An international research team at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom has established a link between the outcome of COVID-19 cases and the regional selenium status of people in China. The data was based on the real-time numbers of confirmed cases, recovery rates and mortality rates in each province or city. When analyzing these populations, researchers observed an association between the population’s selenium status (based on hair samples) and the rates of recovery (Figure 1).

In the Hubei province, whose capital is Wuhan, it was found that Enshi City had recovery rates that were 36.4% higher than other cities within the region, where the overall recovery rate was 13.1%. Enshi City is known for its high selenium status. Outside of Hubei, in the Heilongjian province of north-eastern China, where the selenium status is notoriously low, a 2.4% increase in mortality rates was observed.

China is home to people with both the lowest and highest selenium statuses in the world. Geographical differences across the country result in varied soil compositions, which can alter selenium levels. It is these differences in soil selenium levels that influence how much of the trace mineral enters the food chain from livestock feed, meat, milk and eggs, and the end consumer. Therefore, human selenium intake is very much dependent on the environment in which the crops, plants and livestock are raised.

Figure 1: Correlation between COVID-19 recovery rate in 17 cities outside Hubei, China, on February 18, 2020, and city population selenium status (hair selenium concentration) analyzed using statistical methods (mean ± SD = 35.5 ± 11.1, R2 = 0.72, F test P < 0.0001) Copyright ^© Rayman et al., on behalf of the American Society for Nutrition, 2020.

Selenium and its role in immune defense

Selenium is an essential trace element for both humans and animals and is required in small amounts for normal health, growth, reproduction and immune defense. It also provides a source of antioxidants, which help to address diseases related to oxidative stress.

Previous studies have shown the antiviral effects of selenium and have linked the evolution and spread of viral infectious diseases, such as swine flu and bird flu, to areas where soil selenium levels are lower (Harthill, 2011). Other studies have observed more severe viral symptoms and infection rates when dietary selenium is low (Beck et al., 2001).

Viruses produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) as part of their biological makeup. These ROS are believed to be combated by glutathione peroxidase, an important antioxidant for cellular defense in which selenium plays a major role. As such, it is believed that several cellular and viral mechanisms involving selenium and selenium-containing proteins can influence the outcome of viral infections.

Selenium and functional food: What do these findings mean for human health?

It is important that we consume a well-balanced diet that incorporates adequate amounts of selenium to maintain our antioxidant capacity and immune defense. According to U.S. standards, the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for selenium in humans is 55 micrograms a day.

Dietary sources of selenium include nuts, grains and vegetables, with Brazil nuts being the richest source of selenium. However, their content is highly variable and can range from 0.03 to 512 micrograms, the latter level being potentially harmful. In vegetables, up to 40% of selenium can be lost through cooking.

Highly bioavailable and organic forms of selenium have kick-started a new era in the availability of selenium-enriched products. Enriched meat, milk and eggs that contain up to 35 micrograms of selenium (more than 50% of the RDA) have been successfully developed and tested using SEL-PLEX^®, Alltech’s proprietary selenium-enriched yeast (Surai et al., 2009). Livestock that are supplemented with selenium-enriched yeast show improved health, disease resistance, fertility and antioxidant capacity. Due to the high bioavailability of organic selenium-enriched yeast, the trace mineral is effectively transferred to subsequent animal products. The result is meat, milk and eggs with consistently higher selenium levels that are available to us for consumption.

As we can see from this population study, organic selenium-enriched yeast could provide a promising development in functional food for human immunity and general health.

References are available upon request.

In the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic, many people are understandably concerned about their health and are looking for ways to decrease the likelihood that they will get sick in the future. Fortunately, there are several easy steps we can all take to improve our health right now and protect ourselves from illness down the road.

Amy Goodson, a registered dietician, addressed this subject at the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience with a presentation entitled “Preexisting Conditions: Health and Immunity in a Post-COVID-19 World.” In this presentation, Amy outlined five major preexisting medical conditions that can increase everyone’s risk of disease. However, she also included easy ways to decrease your likelihood of getting sick.

“There are so many things that you can start doing today to lower your risk for any type of disease,” she said.

5 big illnesses to keep an eye on

The five primary diseases and issues that increase everyone’s risk of disease are:

• Obesity
• Heart disease
• Hypertension
• Type 2 diabetes
• Lack of exercise

“All of these things together can really put a person in that vulnerable population or at a greater risk to suffer when it comes to other diseases and health concerns,” said Amy.

Despite how overwhelming it may feel to try to take on these significant issues, Amy assured that there are reasonable and straightforward ways to gradually move toward better health.

“A lot of times, people hear, ‘Oh, you should lower your risk for heart disease or for diabetes,’ and they don't know how to do that,” she acknowledged. “We're going to dial in on some easy, practical tips and help you set an action plan so that you can move forward into the next healthy step for you.”

1. Obesity

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2016, around 650 million people were categorized as obese. Being obese can impact other aspects of human health as well, elevating a person’s risk for heart disease, stroke, insulin resistance and even some kinds of cancers.

So, how can we combat a condition that is so widespread? According to Amy, the upside is that, for most people, obesity is preventable, and weight is something that can be controlled by taking three simple but crucial steps: “Eat healthier, eat less and move more.”

Some of Amy’s recommendations for eating a healthier diet include consuming more nutrient-dense foods, eating a carbohydrate and a protein at every meal and snack and following the “80/20 rule” — that is, sticking to the health guidelines 80% of the time and splurging on higher-calorie foods or sweets 20% of the time. After all, man cannot live on vegetables alone, and even registered dieticians like Amy do not recommend trying to.

“We want you to be on an eating plan that you can really maintain throughout the rest of your life,” she said.

2. Heart disease

The WHO estimates that 17.9 million people die every year from cardiovascular disease, accounting for 31% of all deaths worldwide.

While some people have a higher risk of heart disease based on their family history, there are simple ways we can all keep our hearts healthy. One of the most important things to do, according to Amy, is to “know your numbers” — that is, your cholesterol, your triglycerides and other important measurements you can learn by visiting the doctor’s office. 

“Many people think they're healthy, and they haven't been to the doctor in years, so it's very important that you go see your physician,” said Amy.

Some other ways to improve your heart health are increasing your fiber intake, consuming more “good” unsaturated fats — like those found in olive oil, avocados and nuts — and eating less “bad” trans fats, which are often found in processed and fried foods.

3. Hypertension

In 2015, 1 in 4 men and 1 in 5 women around the world reportedly had hypertension, or high blood pressure — and even more alarmingly, less than 1 in 5 of those people had the problem under control, which explains why hypertension is one of the leading causes of premature death.

Much of the advice for mitigating the risk of obesity and heart disease also rings true for decreasing blood pressure or managing hypertension, including moving more and eating healthier foods, especially those with less sodium. As Amy reinforced, it all comes back to taking the small steps that have a big impact.

“What we want to do today is focus on or change what we can control,” she said.

Some of those changes include taking 10,000 steps every day and reducing your sodium intake, which many doctors recommend keeping under 2,300 milligrams per day.

4. Type 2 diabetes

“There are millions (of people in the world) — more than the whole population of the United States — (who) have diabetes, so this is something that concerns me,” Amy said.  

A person is diagnosed with diabetes when their blood sugar levels are too high. Type 2 diabetes results from the body’s resistance to insulin, a hormone that helps transform sugar into energy. This differs from type 1 diabetes, which is often diagnosed in childhood and is the result of the body not being able to make insulin at all.

Hundreds of millions of people have an elevated risk of developing type 2 diabetes, which is associated with a host of other health problems, including damaged nerves, worsening eyesight, foot sores and kidney failure.

Much like with the other major health risks, the key to avoiding or managing type 2 diabetes is eating more healthy foods. Amy explained the importance of “shaping a healthy plate,” which should include a carbohydrate (e.g., whole grains), a protein (such as lean meats) and a fat (like avocados) at every meal, along with plenty of vegetables.

5. Lack of exercise

“We know that, globally, 1 in 4 adults do not get enough exercise,” said Amy. “We need everyone across the world to get moving more.”

Along with the obvious benefits of exercise, such as developing muscle mass and managing weight, insufficient physical activity is a key risk factor for developing non-communicable diseases, like cancer and diabetes. However, as many people know, starting an exercise routine often feels like a hurdle as tall as Mount Everest.

“If it was easy, everybody would be doing it,” said Amy, “(but) there's a lot of practical ways that you can begin to include activity in your day on a regular basis.”  

To reduce the risk of chronic disease, Amy recommended that adults exercise at a moderate intensity level for at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week. That doesn’t necessarily mean exercising for 30 minutes in one go; it could mean taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking further away from an entrance and doing sit-ups during commercial breaks while watching TV.

For those who need more motivation to get moving, Amy pointed out that exercise has health benefits that go beyond the physical: it has been scientifically proven to elevate a person’s mood. 

“We live in a world that's stressful, and exercise is a healthy way to really relieve some of that stress and anxiety that many of us experience,” Amy said.

Taking the first step

So, what can you start doing now to decrease your risk for these illnesses and their negative side effects? For Amy, it’s all about starting small.

“I'm a big believer that small changes, made consistently, can add up to big results,” she said.  

Develop a personal action plan that will mesh with your life. Some of your first steps might include:

• Setting one or two small goals and working to make those a habit over the next month
• Going to the doctor
• Aiming to get three planned days of exercise a week

Amy also recommended finding an “accountability partner” or someone who can help motivate you to stay on track as you begin the journey to better health.

“It's hard to choose the best (food) options and exercise, but oftentimes, if you have someone to do it with you, it makes it a little bit easier,” she said.

Just like with COVID-19, protecting yourself from these five major health risks can seem daunting — but starting small can lead to significant changes in the long run.

“I just want to encourage you to take a step -- whatever that step is, and it's going to be different for everybody,” she said. “It doesn't have to be a big step. But small steps really can create healthy habits so that, in the future, you're not in that vulnerable population.”

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There is something about the smell of grandma’s cooking, the sound of uncorking a bottle of wine and the look of a perfectly green avocado sliced down the middle. Smell, sound and appearance affect the way we taste our favorite foods. This information is critical to understanding how to solve our current food crisis — a crisis that involves the growing population, heightened instances of disease and the search for an ethical and sustainable food supply.

Dr. Dan Han, Psy.D., CELM, FANA, chief of clinical neuropsychology services at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, presented on this subject during the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience health and wellness session. How we feed the world moving forward is about more than just producing a sustainable food source— it’s about making it desirable. The way our brains analyze food and perceive flavor is known as neurogastronomy. But how can this scientific art help solve the future of food?

Current challenges

With a global food crisis quickly approaching, what specific challenges are humans facing with the current status quo? Dr. Han highlighted three major issues:

1. Population growth.

The U.N. projects that there will be 9 billion people on the planet by 2050, and we need to know how we plan to feed them all.

2. Food insecurity.

Food insecurity is defined as the disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of a lack of money and other resources. And in the U.S. alone, 13% of the population — roughly 40 million people — are experiencing food insecurity.

“As an immigrant myself, when I came to the states in 1987, food insecurity was just not a part of the American dream. It was something that was unthinkable,” Dr. Han reminisced. “For a country that I love, that really hits home for me personally, so I wanted to see what I could do.”  

3. Disease.

Our diets play a heavy role in our health, and it’s no secret that unhealthy food options are cheap and easily accessible. However, they can also cause disease.

“Because of our sedentary lifestyle and cultural changes, in terms of food, exposure and the types of foods (we eat),” explained Dr. Han, “we have, as a species, developed post-industrialization, cultural- and lifestyle-specific diseases that come from readily accessible sweets, unhealthy drinks, fast food and so on.”

Some of those diseases include:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Arthritis
• Asthma
• Subtypes of cancer
• Chronic liver disease
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Metabolic syndromes
• Renal failure
• Osteoporosis
• Stroke
• Depression
• Obesity
• Type 2 diabetes
• Heart disease and other vascular diseases

“Now, I am not the type to scold certain types of food industries, because God knows I enjoy a burger every now and then, and I certainly enjoy bourbon, being in Kentucky — all in moderation,” clarified Dr. Han. “The concept here that we need to prioritize is the concept of plenty, but in the right way. But when it’s executed in the wrong way, the consequence and the unseen side effects of certain types of overproduction are going to be affecting our individual health and our global health.”

Experts needed

Dr. Han proposed that what we need is an interdisciplinary solution. We need scientists, clinicians, agriculturalists, chefs, dieticians and specialists in various fields to partner up and use their individual expertise to solve this global crisis.  

“Everybody really needs to come together and bring their contributions and put them on the table so that we can integrate them for a planet of plenty,” explained Dr. Han.

Why is it important for people with different expertise to be involved in this effort? When leaders of different fields analyze their individual data, they tend to be blinded by “confirmatory biases”; there can be a tendency to read only the data that fulfills our narrative and pertains to a specific field. Preferably, various experts could work alongside one another and have a bird’s-eye-view of the full picture to better analyze the data.

Reference:  Cartoon of the blind men and the elephant. G. Renee Guzlas. Source: http://www.nature.com/ki/journal/v62/n5/fig_tab/4493262f1.html

Dr. Han referenced the parable of the blind men and the elephant but used scientists in his example. If one expert is looking at an elephant’s tail, it may seem like a rope. The trunk? A snake. The ear? A fan. However, if they were to take a step back and look at the data they have compiled as a whole, they would see the elephant — meaning their data would feature unobstructed, unbiased results. This teamwork is necessary in order to find the solution to feeding the growing population.

“While I respect all of my colleagues in many different fields, I personally have witnessed magic and beautiful data science illustrations come to light when everybody took off their blindfolds, came together and looked at the overall picture together,” said Dr. Han.

Now that a team of experts has been identified as a solution to our food crisis, how could this solution be implemented?

“A bunch of folks got together representing different fields and coined the term ‘neurogastronomy,’” Dr. Han explained.

The combination of culinary arts and sciences

Neurogastronomy is the pre-olfaction state visual data encoding, perceptual proliferation and episodic memory recall, followed by orthonasal and restronasal olfactory neural circuits interfacing gustatory experiential reward systems.

Need a translation? Here’s how Dr. Han defines it:

“What is neurogastronomy? It’s about food!” he said. “It’s about delicious food. It’s about food that’s in demand. It’s about creating supply scientifically and correctly and ethically so that we could address health and sustainability.”

If we better understand how people experience food, we can better create a healthy and sustainable supply.

Neurogastronomy is a combination of science and the culinary arts. By combining these different areas of expertise, there is a new ability to dissect the different flavors and appetites that contribute to clinical disease. On a macro level, this helps us focus on sustainability issues by “introducing this interdisciplinary concept by using what we know about flavor, smell, taste and the individual appetite,” explained Dr. Han.

While it’s easy to claim that we need to introduce healthier, more sustainable ingredients into our diets, people still won’t respond to these ingredients if they don’t taste good. Stimuli such as “colors, ambiance, lighting, the sound a chip makes when you bite into a crisp potato chip” all effect how we experience food. There various stimuli can help achieve the goal of an ethical and sustainable food supply:

1. Smell. “Taste is conceptualized as flavor,” explained Dr. Han. “Taste is formed by smell. That is why, when you have allergies, you can’t taste anything.” Therefore, the way food smells will amplify taste and elevate an individual’s experience with food.

2. Visuals. The food industry needs to prioritize visual stimuli when presenting food. But this is about much more than just presenting food in an aesthetically pleasing fashion.

For example, Dr. Han explains how people associate certain colors with certain tastes:

• White: Salty
• Brown: Bitter
• Green: Sour
• Red: Sweet

However, while we associate specific tastes with colors, the visual stimuli of how food is served requires a different set of rules. Dr. Han explained how a study in Great Britain showed that even though red food is associated with a sweet taste, a red plate is associated with danger. When food was served on a blue plate, on the other hand, consumption increased from 114 g to 152 g.

3. The brain: Structural, systemic and mechanical issues in the brain help us gain knowledge to create healthier ingredients, a better supply and the ethical distribution of ingredients that are more carbon-neutral and good for the environment “while satiating the demand of the human species,” said Dr. Han. Hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling (or touch) are all intertwined as a network in the brain. If we know how the brain responds to those variables, Dr. Han says that we can manipulate them for a more ethical and higher-yield gain.

Wrapping it up

The task at hand is daunting: creating enough food to feed our growing population while ensuring that it is healthy, sustainable and appetizing. Through neurogastronomy, experts can examine how our brains perceive flavor and, ultimately, help reshape the future of food.

Visit one.alltech.com for more information.

As humans, we like to celebrate our individuality. Whether we do this through the clothes we wear, the cars we drive or the pastimes we pursue, we make a point of filling our lives with things that complement and accentuate our personalities.

However, there are certain times in life that we favor the generic over the unique, especially when it comes to our health and well-being. From popular diets to prescription medicine, we are usually pointed in the direction of treatments that work best for the majority, with the assumption that they will work for us too. In reality, this is not always the case, as Dr. Matt Dawson, founder and CEO of Wild Health, explained during his presentation at the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience.

“You are not a statistic, and medicine shouldn't treat you like you're a statistic,” Matt said. “We really should not be giving you medications or treatments based on epidemiology and population studies.”

This ideology creates the foundational ethos of Wild Health, which endeavors to deliver personalized and precision medicine based on an individual’s genetic makeup and lifestyle. In order to formulate this bespoke medical care, there are certain fundamental aspects that Matt and his team look at.

1. DNA

The idea for Wild Health came when Matt’s cofounder, Dr. Mike Mallin, learned that his cholesterol numbers were less than ideal. Matt found this shocking and worrisome, mainly because he could not understand why.

“At the time, we were in our mid-30s, we were eating what we thought was a perfect diet, we were doing ultra-marathons, and this just didn’t make sense,” explained Matt. “We thought we were doing all the right things.”

To combat the problem, Mike went down the typical treatment route. Matt advised a well-researched and supported diet, and his doctor prescribed him the same medication he would for any patient with high cholesterol. However, Mike’s situation got worse, so the pair started investigating other options. This was when they came to realize that, by looking at a patient’s DNA, it was possible to tailor personalized treatments. Looking at Mike’s genetics, they were able to pinpoint the exact strands of DNA that were inhibiting his recovery, and they altered his diet in order to work around those issues. From this initial success, they furthered their research, developed their process and finally established the business they run today.

According to Matt, genomics can tell us a lot about what our body needs and wants. Beyond nutrition and diet, studying our DNA can show us what types of exercise we are most suited to and much more. This information is key to developing tailor-made and personalized treatments.

2. The overall picture

While genomics plays a huge part in your overall health and is the first thing that Matt looks at when developing treatments, he admits that it is not the only factor taken into consideration.

“Looking at your DNA is really important; it's like your human operating system,” explained Matt. “But it's not the whole picture. Health and wellness, and your longevity, is about 20% genetics, but most of it is actually epigenetics too.”

This is because our lifestyle affects how our genetics operate, and if they do not support one another, we cannot achieve optimal health. Matt reckons that there are four foundational needs to be accounted for:

• Exercise
• Nutrition
• Sleep
• Stress and relationships

This means that when creating the ideal treatment, Matt needs to look at the patient’s current state of well-being, too, through both medical tests and by simply having a conversation about their lifestyle. By doing this, he can see how a person is already addressing, or neglecting, the strengths and weaknesses in their genetic makeup.

“As much as we like to talk about peptides and all these small molecules and other medications that can make a big difference,” admitted Matt, “they really dwarf in comparison to the basics.”

For example, a person’s DNA may show that they require more than the average dose of vitamin D — but if they spend a lot of time outdoors, they could already be taking in the necessary amount.

By combining these results with the genomic profile, Matt can begin to set a person on the right path to optimized health.

3. Personal preference

The final consideration for the perfect, personalized health plan is the most subjective of them all: personal preference. After all, as Matt reasons, the perfect treatment is the one that appeals most to the patient.

“That’s critically important,” stated Matt. “If we give you the perfect diet for you, but it’s not things you’re going to eat, then we’ve wasted our time.”

By combining all of these factors, Wild Health is at the forefront of a new way of approaching medicine. Matt’s work shows and continues to build on the fact that by taking our individual quirks and traits into consideration, we can find medical care that not only optimizes our health but appeals to us too.

Visit one.alltech.com for more information.

The way the public and the media perceive animal agriculture’s environmental impact can, and should, change. New research from Oxford University and the University of California, Davis have recently debunked some of the most critical and long-standing myths surrounding animal agriculture. But can this breakthrough overcome animal agriculture’s bad reputation?

The current narrative about animal agriculture says that ruminant livestock animals (e.g., beef cattle, dairy cattle, etc.) produce methane. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Thus, animal agriculture is bad for the environment.

During a keynote presentation for the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience, Dr. Frank Mitloehner, professor at the University of California, Davis and air quality specialist, boldly proclaimed a path for animal agriculture to become climate-neutral.

Yes, “you heard me right — climate-neutral,” said Dr. Mitloehner. He said he would like to, “get us to a place where we have the impacts of animal agriculture that are not detrimental to our climate.”

Important Greenhouse Gases to Know

3 myths about animal agriculture’s environmental impact debunked

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Post-COVID, there will not be a “return to normal.” According to Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech, now, more than ever, we must take a leap of faith and recognize that it is up to us to make positive changes in our “new normal.” COVID-19 presents monumental challenges, but also innovative opportunities, particularly in agriculture.

“We can see that ag is not a problem to be solved, but is a potential solution,” said Dr. Lyons, “and we’ve heard so many examples and so many ideas this week of ways that we can do just that.”

In his closing keynote presentation, Dr. Lyons shared his key takeaways from the launch week of the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience, which features on-demand insights from leading experts in agriculture and beyond. Many of the highlights illustrated Alltech’s Planet of Plenty™ vision of promise, possibility and positivity for the future, which centers on the belief that a world of abundance is achievable, but it will take all of us working together.

Leadership is not a title — it is action

Now is a time for leadership, both at individual companies and in the agriculture industry as a whole. However, we may need to tweak our idea of what makes a great leader.

“Leadership is not a title,” said Dr. Lyons. “Leadership, to me, is an action. You aren’t a leader because you hold a certain position or a certain role. Much as we’ve heard that love is a verb, something active, so is leadership.”

He noted that in a crisis, a leader must exemplify three traits:

1. Decision-making

2. Confidence

3. Trust in their people

There is, however, one important thing that can undermine leadership: ego.

“In a crisis, a leader must put their ego aside,” said Dr. Lyons. “We as leaders must realize that the decisions we are making are impacting so many more people and in much more profound ways during a crisis. In that regard, our personal well-being and our interests must be subjugated to the importance of others’.”

Already, we are seeing many examples of people setting aside their differences, coming together and thinking through challenges creatively. These, Dr. Lyons said, are the teams that will win in a crisis.

We must listen to the experts

An important component of Alltech’s Planet of Plenty vision is the need to listen to our experts, from farmers to scientists to economists, as well as those from many other professions. Even when we do not like the ideas that experts present, it is important that we acknowledge them.

“We need to take the time and energy to understand them and, if we agree, put a little more energy in and make sure we can communicate these ideas to a broader audience,” said Dr. Lyons. “Their insights and their ideas often hold the key to not only those new innovations, but the mere survival, at times, of our industry and our society. Making sure that we are giving time to those experts, I hope, will be a legacy of this time.”

We could be seeing a resurgence in the public’s openness to listening to experts. Their insights could make all the difference in helping us achieve a more abundant world for everyone.

Telling your story, and the story of agriculture, is critical

Trust has become the new currency of our time. Consumers are voting for brands that they trust with their money and their loyalty. Brands that showed up during COVID-19 with a strong focus on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects of their businesses, from treating their employees well to sustainability, will come out ahead.

It is important to tell these often hidden and unrecognized stories of agriculture and to celebrate the unsung heroes who put food on the table for families every day — from dairy operations harnessing cow manure to generate electricity to using insects as a sustainable protein source or farming cattle and trees together.

“You, and the stories you tell, are important,” said Dr. Lyons. “Your legacy is part of this whole story, and part of what is at stake. How and why the world is different because of what you do is an important aspect of that story, and it’s possibly one of the most important things you can do.

“Sharing your story of purpose is such a powerful thing,” he continued, “not simply because it builds the understanding of others, but it also gives them the right to do the same, and to feel empowered and make a change.”

We must unify and take action, today, for the future of agriculture and our planet

“We are on a journey, a journey of sustainability, and we’ve learned this week that this is never a destination,” said Dr. Lyons. “It’s something that we will be constantly changing, as we always have.”

On this journey, the only way that we can move forward is together. Luckily, at this moment of widespread virtual networking, Dr. Lyons believes a democracy has been created and has fostered an ability to connect across all levels and positions, increasing the spread of information and ideas.

The Alltech ONE Virtual Experience illustrates this perfectly, bringing more than 23,000 attendees from 118 countries together, which is roughly seven times the number of attendees previously seen at Alltech’s annual, in-person conference in Lexington, Kentucky.

Coming together as ONE team with many ideas represents the best chance we have to make positive change.

“If we unify and we take action, we can connect with leaders, we can bring about change,” said Dr. Lyons. “If we don’t, we will look at ourselves at this time next year and say that we missed that golden opportunity. What we need right now is that unified action to make sure that we make this difference and provide for this planet in an even better way than we have in the past, and truly create that Planet of Plenty.”

Visit one.alltech.com for more information.

“We can't say that there's any kind of normalized patterns that we can run by anymore,” said Lynda McDonald, dairy development project manager of Tetra Laval in Africa, in a discussion about the dairy industry in the time of COVID-19 at the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience.

McDonald was the first panelist to speak at “The Next Normal for Agri-Food,” a keynote session moderated by Professor Damien McLoughlin, Anthony C. Cunningham Professor of Marketing at the University College Dublin (UCD) Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.

McLoughlin capitalized on the panel members’ expertise in different sectors, namely dairy, swine and poultry, to discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on global agribusiness and future implications. Joining the discussion were industry leaders Dr. Gordon Spronk, a vet by training and co-founder of the Pipestone System for pig production in the U.S., and Philip Wilkinson, a senior leader of several global poultry businesses and vice president of the Association of Poultry Processors and Poultry Trade in the EU (AVEC).

The panelists each used one word to describe the state of their industry right now; McDonald said “chaos” when talking about the dairy industry, Spronk chose “unprecedented” for the pork industry and Wilkinson used “alarming” when citing the figures in the poultry industry.

Key takeaways

1. There are similar challenges across agri-food industries due to COVID-19 regarding:

- A change in foodservice demand and consumption habits: A significant volume of out-of-home consumption was lost.

“When restaurants were closed, along with other foodservice entities, due to COVID-19 interventions, that decreased our demand,” said Spronk. According to him, restaurants and foodservice account for about 25% of the demand in the pork industry in the U.S.

Wilkinson estimated that for the poultry industry in northern Europe, that number would be about 20%.

McDonald shared that foodservice and restaurant sales are down 50% for dairy. Remarkably, however, during lockdown and panic-buying, dairy sales have gone up between 50–100%.

“So, it’s a chaotic jump, in terms of the switch from restaurants and foodservice to retail,” she said.

- The level of precision in the food supply chain: Restaurant shutdowns and plant closures due to government interventions created an issue of packaging in dairy, and an issue of weight in swine.  

In dairy, pack sizes and the types of dairy people are consuming are changing across the world. This leads to processors not being able to pack what is needed in time. In pig production, the fixed structure cannot handle a certain amount of weight or volume, which can become a safety issue. These issues have led to situations in the U.S. where milk is being dumped and pigs are being gassed or shot, while at the same time, there may be dairy and meat shortages in grocery stores.

This has happened because the system cannot support the demand in terms of market access. Spronk called this an “odd situation,” while McDonald said this is “heartbreaking,” especially considering the food insecurity many people face.

- Storage: Wilkinson mentioned that there are over half a million tons of chicken meat in freezers across Europe right now, and McDonald commented that the number is similar in dairy. She said that there will be about 500,000 tons of dairy going to storage by the end of May, which is comparable to what happened during the last economic shock. These products would typically have gone to foodservice and restaurants.

“At some stage, when we come out of lockdown and get back the new norm, it's still going to take some time for that volume to filter out in the market,” asserted Wilkinson. “This is going to be an 18-month issue, not an 18-week issue. That’s 18 months of price pressure.”

- Export: From a demand-and-supply point of view, McDonald suggested that three risks on the supply side are:

1. Farmers producing less: This can be the result of losing market access, losing credit to purchase feed, labor issues or immigration issues.

2. Governments losing their calm: Some governments are placing export bans on produce.

3. Stockpiling: This risk, when taken into consideration through the lens of exports, impacts traded calories around the world.

Referring to the U.S. swine industry, Spronk explained that 30% of the product is exported. With this in mind, he raised a question: “Do we really want to depend on exports?” He argued that, while the world of globalization says we should, if there is geopolitics at play, that is something producers need to consider.

Wilkinson claimed that, in Europe, there are some businesses and countries whose export policies have been to supply out-of-home consumption, and that is where the problem lies.

2. The moment of truth

Each expert offered their view of what can be learned from what we are seeing during the time of COVID-19. Their insights were that:

- A crisis highlights preexisting problems: “If there's any kind of fragility in the system, any kind of cracks or fissures that were already there previously, a crisis serves to highlight those,” said McDonald. “Many of the dairy systems are robust, functioning well and will continue to function well during this crisis and following.”

- This is an opportunity to learn your strengths and weaknesses: “Mike Tyson once said, ‘Everybody's got a plan until you get punched in the mouth,’” said Spronk. “And so, I'd recommend to any leader in agriculture and in foodservice to lead carefully every day. Never waste a good crisis. Learn what really are the weak and strong points of your team, and build on that.”

- It is harder to adapt when you are overly focused: “Those who are geared up purely to supply out-of-home companies aren’t able to capitalize on the upsurge in consumption from retail,” said Wilkinson. “So, if we find that this is going to be the new norm, countries that are producing high volumes of product are going to have to think again about where their market is or seriously consider looking at another way to utilize their agricultural land.”

3. Challenges present opportunities

- The overall demand for dairy is growing: McDonald argued that, as more people move from subsistence poverty into the middle class in the coming years, one of the first things that they will spend more on is better-quality proteins, including dairy, chicken, pork and beef.

- The poultry sector sees strong growth: “Every problem is an opportunity,” said Wilkinson. He affirmed that the poultry sector could respond quickly because of the short production cycle and because it is a massively consumed meat protein. “We’ve got a meat protein that is an amazing food converter,” he said. “We've got a meat protein that is amazing in terms of water consumption. It doesn't need a lot of space. You can turn it round in six, seven weeks. It is undoubtedly going to be up there in feeding 9–10 billion people going forward.”

- Appetite for local food: In Australia, there is a massive push for local food that is welfare-friendly, traceable and safe. “Australia is starting to move out of lockdown, and out-of-home consumption is starting to pick up there,” said Wilkinson. McDonald also shared that throughout the Muslim world, dairy demand has increased because they are currently in Ramadan. This means that there is a lot more local milk going into informal milk supplies.

- People are starting to return to plants and food services: Even though it will take time to reach full capacity, Spronk’s plants have all reopened. Restaurants that have been closed since the beginning of March are starting to open again as well.

- More testing and the appropriate interventions: Drawing from his veterinarian background and training, Spronk pointed out that swine veterinarians deal with viruses all the time, and it is necessary to run tests. “(Tests) also need to be applied to the communities in general,” he said. “We need to understand who is immune, where’s the virus. Then you can impose the appropriate interventions and let life go on as we know it.”

- A different way of organizing businesses: In China, nearly all production facilities have a dormitory on-site for the staff. Therefore, it is not unusual for staff to stay there for a period of time, which could last for weeks. “In this case, once COVID-19 was announced in China, we still have some farms where the staff has been there since January, before Chinese New Year,” said Spronk.

4. The future is bright for agri-food

Although COVID-19 has exposed problems in the food supply chain, there is hope for the future.

“Nothing's ever hopeless,” assured McDonald. “But it would take strong leadership and strong vision and commitment — commitment to really think about this in a long-term, systematically focused way.”

This means that global collaboration is needed to solve a complex problem with a systematic approach.

“If we just give food aid when these countries (in Africa) are going hungry, we risk disturbing the development of local agriculture,” said McDonald. “So, we're having a negative impact long-term. And we need to be very outcome-focused rather than consequentially focused.”

From a poultry-sector perspective, Wilkinson believes the future is bright for chicken when we get through this, and the industry has got to be better and stronger as a result.

“We will have no doubt whatsoever in feeding 10 billion people,” he said. “It's doable. And we can do it. There are going to be lots of opportunities to grow efficient businesses. There will be further consolidations of the industry. There will be fewer but bigger players. This is going to be an opportunistic time for the lean and the mean to get a bigger presence, particularly in the emerging markets.”

On that note, McLoughlin thanked the panelists for their extraordinary global insights.

“We went from the chaos and destruction of COVID-19 is wreaking in the food supply chain around the world to, I think, a very hopeful message that, in these three supply chains, there is resilience. There is strength,” he concluded. “Whether it's the structure of the European Union business, the character of the U.S. swine industry, the structure and resilience of the global poultry business, this too will pass. There are opportunities for those businesses which are led properly.”

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“I want us all to imagine that we are in 2050, and we’re looking back on this moment, this day, and we ask ourselves: did we do everything that we could do to make the world the place that we want it to be?”

Jack Bobo, CEO of Futurity, opened his keynote presentation at the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience with a challenging question for the audience. If our mission is for a better future of food and agriculture, what can we do to achieve this? The answer begins with a simple yet effective solution: we need to listen to the narratives surrounding these industries.

“We give meaning to the world around us through the stories that we tell… so today in my presentation, I’d like to talk about three different stories of what food and agriculture means.”

The three stories Bobo focused on were those of:

1. Conservationists.
2. Consumers.
3. Farmers.

These three groups of people have one goal: a plentiful future of food and agriculture. However, these three groups tend to actively work against each other. But why is that?

Starting with conservationists and the planet

In 2018, the World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report documented that 60% of wildlife populations on the planet have disappeared between 1970 and 2014. We also know that 20% of the Amazon has disappeared in the last 50 years.

“So, this dramatic loss in biodiversity has occurred within the lifetimes of many of us,” said Bobo. “Biodiversity is undergoing this incredible challenge, and things are not looking good.”

According to these findings, the future will suffer the same trend of degrading biodiversity.

“So, we have this tremendous challenge of not destroying all of our wild spaces,” said Bobo. However, the bigger question is, “How do we make sure that we leave a world for our children that’s as good or better than the one we received?”

Many people wonder: Is agriculture the problem or solution to our conservation struggles? People tend to believe the former, yet Bobo is not convinced.

“But how do we talk about it?” asked Bobo. “What’s the story that we need to tell?”

The stories we hear about biodiversity tell us that:

1. Of global respondents, 80% believe that poverty has either increased or remained the same over the past 20 years.
2. The food system is broken, and agriculture is failing the people around us.
3. All deforestation is due to agriculture.
4. We do not have the means to feed the rapidly growing population.

The stories we need to tell about biodiversity are that:

1. Statistically, there is less poverty than there was 20 years ago — “Yet the public,” said Bobo, “think things are getting worse.”
2. We are producing more food on the same amount of land than we were 50–60 years ago — “This is important,” said Bobo. “If food production stays ahead of population growth, well, that means people become better fed, they rise out of poverty, nutrition and hunger disease.”
3. Better productivity and higher yields mean more food is being produced due to higher efficiency — “Improved productivity has saved a billion hectares of forest around the world. So more than a quarter of all the forest — nearly a third of all the forest — would be gone today without productivity increases.”
4. The rate of population growth was at its highest in 1968 when we were growing at 2.1% per year. However, today we are growing at about 1% per year. As we continue to project toward the future, that number will keep going down. Because population growth will slow dramatically but, “if that productivity was to continue, every day after 2050, it gets easier to feed the world,” said Bobo.

“And so, I want to look at this question of sustainability, and how it impacts the stories we tell about the world we live in,” explained Bobo.

Diving into sustainability with consumers

Bobo says that sustainability is not a destination — it is a journey. However, sustainability means different things to different people. Is it organic food? Regenerative agriculture? GMOs? Consumers, in particular, seem the most concerned about sustainability in agriculture.

The stories we hear about sustainability are that:

1. Farmers need to use less fertilizer and insecticide in order to reduce run-off into the local environment.
2. We need to farm organically.
3. Europe has pushed to intensive agriculture and is reducing the amount of fertilizer they use and the size of their farms. This should be a global initiative.

The stories we need to tell about sustainability are that:

1. It is a challenge for farmers to use less insecticide and fertilizer because it means that they will probably produce less food — “If you produce less food on that farm, that means you’re going to need more farms,” explained Bobo.
2. Organic agriculture produces 20–30% less food. If the whole world farmed organically, we would need to dedicate another 20­–30% to farms, and 40% of all the land on earth is already allocated to agriculture. This would have a devastating impact, according to Bobo, including the loss of our forests.
3. Europe practices intensive agriculture but also imports 70% of its animal feed needs. Most of their imports come from Brazil, the country with the greatest level of deforestation — “So, in many ways, Europe has exported its environmental footprint to arguably the most biodiverse country on the planet,” said Bobo.

No matter how you dissect it, it is clear that we have a problem: we need to produce more food. The Food and Agriculture Organization states that we are going to need 50–60% more food by 2050, but why is that the case if we are only going to see about 20% more people? This is directly due to an improvement in income and overall wellbeing, and when people are making money and feeling well, they buy more animal protein. Yet more protein means more crops to feed animals, hence, a spike in food production.

“The former director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Jacques Diouf, once said that the amount of food that needs to be produced in the next 40 or 50 years is equivalent to the amount of food that was produced in the last 10,00 years,” explained Bobo. “Let me repeat that. The amount of food we need to produce in the next 40 or 50 years is greater than the amount of food produced in the last 10,000 years of human civilization.”

The challenge is daunting, and while agriculture is getting better, it is not getting better fast enough.

There are no silver bullets to solve this challenge, but we do know that we need to increase our food production as sustainably as possible.

Bobo explored possible solutions, such as:

• Shifting diets: Many people believe that becoming a vegan or vegetarian is the solution to the problem. It is important to think about changing our diets to improve our health, but is this the way to also improve the environment? — “It’s not going to solve all of our problems,” said Bobo. He further explained that, even if the United States and Europe shifted their diets completely, people from low-income countries will be making more money in the next 30 years, which means they will be eating more protein. “So, shifting diets is important, but it can’t solve the problem all by itself.”
• Food waste: A third of all food produced is lost to food waste. In developed countries, a third of food is wasted post-consumer. But, in third-world countries, food is wasted because of loss in the fields, supply chain and storage — “If we could somehow address that third of food that’s lost through food waste, then that would get us most of the way to our challenge,” explained Bobo. However, there are so many types of food waste (storage, distribution, consumer, field) and food waste issues with different products (tomatoes, soybeans, corn, cantaloupes) that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to solving the issue.
• Technology: There are high-tech solutions, like gene editing and genetic engineering, and abundant ag-tech data that proves cover crops produce a higher return on investment and a lower environmental footprint.
• Alternative proteins: “Of course, these alternative proteins are part of the solution,” said Bobo. “The problem we have, though, is that companies that are producing these different products… they’re talking about them as the solution. That plant-based proteins can eliminate livestock. That cell-based agriculture is going to make dairy obsolete.” This approach suggests that there is a silver-bullet solution to a really complex problem, “and as we’ve already discussed,” said Bobo, “there’s not one solution to the problem.” Bobo also notes that the protein market is a trillion-dollar opportunity and will only get bigger in 2050. “And so, who really believes that plant-based meat is going to become a trillion-dollar industry in just 30 years?” asked Bobo.

These solutions are all necessary for achieving sustainability. However, they have become competitors in the market rather than working together as a single solution. Bobo says we need to think about what the future will look like, and work toward opportunities instead of focusing on problems.

“We don’t need one solution,” explained Bobo. “We need them all.”

Actively working on these solutions with farmers is the best and most effective way to achieve the goals of conservationists and consumers.

Working with farmers

“I’m just happy that consumers and conservationists are now joining farmers on this journey of sustainability,” said Bobo. “Because we could use their help. Instead of framing it as agriculture is the problem to be solved, we need to help them to understand that agriculture is the solution to the problem.”

What we find from data collected by the World Resources Institute is that if agriculture continues to improve the way it has been, 60% of the gains we need to achieve a sustainable future will happen just by farmers continuing what they are already doing. The data also talks about incentivizing steps that will increase productivity and improve efficiency in:

1. Livestock production.
2. Reducing methane emissions.
3. Using less fertilizer.

“Well, efficiency is something farmers want to do… So, these are huge opportunities. These are not challenges,” said Bobo.

However, if agriculture is the solution to our problem — the answer to improving the future of food — then why do we still hear that agriculture is the problem to be solved?

“Why do we talk about a broken food system when the food system was never not broken?” asked Bobo.

While it may be broken, Bobo assured the audience that the food system is better than it has ever been, and it will only continue to get better every day. But it is just not happening fast enough. Yet if we continue to spend our time spreading false stories and narratives about farmers being the problem, we cannot actively work with them toward a solution.

Organic agriculture may be critical to saving the planet, but it does not mean that genetic engineering and gene editing are not.

New alternative proteins are critical to saving the planet, but so are dairy farms and livestock production.

“It takes a menu of solutions to solve a problem,” explained Bobo.

Final thoughts

Bobo asked us an important question at the beginning of his presentation: Thirty years from now, will we be confident that we did everything that we could do to make the world the place that we want it to be?

Again, conservationists, consumers and farmers all want the same thing: a safe, plentiful and sustainable future of food and agriculture. The only way to achieve that goal is to start telling the same story, even if we are not always on the same page.

“Because if we do that,” said Bobo, “we all can save the planet.”

Visit one.alltech.com for more information.

The COVID-19 pandemic is transforming the way we buy and sell food, perhaps forever. This time of upheaval will determine who in the food industry will surge ahead and who will get left behind.

According to Jessica Adelman, former Kroger executive and CEO of ESG Results, in 2015, for the first time in history, the consumption of food prepared outside the home was greater than the amount of food prepared at home. However, as a result of COVID-19, sector analysts are predicting a $100-billion shift back from restaurants and food service to the retail space. Between March 9 and March 22, 2020, the internet saw a 60% increase in cooking-related tweets, as well as 250,000 tweets about ordering and delivery. This represents a seismic shift — a 294% increase in talking about food from the previous month.

Jessica has held numerous leadership positions in the food, retail and agriculture sectors, including most recently as group vice president of corporate affairs for The Kroger Co., serving as chief corporate affairs officer, chief communications officer, chief sustainability officer and president of both Kroger Foundations. She joined the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience to share her insights on the long-lasting habits of the new consumer emerging from the lockdown, including trends in food and retail as well as long-term patterns already beginning to take root.

She said that now is the time for the agri-food sector to seize opportunities and write its own story.

“The rhetorical question that I pose to you today is, ‘Who do you want to be during, and then as a result of, COVID-19?’” asked Jessica. “I encourage you to write your own headlines now. And I encourage you to think about who you want to be and how you want to lead your organizations so that, coming out of this chapter, the best headlines and lead paragraphs are written about your organization's conduct, resilience and courage during COVID-19.”

Food and retail: The meteoric rise of e-commerce

In many difficult situations, such as the current pandemic, retailers often find themselves on the frontlines of challenging discussions. Retail is currently in trouble, with estimates that 15,000 stores may stay closed permanently post-COVID. The food industry and grocery space is different, however, and is seeing a boom, according to Jessica.

Nielson has reported that $18.8 billion was spent on consumer packaged goods (CPGs) in the month of March alone, which was directly attributed to COVID-related buying. Approximately $10 billion of that was spent on increased consumption, and $8.2 billion went directly toward pantry loading.

“Interestingly,” said Jessica, “70% of Americans say they still want to be able to, and like to, venture out to the grocery store. So, all of this leads us to the insight that the food industry is one of the only sectors that is actively hiring and thriving during this pandemic.”

The retailers who will struggle, she said, are the independents, leading to further consolidation and monopolies at both the regional and national levels of the retail food chain.

The most striking trend in food and retail is the rise of e-commerce. Jessica shared Nielson data that shows that e-commerce orders saw a major surge in the month of March, with online orders increasing by 60%. Significantly, 37% of that growth came from new households, and 45% of new online shoppers were over the age of 55. As this “new normal” continues to evolve, Jessica believes retailers with good infrastructure are more likely to come out of the transition in a good place.

“I think you're going to see the retailers who have the infrastructure, the ability to invest in their rail system — and ‘rails’ is kind of the e-commerce term for the infrastructure and platform that people use — who had their rails and the infrastructure in place already, those guys are going to do really well during the e-commerce boom, meet the customer expectations,” she said. “Maybe not in all cases, but they'll walk away with a decent customer experience, and they'll probably win that business for the long term. Those who had infrastructure and systems that were held together more by duct tape will just find themselves slowly losing ground and won't be competitive in the long run.”

A combination approach, which Jessica referred to as “bricks and clicks,” could also develop, similar to what happened when e-commerce giant Amazon bought brick-and-mortar Whole Foods. Whether retailers are online or just around the street corner, the important thing will be building an emotional relationship with the customer base.

“People don't really care about the infrastructure behind it,” explained Jessica. “We don't want to get too worried about what kind of rails or systems the retailers are using. We just want to know we can get the thing that we want, in the venue that we want, for a competitive price, when we want it.”

A key challenge the food and retail sector must meet going forward is retraining and upskilling workers as the industry continues to become more efficient, which will involve more technology, automation and “touchless” environments.

“Many of those manufacturing jobs and other positions might never come back to the 100% mark they were pre-COVID,” said Jessica. “That's what we're going to have to deal with as a society, is how do we retrain workers, and how do we make sure that we can have a productive workforce in this nation and other nations who are facing similar crises as a result of COVID. How do we upskill? And what is the future of work?”

Consumers: Food as medicine will grow, and trust in science could see a resurgence

University College London has conducted research that shows most new habits take an average of 66 days to form, which means that we are cementing new habits during the COVID-19 crisis, even while many of us remain in lockdown. Consumers, said Jessica, will likely begin to blend their new habits with their old routines. In fact, among consumers who have purchased alternative brands due to the effects of the pandemic, she said only half indicate that they will return to their previous brands once the pandemic calms.

Both private-label and national brands are winning in different areas of the market. Private-label brands could be growing as much as four times faster than national brands at the moment. On the other hand, one sector analyst from Stifel mentioned in a recent Washington Post article that big-company sales grew 39% through the month of March, a number that has never been seen before in the industry.

Food as medicine and the importance of health is a trend accelerated strongly by COVID-19. Functional foods are becoming more mainstream, and Jessica believes agriculture must take action in this space.

“Certainly, as we are taking these drastic steps to preserve our health and safety right now, you can't help but imagine a world where we're all much more dialed into food, food safety and how to keep ourselves healthy for the long term,” she said. “And I think the food and ag position to take the leadership role and thought leadership in this space is absolutely a great moment in time. And we should step up and seize it.”

Another critical development at this time could be a renewed sense of trust in science in the food space, which has traditionally been wary of science. Now, more than ever, we must listen to experts if we want to feed the world while also ensuring we protect it for future generations.

“We might be at the tipping point where consumers will permit science to re-enter the discussion on agriculture, food and nutrition,” said Jessica. “It's been very interesting to watch how COVID-19 has led to a re-appreciation of scientists, science, doctors and, in general, the return of experts. And we might have a newfound appetite for letting experts do more to ensure food security versus just hope for the best, which means we might have a chance of feeding the 10 billion and better preserving our planet.”

Traditionally, she explained, agriculture has answered questions of a more emotional nature with scientific responses, but food is a very emotional topic.

“Society has been asking emotional questions for the past couple decades about science in food and technology in food,” said Jessica. “And we, as an industry, have done kind of a lousy job and only given them scientific answers back. Now, things that I love in this space are thought leaders — much like Alltech and your Planet of Plenty™ work; you are stepping into that void, hearing that people want to have emotional answers, but then answering in a scientific way with data and facts.”

The future of food and retail

Jessica identified six long-term patterns that will continue to evolve as the agri-food space emerges from COVID-19:

1. Big data and the internet of things (IoT): People’s appreciation for harnessing information and gaining relevant insights is growing, and it will likely be used more moving forward. Society may therefore accept a tradeoff between data and privacy.
2. A stronger digital infrastructure: In conjunction with big data, IT departments and people around the world have been under great stress to ensure that a large number of people can complete work virtually, and the digital infrastructure should emerge much stronger as a result.
3. Tele-health, tele-education, tele-everything! Many things we thought could only be done in person can now be done online, and it could remain that way moving forward.
4. From “frictionless” to “touchless”: The user experience of the future will involve as little interaction as possible with hard surfaces and human beings, especially as we continue to determine how to conduct business during the pandemic. Retailers must help people to feel safe during these in-person experiences.
5. Widening income inequality: Unfortunately, there are likely to be deep political repercussions surrounding income inequality for years to come.
6. Stakeholder capitalism and ESG: The way companies treat their workforce today will have huge ramifications in the future, with those that focus on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects of their businesses coming out on top.

The take-away, said Jessica, is that people will be more in tune with, and loyal to, brands that showed up well during the crisis with a strong focus on the ESG aspects of their business.

“Companies that are bold and don't let a good crisis go to waste will emerge stronger,” she explained. “But they also have to make sure that they're taking care of their communities and their workforce at the same time, which is a difficult balancing act and a needle that they'll have to thread, but one where I think, if you take that holistic stakeholder capitalism approach and think about the long term, you'll be able to navigate successfully and emerge as one of the winners from this chapter of history.”

Visit one.alltech.com for more information.

Sometimes, it takes leaving your world to better understand and appreciate the people you live and work alongside — just ask Cady Coleman. A retired NASA astronaut and colonel of the United States Air Force, Cady has spent more than 170 days in outer space during the course of three missions, including two on the Space Shuttle and a third as part of Expedition 27 on the International Space Station (ISS), where she lived for more than five months.

As the first featured keynote speaker at the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience, Cady gave a presentation on “Innovation in Isolation: An Astronaut’s Guide to Mental Strength, Creativity and Connectivity.” In both her lecture and her subsequent discussion with Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech, Cady shared pictures and videos of her time in space — as well as some of the lessons she has learned, both on Earth and beyond.

Gaining new perspectives on people 220 miles from Earth

Cady didn’t always dream of being an astronaut. Despite the fact that her father was a deep-sea diver, she didn’t start thinking of herself as a potential explorer until she attended a campus lecture given by astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.

“You see somebody that you can relate to, and I just thought, ‘Wow, maybe I could try to do that,’” said Cady.

After graduating from MIT, Cady was commissioned as a graduate of the Air Force ROTC and entered active duty on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as a research chemist. During this time, she participated in the NASA Long Duration Exposure Facility experiment, where she set records in endurance and tolerance that still stand today.  

Unfortunately, not everyone recognized Cady’s potential as quickly as she herself did, but she was able to continue striving toward her goals thanks to her conviction that she deserved a seat at the table.

“I knew that I brought things to that team that others didn't,” said Cady. “And I cheerfully showed up to meetings that I wasn't invited to — not because people said, ‘Oh, we didn't like her’ or anything else; it was just that they looked at me and couldn't imagine that I should be part of that team. But I knew. And when it's something as important as exploring space, it gives you that extra courage to just say, ‘I know. I am showing up.’”

Cady’s persistence paid off: She was selected to be part of the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1992, and in 1995, she joined the crew of a scientific Space Shuttle mission that logged more than 15 days in space, orbiting the Earth 256 times and traveling more than 6 million miles. She experienced her second space flight in 1999 as a mission specialist in charge of deploying the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which conducts comprehensive studies of the universe and phenomena such as black holes. And in 2010, she became part of the mission that allowed her to spend 159 days on the ISS.

Throughout these missions, Cady began recognizing the beauty of diversity and differences in others. Among the most profound aspects from her time on the ISS was gaining a new perspective on the distance — or lack thereof — between people by seeing the Earth from above.  

“You just realize that everything is closer than you thought — and so is everyone,” she said. “We’d go around the Earth 16 times a day, and the Earth is turning, so we're always seeing a different slice of it. It becomes so clear that everything is connected — and, actually, everyone could be connected if they just knew that we're all there is.”

Teamwork makes the dream work, even in space

Recognizing the importance of other perspectives was pivotal to forming bonds and building a successful team on the ISS, where Cady lived and worked among astronauts from Italy, Russia and the United States.

“Most of the lessons I learned were about people, about being a crew,” she said. “I had to learn to ask different questions, and I had to learn to listen. You only know this little slice of (your colleagues’) life; you don't know the rest of it. And one of the ways to really make a group (work) is to find out more about the rest of them — really, the rest of their life.”

In space and on Earth, Cady noted, the differences among members of a team only make that team stronger, especially when we learn to appreciate other people’s unique offerings. 

“Every one of us is different,” she said. “Find some way to recognize what people bring (to the table). Make them tell stories about themselves in a group. Get to know each other a little bit. Just knowing a little bit more about somebody, I think, can help you realize that they bring other things.”

The ability to collaborate with different people has made Cady a successful leader. She posits that exhibiting true concern for and attention to others is one of the most basic and important tenets of leadership and teambuilding.

“Somebody asked me the other day how I basically got people to trust me as a leader, and it made me realize: It's (that) I ask people about themselves,” said Cady. “I do that because I want them to know that I see them and I know that they are more of a person than just the part that comes to work.”

Your mission, should you choose to accept it…

Once trust and appreciation have been built among team members, the next most important step, said Cady, is focusing on the mission at hand. This concept of taking on a mission and striving to meet a goal is one that Cady has found herself thinking a lot about in the midst of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns. If anyone knows about social distancing and experiencing long stretches of isolation, it’s astronauts like Cady, who asserts that identifying and focusing on a mission is key to getting through difficult times.

“We have this advantage as space explorers that we're part of the mission,” she noted. “It's really clear to you that you've got a job to do, so it's easy to think, ‘It's important for me to be ready, and all these actions, they're important.’ But I think, with COVID-19, the mission can be less tangible. The fact that you stay in your house with your family and stay safe doesn't feel like this step forward. And yet it is. It's a step toward the mission. And I think what can help people is just (to) give it a name. This is the mission: staying safe.”

In Cady’s mind, there are some aspects of the COVID-19 lockdown that are actually harder to deal with than being in space — especially the unknowns.

“The hardest thing that we don't actually have to wrestle with much in space is that we know, eventually, we're coming home,” she pointed out. “I was up there for six months, and the mission was extended by two weeks, which I was incredibly thrilled about, but it's still finite, whereas, with COVID-19, there's a lot of uncertainties — about finances, about dreams, about what you're going to be able to do next. And owning that uncertainty, I think, is really helpful — realizing that it's hard and just acknowledge you're working through hard things.”

Cady’s unique perspective on life has helped her see a silver lining in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic: That, despite being physically distant from each other, people are coming together to help their neighbors and make important changes.

“I see a lot of positive happening,” she said. “I see this on the internet, I see it in the news — different people coming together, seeing something that they can do together and doing it. It's so hopeful.”

Of all the things Cady learned as an astronaut, her new perspective on humanity and the planet we live on may have been the most meaningful.

“I used to think that space was someplace different — like, ‘I'm on Earth, I'm going to go to space’ — but actually arriving up there, it just made me realize that Earth and the place that we live is just bigger than we thought,” she said. “And yet, it's home. And I think, for all of us, getting to look at what is home — home to our ancestors, home to our families — is what is the most special thing to look at as we go around the Earth.”

The magic of space exploration has clearly not lost its sparkle for Cady, whose wonder for the world and what lies beyond is uncapped — but whose unique experience away from Earth has only helped her appreciate her fellow man all the more.  

“It's like leading the life of Peter Pan, and everything is different, and everything is a discovery,” she said. “But we're still human. We each have our own way of bringing that experience back home.”

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