub-Saharan regions projected to reap the greatest benefit.

“Crops cultivated on current cropland at locations where they yield the highest profits could boost yields by 30 percent on top of an increase by almost 39 percent from multiple harvests,” he said. “Optimal agricultural practices can lead to a further increase of 80 percent.”

This potential is not lost on China, which is scrambling to manage its own exploding population of middle class consumers.

The result is that even while Europeans and Americans remain cautious, viewing Africa as a troubling source of instability, migration and terrorism, China has started to establish its influence on the continent.

“Dance of the Lions and Dragons,” a study McKinsey & Co. conducted to improve understanding of “the rhythm of Chinese business in Africa,” states that, “In a mere two decades, China has become Africa’s biggest economic partner. Across trade, investment, infrastructure financing, and aid, there is no other country with such depth and breadth of engagement in Africa.”

Since the turn of the 21st century, Africa-China trade has been growing at an annual rate of approximately 20 percent. Foreign direct investment has been even more aggressive, growing at the rate of 40 percent annually, the study observed.

It became even more noteworthy in the first quarter of 2017, when China’s direct investment in Africa soared by 64 percent, according to the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China.

China’s foreign direct investment in Africa, according to Simpson, has rapidly diversified to include central government-led, state-owned and private investments. It is both a donor and investor in Africa, he said.

“China has in recent years encouraged public-private partnerships and provided incentives for its agribusiness corporations to invest in African agriculture to develop sustainability, develop markets and expand trade,” said Simpson.

Speaking at a summit in Johannesburg in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing would plough $60 billion into African development projects.

According to the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town, Xi’s pledge has been materializing. Trade and investment deals between Chinese firms and African countries include:

• A $300 million highway renovation project in Nigeria.

• A $230 million ferrochrome mine and smelter project in South Africa.

• A $200 million copper project in Zambia.

• A $60 million textile factory in Sudan.

• A $55 million cement factory in Cape Verde.

• A $30 million contract to build a telephone network in Ghana.

• A $5 billion China-Africa Development Fund administered by the China Development Bank.

• $2 billion in export credits and $3 billion in preferential buyers’ credits.

What drives China’s interest in Africa?

There are competing views about what motivates the aggressive scale and pace of China’s heightened presence on the African continent.

While China has supported many of Africa’s most ambitious infrastructure developments in recent years, Shelman is wary.

“Chinese business interests, which could potentially be proxies for Chinese government interests, could have enough investing power and political will to help address the infrastructure problems,” she said. “But I would not necessarily view Chinese interests as truly market-driven.”

Shelman’s perception is that “China needs the entire world, including Africa, to produce more so they can buy what they need, when they need it. My view is that their land ownership is an attempt to jump-start African production, and ultimately they may not want to keep these holdings. Others interpret this differently.”

The People's Republic has snapped up about 12 million acres of land to grow grains that get shipped back to China, according to Sara Menker, founder of the agriculture data company Gro Intelligence.

“The world doesn’t know about it because these are really quiet deals,” she told an audience at a Forbes Reinventing America AgTech Summit. “These are large-scale farming operations in sesame, wheat, corn for export to China. It doesn’t really interact with the African farmer. It doesn’t get traded locally. It is purely for Chinese export.”

Offering a competing alternative perspective, the McKinsey & Co. report stated, “around 90 percent of the 10,000 Chinese firms operating in Africa today are privately owned — calling into question the notion of a monolithic, state-coordinated investment drive by ‘China, Inc.’ Although state-owned enterprises tend to be bigger, particularly in specific sectors such as energy and infrastructure, the sheer multitude of private Chinese firms working toward their own profit motives make Chinese investment in Africa a more market-driven phenomenon than is commonly understood.”

African agriculture could be abundant, IF…

According to the 2017 Alltech Global Feed Survey, the last five years have seen growth in the African region outpace the world.

“This year’s growth was over 13 percent,” said the survey of Africa’s 2016 feed production. “Half of the countries grew strongly. Shining stars include Nigeria, Algeria, Tunisia, Kenya and Zambia, all of which saw growth of at least 30 percent.”

The World Bank estimates that African farmers could grow enough food to feed the continent — and generate an estimated $20 billion in earnings for their countries — if policy makers can agree to lift cross-border restrictions and simplify the rules and fees involved in food trade, according to Connolly’s white paper.

It’s a big “if.” The Cato Institute report finds many African countries plagued with regulatory hurdles. For example:

• A study by the Rwanda Ministry of Trade and Industry found that a truck driver traveling the 1,000-mile distance from Kigali to Mombasa, Kenya, must stop at 26 roadblocks and pay bribes (an average of $846) along the way. The study also found that it took 121 hours for drivers to make the trip.

• According to a World Bank economist, southern African truck drivers for supermarkets that cross a border can be required to carry a staggering 1,600 documents with them in order to comply with permitting requirements.

Connolly noted, however, that progress in reducing red tape is being made.

“Rwanda, South Africa and Botswana are now rated as in or near the top 50 (of 189) easiest countries in which to do business, according to the International Finance Corporation,” he said. “However, there is considerable scope for improvement: virtually all of the bottom 20 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.”

The rapid pace of technological innovation also presents a major challenge to African governments, he said.

“Whether it is approval of a new type of crop protection chemical or regulation of the ownership of data collected in a field, agriculture requires dealing with complex scientific and legal matters,” said Connolly.

This is one area where agribusiness can assist. Agri-scientists are well-positioned to help reduce the scientific gap among industry, academia and government.

Additional applications of agribusiness expertise could address environmental sustainability as well as losses attributed to harvesting techniques, mold, insect and animal infestations in storage facilities, packaging and marketing.

The roadblocks

While Africa’s progress is evident, Connolly cited a formidable litany of continuing obstacles, captured in his GLIMPSE acronym: “government, losses, infrastructure, markets, people, science and the environment.”

What is clear, he noted, is “the central role of government, and indeed, not just mandating things, but also freeing businesses up in order to produce food more economically.”

In Shelman’s view, the opportunities for agribusiness in Africa are many.

“Fresh fruits and vegetables, and products like citrus and avocados that can be exported to Europe and other countries, can command strong prices if the transportation is available,” she said.

“The next opportunity,” in her view, “is to develop products for local markets, such as processing tomatoes in Nigeria and rice that can be substituted for imports.”

Meats and dairy, she said, “are more challenging due to the need for cold chain and processing capacity, but those are coming as the infrastructure develops.”

Back to the days of Alkebulan: Africa as our new “Garden of Eden”

Africa was known in ancient days as Alkebulan, meaning “mother of mankind” or “Garden of Eden.” Could its former name designate its destiny?

Time will tell.

The potential of the African continent is quite clear, yet the challenging impediments to its realization are many. But, keep watching. There is no doubt today that continent-wide change is not only coming — it’s already underway.

The pre-weaning growth of a dairy calf is a powerful predictor of long-term productivity and profitability. However, diarrhea is one of the most common antagonists resulting in poor digestion and less than optimal weight gain in calves.

A unique product derived from a selected strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been shown to enhance performance, including intake, growth and overall health, by improving gut health and digestive function.

A recent meta-analysis conducted by Dr. Anna Catharina Berge of Berge Veterinary Consulting BVBA has put Alltech’s product, Bio-Mos®, to the test.

Berge’s trials revealed that pre-weaned dairy calves fed Bio-Mos in milk or milk replacer had significantly improved average daily gain by an estimated 0.14 pounds per head per day, which corresponds to an 8.37-pound higher weight on average for calves weaned at two months of age. The long-term improved performance in heifers with enhanced pre-weaning growth would be equivalent to 220 pounds more milk in the first lactation!

“The results are a significant improvement in average daily weight gain,” said Aidan Connolly, chief innovation officer and vice president of corporate accounts at Alltech. “This improvement leads to greater returns for the producer through enhanced milk production, health and development, and long-term productivity.”

The meta-analysis included 23 cohort studies performed in the U.S.A., the United Kingdom, Brazil, Chile, the Czech Republic, India, Japan, Peru, Poland, Spain and Turkey between 1993 and 2012. Bio-Mos was supplemented from 2–10 grams per day, with an average inclusion of 3.8 grams per day. Twenty-one of the studies reported an increase in daily weight gain for calves fed Bio-Mos in milk or milk replacer compared to control calves.

As new restrictions come into play on antibiotic use, producers across the globe are beginning to take a closer look at natural approaches to improve animal health and performance. Choosing an alternative that is backed by substantial research is a sure bet for a smart start on any dairy operation.

For more information on Bio-Mos, visit http://alltech.com/bio-mos.

Pearse and Deirdre Lyons could not have known when they met decades ago as teens at a Dublin rugby club dance that they would one day find themselves driving around the streets of a section of the Irish capital known as the Liberties in search of just the right place to house their legacy.

This quest was not about Alltech, the global animal health and nutrition company they had founded and nurtured to remarkable success. This was personal.

The story, one animated by shared imagination and powerful determination to overcome all manner of obstacles, is expressed in the location, history and reincarnation of a deconsecrated church that had known better days.

And who better to relate the story of Pearse Lyons Distillery at St. James than the Lyonses themselves?

Photo Credit: Conor McCabe Photography Ltd

Locating their legacy

Pearse recalled the day he and his wife Deirdre explored the Liberties district, one of Dublin’s most historic neighborhoods that had once hosted dozens of breweries and distilleries.

“I wanted something in Dublin, and I wanted something that would be close to Guinness for the simple reason that 1.6 million people visit Guinness every year,” he explained. “I’m a businessman, and I thought, ‘Okay, I need someplace close to the 1.6 million people.’ So I was looking in that vicinity.”

“It just so happened that we were driving down James’s Street,” said Deirdre. “This is the area where Pearse’s father and grandfather and his grandfather before him all grew up. Pearse's very first job was at Irish Distillers, which was, at that time Paddy, Powers and Jameson whiskey.”

They came upon St. James, a church that had been built before the signing of the Magna Carta. In the last century, it had been repurposed as a warehouse and a store, but it was sitting abandoned.

Pearse saw past its state of disrepair and envisioned the opportunity as real estate just steps away from Guinness.

He bought it.

Was there hope in this forsaken place?

“My first thought was, ‘Oh, no!’” said Deirdre. “When we walked in, I couldn’t believe it.”

It was bad. Very bad.

“The roof was leaking in many places,” she said. “We had all kinds of water damage, plaster damage and neglect. The beautiful stone columns that had come from Caen in Normandy were painted magenta. Where the beautiful ceiling is now, previous owners had hacked out the stone on each side and put in steel beams and a staircase for a mezzanine and above that, another mezzanine. All the windows were blocked up with cement blocks, both inside and outside.”

Additionally, they soon discovered that a buddleia, or butterfly bush, had started to grow from the top of the church. It was so powerful that the roots had come down and broken through a wall 9 feet thick.

At this point, many would likely begin having serious second thoughts. The Lyonses instead prepared themselves to move forward with the project.

A new classification creates complications

A major twist in the plot occurred when, only two weeks after the purchase, they were informed that the old church was to become a national monument.

This new designation began a multi-year, multi-million euro excursion through a sea of time-consuming, costly renovation and restoration work.

“We had to remove all of the plaster,” said Deirdre. “We had to then build it back with new plaster, but the new plaster had to be of the 18th century-style. So that meant it had to be a lime plaster with a rough finish.”

Since it can take up to six years for lime plaster to completely dry, a special and very rare silicate paint would be required — and there are only three on the planet.

“One of them happened to be in Ireland!” said Deirdre. “I wanted this warm, buttery yellow, like a glowing ‘wrap itself around you’ feel. The Irish firm had five or six shades of white. So we said no. The next one was in Slovenia. They sent samples that were very yellow. Unfortunately, 48 hours after their paint was tested, it changed color. So we did more research and found a German company called Keim. They do a lot of restoration of historical buildings, particularly with the paints that were used in medieval times, which were very muted colors. That worked perfectly.”

But no sooner had the paint issue been solved then another challenge arose. The old church had long ago lost its spire. So Deirdre turned her attention to its replacement.

“There had been no spire on the church since 1954,” she explained. “It had been struck by lightning, and it became dangerous, so it was taken down.”

Deirdre presented ideas for a new slate, copper or stone spire, but every idea was rejected by city officials.

But, said Pearse, “Deirdre doesn’t compromise. She was going to do something spectacular. She knew what she was doing, and she would not take any shortcuts. It took them a while to realize that this was a woman for whom it wasn’t money; this was a passion.”

Deirdre has a fondness for glass and came up with a concept for a glass spire that could be lighted at night. That idea was rejected.

“I was so frustrated at this point with everything that was rejected that I sought out a meeting with the city officials,” she said. “We shared our drawings, and they found them to be unique and exciting. Since we didn’t hear anything negative, we went ahead and created the spire.”

Deirdre’s vision for the interior called for custom-made stained glass windows decorated with depictions of the brewing, distilling and coopering that had been so characteristic of the Liberties.

“We presented the renders for the stained glass windows, but they were rejected on the premise that it had been a Protestant church, which would not have had stained glass,” she said.

To move forward with the stained glass windows, the Lyonses were invited to prove that they couldn’t be read from the outside of the church. Deirdre took this as a go-ahead to produce one of the windows and install it, since it would be the only way to test it.

“We created the south window first, which explains the brewing process,” said Deirdre. “It took a long time to sketch it and go to the glass company, a little two-person company way up in the north, pick out all the glass and lay the glass the way we wanted — because we wanted to use all of the colors that would be associated with the industry, like gold, amber, copper, some black and some warm browns and yet put them in a way that was very easy to read.”

Photo Credit: Donal Murphy

Once they installed the window, they invited the planners and zoners to come see it.

After opportunity for review, Deirdre decided to proceed to the next window. However, when the concrete blocks were removed, a couple small lattice pieces were discovered. Because the lattice pieces were original, the window could no longer be removed.

“We had to create our window and put it on what I call a ‘goal post frame’ and float it off the window,” said Deirdre.

Photo Credit: Donal Murphy

Classic copper pot stills, custom-made for the distillery by the Vendome Copper & Brass Works in Louisville, Kentucky, were transferred from their County Carlow location to the site. With the attempted move, an entirely new round of frustration gripped the project.

“We were a quarter of an inch shy of getting them through the biggest door,” said Deirdre. “We could take the door off, but we couldn’t remove the arch because we were afraid that the stone would not be able to support itself.”

But, where there’s a will, there’s a way. Workers were in the process of reinforcing and replacing the building’s roof.

“We got everything structurally right and then we left one section of the roof open,” said Deirdre. “We had a crane lift them in.”

Photo Credit: Donal Murphy

A legacy project becomes an ancestral tribute

Excavation to make room for the building’s new mechanical systems yielded yet another surprise. This one, at least, brought with it a most amazing serendipity.

“We soon unearthed bodies that we hadn’t expected at all,” said Deirdre. “In those days, graves were dug very deeply, and bodies were placed on top of bodies.”

An on-site archeologist oversaw a careful process each time a body was discovered. Each one was carefully taken to the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, where it was examined, dated and photographed. The bones would then be returned to rest at St. James.

“To accommodate all those bones, we actually had to create crypts under the floor of the church,” said Deirdre. “There were two crypts already in the church, but we had to put in five more.”

Then, there was a startling discovery.

Among those buried in the centuries-old church graveyard was none other than John Hubert Lyons, grandfather of Pearse.

The revelation unlocked something long hidden in the recesses of his memory.

“At age 4, my earliest recollection is of going to a funeral, an Irish wake,” he explained. “I saw this person, and I remember them saying it was my grandfather.”

The year was 1948.

“His parents were on holiday in France and had distributed all of the little ones to various aunts and uncles in the area,” related Deirdre. “So, Pearse and his older brother were taken in a horse-drawn carriage with the hearse. But he never knew that it was a funeral until he grew up. He was too young. It was hushed up. It all flooded back when we realized this. That then made it very important to Pearse.”

This personal commitment would prove critical as myriad obstacles continued to mount. For example, the Lyonses would present 17 renderings of a proposed visitors center before a plan would finally be approved.

Breathing life into the Liberties

Pearse hopes the beautifully restored distillery’s presence and energy breathes new life into the neighborhood.

“When you put a beautiful place up, people tend to step up,” said Pearse. “There are going to be a lot of refurbishments. I hope we’re alive to see it.”

“I have to say that, even though it was probably the most challenging job I’ve ever done, it’s also been the most rewarding,” said Deirdre as she reflected.

“The builders said that they loved working with Deirdre because she never changed her mind. Never,” said Pearse. “She has the vision of what she wants to do. I think this is what makes us a formidable team. It’s telling our story. It’s history.”

Whether you are a commercial producer of Atlantic salmon, an aquaculture research scientist or a consumer with a fondness for the fish, Lepeophtheirus salmonis matters.

In fact, this sea louse is the reason your salmon dinner is weighing heavy on your grocery bill. Market prices of farmed salmon have been reaching historic highs.

The tiny crustaceans, commonly known as sea lice, that feed on the mucous, skin and blood of the fish are a fascinating challenge for the aquaculture researcher but the bane of the producer’s existence.

With the world market for salmon estimated at $10.7 billion annually (IntraFish), salmon farmers in the major producing countries, such as Norway, Scotland, Canada and Chile, are racing to fight infestations of the damaging ectoparasites.

Marine Harvest of Norway, the world’s leading farmed salmon producer, reports the biological costs of harvested fish in the second quarter of 2017 were 16 percent higher compared to the second quarter of 2016, according to Undercurrent News.

Marine Harvest has reported that its health-related production costs remain near record levels. Most of those costs are attributed to mortality and sea lice mitigation.

Sea lice infections are natural phenomenon among wild Atlantic salmon. What’s relatively new is the introduction of large-scale fish farms — essentially enormous sea cages — tucked into sheltered areas along coastlines.

The trouble begins when wild lice-bearing salmon swim nearby.

“These natural populations of lice, whose juvenile stages drift with the current and attach to the salmon, are also brought to our shores on the backs of wild populations of salmon from their North Atlantic feeding grounds,” said John Sweetman, Alltech international projects manager for aqua. “As they come into the estuaries and bay areas to prepare themselves to go upriver and they meet lower salinity water, the sea lice, intolerant of freshwater, become detached from the fish.”

In those semi-saline conditions, the lingering juvenile sea lice become infectious agents preying on nearby caged salmon. The population density of these caged cultures allows the parasite to spread quickly and even contaminate the wild salmon population.

“Sea lice cause physical damage,” said Sweetman. “Physical damage in the skin of the animal allows opportunistic pathogens to penetrate the skin. So, you have opportunistic bacterial pathogens entering through the damage and disruptions in the membranes and barrier structures of the skin.”

The result is a deadly cocktail of ailments: decline in disease resistance; edema; cellular inflammation; hyperplasia; epithelial shedding; hemorrhaging; mucus discharge; osmoregulatory stress; and decreased appetite.

Marine Harvest has watched feed conversion ratios decline due to reduced feeding appetite following biological issues.

The resulting annual losses to salmon farmers in Norway alone now exceed €500 million.

Searching for a sea lice solution

A process of elimination has been underway in the search for solutions that satisfy production economics balanced against consumer demand for food source transparency and safety.

No current strategies provide complete protection; few surpass 50 percent protection, according to Dr. Karl Dawson, vice president and chief scientific officer at Alltech.

Mitigation approaches have included emamectin benzoate. Introduced in 2000 and marketed as SLICE®, the antimicrobial is fed to salmon, poisoning any sea lice nibbling on the tissue of the fish.

“But in recent years, a resistance has been developing, so today’s effective dose is about five times what it used to be and continues to increase,” Dawson stated in a presentation at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference 2017.

Hydrogen peroxide baths were once popular among Norwegian salmon producers until food safety regulators raised concerns. Thermolicers, another approach, plunge the salmon through heated water that kills sea lice, but also can damage the fish.

Other strategies, such as sea bath treatments, can be highly disruptive to salmon farms. Once-promising pharmaceutical treatments have become less effective as drug resistance has developed.

Today, producers are looking to holistic management programs to battle sea lice. In Norway, those mitigation costs pile on top of production expenses resulting from heavy regulation.

“We’re talking about an average 0.5 lice per fish as the upper limit before a treatment has to be undertaken in a region to reduce lice burdens on the fish,” said Sweetman.

New facilities being built in Norway are designed to hold fish longer before being transferred to sea cages. The idea is to reduce the amount of time the salmon spend in the sea, exposed to sea lice.

In 2016, Chile, another of the world’s major producers of Atlantic salmon, became the first country to approve an in-feed treatment formulated by Elanco. Studies are said to show that the treatment inhibits the formation of chitin in sea lice, preventing the lice from developing into adults. Fish treated with the medication are now accepted for trade with many major export markets, including the United States, European Union, Japan and Brazil, according to SeafoodSource.com.

A non-pharma option in the arsenal against sea lice

Led by Dawson and Dr. Keith Filer, research coordinator for aquaculture at Alltech’s Kentucky facility, Alltech and its research partners are investigating a novel approach inspired by work with a specific mannan-rich cell wall fraction (MRF) in other animals.

“The interest in using this material originally came from studies in chickens that indicated that early life exposure to the mannan-rich fraction improved the innate immunity of chickens,” said Dawson.

The Alltech scientists believe this innate immunity is critical to developing resistance to ectoparasites like sea lice. It is the basis for current efforts by Dawson, Filer and their team to expose young fish to the fraction early in life.

The MRF is a carbohydrate derived from the outer cell of a specific strain of yeast — Saccharomyces cerevisiae 1062 — using a proprietary process developed by Alltech. Its use as a feed supplement in terrestrial animals has been well-documented in more than 500 trials and numerous peer-reviewed papers, and recently its effectiveness in aquaculture has been established, according to an International Aquafeed article on gut morphology that Sweetman co-authored with Arkadios Dimitroglou, Simon Davies and Silvia Torrecillas.

The researchers reported that the MRF “not only improves the gastrointestinal morphology and therefore its function through an increased absorptive surface and better absorptive capability but also interacts with the immune system in a modulatory manner and alters enzymes. The combination of all these benefits results in better performance, livability and optimum immune response and therefore gives a more cost-effective production of interest to the commercial producer.”

As salmon begin to mature, they adapt for life in salt water in an intermediary stage known as smolting, which Filer sees an opportune time for priming their immune system by exposure to novel feed ingredients.

“The mucous system of the fish is considered a portion of their innate immunity,” he explained. “So, it would enhance their mucous production, and then when they’re put out to sea, it would enable them to be able to fight those ectoparasites.”

“That was extremely interesting for us in the aquaculture industry, because the mucus associated with the gut is a key component of the innate immune system,” said Sweetman, whose original work got underway in the Mediterranean in 2004 with an initial trial among salmon, sea bass and bream.

“A fish is exposed to the environment, and the first point of contact of the environment is on the mucosal layer, the skin, the gills and the gut of the fish,” he said. “That’s where opportunistic pathogens and other insults are derived from water. So, if we can improve the mucosal status and the gut structure associated with poultry, we should be able to do it with fish.”

Alltech is currently supplying an MRF product to the Norwegian salmon industry. When used as a feed supplement, it has been shown to increase external mucous production on the surface of the fish, which improves overall innate immunity and disease resistance of the fish. Active supplementation has reduced sea lice infections by up to 57 percent, according to Sweetman.

This is a novel approach for nutritionally enhancing disease resistance and controlling the pesky sea lice.

"In looking to the future, the industry will have an additional tool in the arsenal to improve the resistance of salmon to sea lice infections," said Dawson. "This tool will be a centerpiece of advanced control mechanisms as new and more effective ways of administering the supplements become available."

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