There is only so much arable land on planet Earth. Only so much water. But people are plentiful and becoming increasingly so, year after year. And people must eat to survive.

So how are we humans doing on the matter of feeding ourselves?

The World Health Organization has set the bar high, defining food security as “a situation when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy life.”

We do not live in that perfect world.

The global population is on track to swell from the present 7 billion to nearly 10 billion people in the next 30 years, according to the United Nations (U.N.). And if World Bank projections are on target, Earth’s population will have doubled by 2080.

According to the most recent update (2015) of U.N. population data, most of the world (60 percent of the global population) lives in Asia, 16 percent in Africa, 10 percent in Europe, 9 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the remaining 5 percent in North America and Oceania (Micronesia, Fiji and all of Polynesia). China and India remain the two largest countries of the world, each with more than 1 billion people, representing 19 and 18 percent of the world’s population, respectively.

With such demographics to consider against the backdrop of finite natural resources, the security of a sustainable global food supply is challenging researchers and planners to map long-term strategies.

Agricultural production will have to increase significantly in order to meet the growing need. Can it be done safely and sustainably?

Food price volatility will somehow have to be brought under control — a tall order in a world of competing (even warring) nations and economies contending with increasing demand from finite resources.

Without agricultural innovation, half of the population could be undernourished by 2050

Those concerns, as pressing as they are, may pale in comparison, however, with the uncertainty and disruption brought on by climate change.

“Under a no-climate change scenario, based upon projected changes in population and agricultural land use only, 31 percent (2.5 billion people by 2050) of the global population is at risk of undernourishment if no adaptation or agricultural innovation is made in the intervening years,” according to projections cited in the report “Modelling Impacts of Climate Change on Global Food Security” by a team of researchers at the University of Dundee in Scotland and the University of Southampton and the University of Reading in England.

“An additional 21 percent (1.7 billion people) is at risk of undernourishment by 2050 when climate change is taken into account,” the report states.

A young girl in Kolminy, Haiti, eats peanut butter bread given to her by missionaries. Credit: Michelle D. Milliman / Shutterstock.com

The researchers concede that their projections do not take into account future trends in technology, improved crop varieties or agricultural trade interventions, “although it is clear that all of these adaptation strategies will need to be embraced on a global scale if society is to ensure adequate food supplies for a projected global population of greater than 9 billion people.”

Important solutions might arrive through technological innovation. But there are other key factors to consider.

“There are lots of things that technology can do, but there are also global political and cultural systems coming into play all the time,” said Dr. Karl Dawson, Alltech’s chief scientific officer. “It’s not something a single scientific breakthrough is going to solve.”

Literal food security in the face of terrorism

The term “food security” becomes very literal in the context of the rise of terrorism around the world today.

Since the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on Sept.11, 2001, for example, the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has stepped up efforts to protect America's supply of meat, poultry and egg products from intentional or unintentional contamination.

FSIS inspectors have remained on heightened alert to detect unusual or suspicious activity, reinspecting imported meat and poultry products before they are allowed to enter the U.S. food supply.

It’s no small irony that food insecurity can act as a catalyst for conditions that lead to terrorism, according to a report by the World Food Programme.

China’s rising middle class and diminishing arable land

In addition to changes in climate and social and political instability, one factor looms large: China.

Shoppers fill Nanjing Road in Shanghai. Credit: TonyV3112 / Shutterstock.com

Although China's agricultural output is the largest in the world, only about 15 percent of its total land area can be cultivated.

“In a quest for rapid economic growth, and the global economy’s insatiable desire for the supply of cheap Chinese goods, China has displayed agricultural negligence — with ramifications yet to be determined, but likely to serve as a catalyst in food security negotiations,” writes the World Policy Journal’s Keshar Patel.

The Chinese ministries of Environmental Protection and Land and Resources issued a national bulletin on soil pollution in 2014 stating that one-fifth of Chinese soil is fallow, “a consequence of exposure to heavy metal contaminants.” The statement described the soil and environmental problems as serious.

This reality collides with another: China’s overall food supply, while growing, is not rising fast enough to keep up with demand.

“The key long-term food security challenge in China remains the steady growth in protein consumption (fueled by urbanization and an expanding middle class),” said Michael Woolsey, senior strategic manager for Alltech China.

“This situation explains much of the sharp rise in beef, pork and dairy imports in the past decade,” he continued. “China can close this gap by improving productivity, as Chinese agricultural productivity remains well below global leaders in key industries.”

Woolsey noted that China’s corn yields per hectare are half the levels in the U.S. and Brazil. Dairy output per cow is 40 percent the dairy output in Wisconsin. Average piglets per sow per year are reportedly around 15, roughly half the level in the European Union.

Chinese imports of wheat have doubled in recent years, as Chinese grain self-sufficiency has drastically decreased.

And after years of negotiations, notes USA Today, “China has agreed to open its domestic market for U.S. rice exports for the first time ever, acknowledging its need for foreign shipments to meet the growing demands of its vast middle class.”

Rice terraces were built into the hillsides of Gullin, China, during the Yuan Dynasty (1271 - 1368).

Servicing that demand has prompted the Chinese government to start leasing farms in North and South America, Australia and Africa. And in some cases, it has bought the land outright, according to Patel.

Water is also at a premium in China.

“Rice is an aquatic crop, a water and labor hog, demanding twice as much labor and water as any other row crop in Asia,” reports Forbes. “In China alone, rice consumes about 70 percent of the nation’s irrigated water.”

Spread the tech to places where it’s needed

“So much of our focus is on high-input agriculture in the U.S. and South America and other parts of the world, but the U.N. estimates that about 60 percent of our food comes from peasant agriculture in low-income countries,” said University of Kentucky agricultural economist Lee Meyer. “That area has seen substantial growth in food output, but there is so much more potential there.”

Key to enabling those countries to meet their food output potentials, asserts Dawson, is finding ways to democratize technologies.

“Getting technology uniformly distributed around the world so we can have an efficient food production system is very important,” he said. “We have the technologies, and we do a lot to develop new technologies, but I’m concerned about educating the world about what those technologies can do and then implementing those technologies.”

Improved feed, feed efficiency, seed genetics, animal genetics and on-farm technical capacity are all key to improving Chinese agricultural productivity, according to Woolsey. Alltech’s range of animal nutrition solutions and technical assistance are helping Chinese producers close the productivity gap, he said.

Alltech partnered with Nestlé in opening a Dairy Farming Insititute in Shuangcheng, Heilongjiang province, China, to help train Chinese dairy farmers.

Dawson, as Alltech’s chief scientist, has for years concentrated on the study of such solutions, with a focus on nutrigenomics, the science of understanding nutrition’s impact at the genetic level. This work has resulted in the development of new tools for understanding precisely how nutrients function, why different forms of nutrients have different effects and how such nutrients can be optimized for health.

“It’s providing us with a very basic toolset that allows us to look at production efficiencies, animal health and the overall effectiveness of food production systems,” he said. “It’s not going to solve all of the problems, but it provides us with a way of evaluating new management strategies and techniques and feeding strategies that we never had before.”

Raising fish on land

Fish farming holds tremendous promise in responding to surging demand for food that is taking place due to global population growth, according to a report by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

This has led to a rapid expansion of the aquaculture industry in recent years, and with it, increased water pollution. The search for ways to prevent contamination has resulted in the development of land-based farms known as recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS).

RAS systems consist of tanks, water filtration units and, usually, degassing and oxygenation. For warm water species, the water is heated as well. This reconditioned water can be recirculated and reused.

“These systems were developed to become less dependent on water sources and climates. Now you can farm almost anywhere with these advantages,” said Gijs Rutjes, technical sales support manager at Coppens International, the Dutch fish feed producer that joined the Alltech family of companies in 2016.

“Closed systems score much better. They have no escapees, the feces are collected and removed, and the nitrogen and phosphorus output is reduced due to filtration units in closed RAS systems,” Rutjes said.

Closed, recirculating aquaculture systems, such as the Marine Harvest one shown here, improve efficiency of production and reduce environmental impact.

Salmon farms have started to move more of their production on land for this purpose.

“There’s a lot of investment in these systems in the Scandinavian countries,” said Dawson. “They’re becoming important, particularly in the area of environmental impact. There is a complete re-use of water; capturing carbon dioxide and recirculating heat to generate power. It gives a whole new meaning to what it takes to build a biological protein.”

Food waste: A paradox of plenty

Perhaps most confounding for a world in search of ways to feed an expanding human population is waste. Countries that have more food also waste more food, according to YieldWise, a seven-year, $130 million Rockefeller Foundation initiative to demonstrate how food loss and waste can be cut in half globally.

“About a third of total food is wasted or at least doesn’t make it from the farm to final consumption,” noted Meyer.

That’s enough to feed everyone in the world for two months, according to the YieldWise initiative. The effort’s initial focus is on fruits, vegetables and staple crops in Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, where up to half of all food grown is lost.

Begging for brains: New talent needed for agricultural innovation

The status of global food security is subject to many influences, including the unpredictable. One thing is certain: The planet needs very smart people to carry on the evolution of present technologies and to envision entirely new and innovative solutions to these vexing issues. While perhaps not for everyone, the broad field of agriculture is begging for talent.

“Oh, absolutely,” acknowledged Meyer. “In the College of Agriculture, we are the applied nature to so many of the sciences. There are programs in biotechnology, agricultural engineering, agricultural economics, international development, food policy. There are really rewarding ways to apply a good education in this whole area of food production and food security.”

There is no doubt that corn silage, barley silage and alfalfa haylage are the major fermented forages supporting the dairy industry in Canada and the US. Any variation in the nutrient composition and digestibility of these forages will therefore directly affect a producer’s ability to meet their dairy cows' nutrient requirements throughout the year.

In other words, a good understanding of the nutritive value of your fermented forages will allow you to develop a nutrition program that helps your cows reach their true genetic potential for milk production and health.

More nutrients for the cow, more dollars in your pocket

Over the last few years, nutritionists and dairy producers have been paying special attention to the nutritive value of fermented forages. It is now widely acknowledged that this nutritional concept can positively impact animal productivity and producer profitability. The performance of the modern dairy cow is highly dependent upon the adequate levels and favorable balances of nutrients in the fermented forages they consume.

It is an oversimplification to define the nutritive value of fermented forages purely as the ability to supply the nutrients present in the dry matter to the cow. Before nutrients can reach their target tissue in the cow, the feed must be consumed (feed intake) and the nutrients in the forage must be released and absorbed by the cow (digestion).

When it comes to digestion, fermentable forages are a step ahead

Many factors influence the nutritive value of fermentable forages, including forage cultivar, stage of maturity at harvest and storage methods. In contrast to non-fermentable forages, the digestion of fermentable forage begins long before it is added to the feed bunk.

During normal ensiling processes, some nutrients ferment, releasing molecules that make the crop more palatable and easier to digest. Under these conditions, the nutrients have a better chance of being ingested and absorbed.

Practically speaking, this fermentable forage has an optimum nutritive value. In commercial dairy herds, this forage will result in high milk yield and milk components, leading to excellent reproductive performance and good health.

Test your forage to see how it measures up

Usually, producers and nutritionists send forage samples to a lab in order to obtain information on the nutritional composition of the fermented forages. However, this information can come up short in terms of allowing producers to understand how available these nutrients are to the cow.

Fortunately, methods such as Alltech’s In vitro Fermentation Model have been developed to efficiently and quickly determine the nutrient availability in these forages, including the neutral detergent fiber digestibility (NDFD), or the organic matter digestibility. Results from these tests are positively correlated with potential intake. When this information is analyzed as a whole, producers can get a good idea of the nutritive value of their fermented forage.

In Ontario and Quebec, a recent survey carried out on 47 fermented forages indicated that over 84 percent of the forage samples collected showed NDFD (at 30 hours in vitro) values below 52 percent, suggesting poor nutritive value. Therefore, it is important not to assume that your forages have a good nutritive value. To assure herd performance, testing is a must.

Reviewing the nutritive value of the fermented forages used in any feeding program is essential to help your dairy herd reach its maximum genetic potential and is an integral part of dairy farming profitability.

The Alltech Young Scientist program offers fully funded Ph.D. and postdoctoral positions for undergraduate and graduate winners

[LEXINGTON, Ky.] – The Alltech Young Scientist (AYS) program is considered the world’s most prestigious agriscience competition for university students. Now in its 13th year, AYS has discovered some of the best and brightest upcoming researchers from universities around the world. Rising agri-scientists now have until Dec. 31, 2017, to register for the 2018 competition.

Undergraduate and graduate applicants will compete first within their home regions of North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific or Europe/Africa. Regional finalists will be invited to attend an all-expense-paid Alltech Young Scientist Discovery Week held May 17–23, 2018, in Lexington, Kentucky, where they will compete in the global competition. Global winners will be announced during ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE18) on May 23. The prizes include a fully funded Ph.D. position and $5,000 USD for the global undergraduate winner and a fully funded postdoctoral position and $10,000 USD for the global graduate winner.

“Lifelong learning is a core value within Alltech, and we are proud to invest in young, bright minds through our Alltech Young Scientist program,” said Dr. Aoife Lyons, director of educational initiatives and engagement at Alltech. “It provides a global stage for students to present their research and have the opportunity to further their education and join the Alltech team.”

Students must be nominated by a professor in order to participate and may submit scientific papers on topics such as animal health and nutrition, crop science, agriculture analytical methods, food chain safety and traceability, human health and nutrition, and other agriscience-related sectors. Paper submissions may be completed online through Dec. 31, 2017, and regional winners will be announced in March 2018.

For more information and to register for the Alltech Young Scientist program, visit AlltechYoungScientist.com, and stay connected through the Alltech Education Facebook page.

Mineral needs in modern dairy diets

Most dairy research tends to focus on protein and energy needs, and minerals are often overlooked. Yet, when we fail to consider the role of minerals, problems can arise, including interferences or interactions with minerals in feed and water.

Mineral types

• Zinc:
  • Essential to more than 200 enzyme systems at work in the animal, such as carbohydrate and energy metabolism, protein synthesis, nucleic acid metabolism, epithelial integrity, cell repair and division and utilization of vitamins A and E
  • Needed for development/function of the immune system and critical to the cellular function of cells, including heterophils, basophils, macrophages and T-lymphocytes
  • Essential in wound healing
  • Critical to reproduction because of its involvement in sexual maturity, reproductive capacity and semen quality
• Copper
  • Component of immune system enzymes
  • Necessary to increase structural health and elasticity of connective tissue and blood vessels as well as increase strength of bone
  • Needed for metabolism of iron and maturation of red blood cells
• Manganese
  • Cofactor for enzymes in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and nucleic acids
  • Essential for normal brain function
  • Involved in the formation of collagen, bone growth, urea formation, fatty acid synthesis, cholesterol synthesis and protein digestion
  • Important for proper immune function and wound healing
• Selenium
  • Critical to proper enzyme function and cellular antioxidant systems
  • Involved in muscle contraction and immune functions
  • Important for reproduction

Form defines function

Understanding the difference between organic and inorganic minerals is important. When we look closely at organic minerals, or minerals with a carbon structure such as Bioplex®, they are in the same form that we would find in corn, grain or forages. In other words, they are similar to the minerals stored in plants.

Bioplex minerals are produced by replicating plant material in a patented manufacturing process, which chelates the minerals onto amino acids and peptides. Bioplex and Sel-Plex® trace minerals provide mineral nutrition in the forms most similar to those present naturally in food and feed ingredients.

Why not just supplement with more inorganics?

There are various issues that can arise when using inorganic minerals due to their lower biological activity, including associated environmental concerns. Various research studies have demonstrated that over-fortification of trace minerals can elevate antibiotic resistance in swine operations as bacteria like Salmonella develop tolerance to high levels of copper and zinc.

Inorganic minerals can have various mineral interactions, and they can serve as antagonists that can interfere with normal biological processes. Examples include:

• High levels of calcium and phosphorus can reduce manganese utilization by up to 65 percent (Wedekind and Baker, 1990; Baker and Oduho, 1994).
• Excess manganese itself impairs utilization of iron (Baker and Halpin, 1991).
• Excess zinc has an antagonistic effect on copper and manganese (Vohra and Heil, 1969).

Total replacement in dairy heifers: The research support behind Bioplex

When comparing supplementing Bioplex minerals to sulfate forms of minerals in a study done by Pino and Heinrichs, published in the 2016 Journal of Dairy Science, Bioplex diets included fewer trace minerals yet showed an increase in total volatile fatty acid and butyrate concentrations, due to an acceleration of rumen organism replication. The dairy heifers also spent less time eating, indicating that Bioplex minerals had improved palatability.

There are other examples of Bioplex’s effect:

• In 1993, a study done in Missouri determined that Bioplex Zn® supplemented at 800 milligrams per day led to a reduction in the number of new mastitis infections.

• In 2007, a study done by Kinal showed that Bioplex trace minerals reduced somatic cell counts, and the same study showed that there was more milk produced in the first 60 days of lactation when using Bioplex.
• A study done by Scaletti and Harmon in 2012 showed a reduction in E. coli levels in milk as well as an increase in milk production.

The research support behind Sel-Plex

In a study done by Silvestre and Thatcher in 2006, cows supplemented with Sel-Plex showed improvements in immune function, adaptive immunity, cervical discharge scores and pregnancy rates.

The adage that “form defines function,” especially when it comes to minerals, is both important and true. Alltech continues to carry out research across the world to prove the impact of organic minerals on herd health and performance.

For more information on Bioplex and Sel-Plex, click here.

To listen to the full webinar with Roger Scaletti, Ph.D. click on the button below.

Click here to watch the webinar

Documenting trends is the closest thing in business to peering into a crystal ball. When it comes to consumer food trends, a dizzying variety of surveys from around the world readily fill pages upon pages of a Google search.

But which trends are long-term and which are just passing fads? What are shoppers really thinking? What’s influencing or impacting their behaviors? And what’s driving their purchases?

A particular pair of studies stands out for depth of insight for those along the food chain whose job it is to tweak strategic consumer marketing plans.

PERIscope 2017 is a biennial, large-scale quantitative study launched in 2001 by Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board. Based on interviews with 1,000 consumers in each of eight countries, the study identifies major shifts in consumer attitudes over time. The eight markets include Ireland and Great Britain, four continental European Union markets, as well as the U.S. and China. The study explores consumer attitudes about eating at home, cooking, local food, the environment, and health and well-being.

A second survey taps into the consumer food trend perceptions of more than 1,700 registered dietitians (RDs). What’s Trending in Nutrition, an annual survey produced in partnership between Pollock Communications and Today’s Dietitian magazine, covers bases ranging from shifting attitudes to favored resources and much in between.

Here are some of the highlights featured in each.

A source of tension

Among the standout trends of 2017 illuminated in the eight-nation PERIscope survey is a tension between the desire for “new” versus the comfort of tradition.

“We know that across all markets, consumers are placing more importance on spending time as a family over meals, enjoying cooking more and increasingly hosting dinner parties, all indicating people’s desire to balance modern life with tradition,” said David Deeley, a member of Bord Bia’s consumer and market insight team.

Among the countries surveyed for PERIscope, China, followed by Spain, leads in striving to balance modernization and tradition. The U.K. is ranked 7th and the Netherlands dead last in this category.

This finding is supported by the Today’s Dietitian survey, which attributes the latest shift in consumer food perceptions to a slower and more thoughtful approach to eating.

Keep it real

When it comes to authenticity, noted PERIscope’s Deeley, “consumers are tired of uniform, impersonal, throw-away products and the invisible nature of global supply chains. They crave stronger connections with the brands they buy, increasingly seeking out authentic and storied products that tell their brand story in an interesting and resonating way.”

What’s the story behind the story?

The demand for transparency is as strong as ever. The PERIscope survey finds consumers continuing to challenge producers to provide the full details about their food products. Labeling and quality symbols are a major point of interest for many countries, especially in China, where many people have lost faith in the safety of produce.

Provenance and quality matter. In Ireland, 78 percent of food shoppers check for country of origin, while checking for quality symbols stands at 75 percent, up by 20 percent since 2001. In the U.S., almost 7 in 10 people claim to check for country of origin, while 67 percent of consumers check for a symbol or certificate that guarantees the quality of the produce, according to the survey.

Registered dietitians responding to the Today’s Dietitian poll indicate that GMO-free and sustainable foods have experienced on average a 20 percent decrease in terms of what concerns consumers.

“Dietitians attribute this decline to food label transparency and more food companies changing their ingredient deck,” the report said.

And 59 percent of dietitians said consumers are choosing to "eat clean,” selecting foods that are less processed as well as more whole foods, such as veggies, fruits, ancient grains and green tea. Plant-based proteins like nuts and seeds also figure more prominently in diets.

Make it lasting and environmentally friendly

Smart devices deliver a mind-boggling amount of information about brand practices, processes and procedures. The result?

“Consumers are calling out inappropriate, bland or opaque brand behavior and are sharing it with their peers,” observed Deeley.

The PERIscope study finds that consumers prefer to buy from companies that are aware of environmental issues and the value of sustainability.

“We also know that they’re increasingly more aware of terms like ‘food waste’ and ‘sustainably produced' in countries like Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, where awareness of both tops 90 percent,” he said.

Across all eight markets, the survey shows that consumers are adopting a greener mindset and are increasingly drawn to eco-friendly businesses and practices.

Deeley’s suggestion to food producers and processors: “Recycling, upcycling, downcycling, zero waste — it doesn’t matter what you call it. Just be sure that you adopt a green mindset and eliminate any negative environmental impact your products and services may directly or indirectly cause before, during and after production — this includes the entire consumption cycle, too.”

Localism lives on

With a growing number of adults turning toward the local and the familiar, the emergence of the “locavore” is becoming ever more pervasive, according to the PERIscope 2017 survey.

“Local food for consumers means food that is better quality and is transparent in its production processes,” said Deeley. “A growing number are looking closer to home for groceries, and more and more are seeing the importance of purchasing from their local communities. This trend holds true across most countries, with the French placing the most importance on buying local foods (79 percent).”

China (76 percent) and Spain (75 percent), Ireland (67 percent), Germany (64 percent) and the U.S. (60 percent) are warming to the concept. Consumers in Great Britain (55 percent) and the Netherlands (35 percent) are the least interested in seeking out specifically local food sources.

Make it quick — but good

Demand for foods that are quick to prepare has been on the rise. Pre-portioned meal delivery services such as Blue Apron, HelloFresh and FreshDirect have skyrocketed, with 45 percent of consumers now turning to these and similar healthy meal or weight loss menu delivery programs in order to eat healthier, according to the Today’s Dietitian survey.

“In Ireland, this figure rose from 56 percent in 2001 to almost 7 in 10 (69 percent) in 2017,” according to PERIscope’s Deeley. “The majority of Americans have a tendency to pick foods that are easy to prepare (91 percent) and quick to cook (85 percent). More than 7 in 10 people claim to eat convenience or ready-prepared meals regularly.”

In an observation worthy of the attention of food labelers, Deeley noted some uncertainty about which foods are healthy, “with close to half of those polled claiming to be confused about the health benefits of particular foods and 60 percent saying nutritional claims and food labels are hard to understand.”

Keep it interesting

More than 7 in 10 consumers in all eight countries of the PERIscope survey claim they like to try new foods. An increasingly wider variety of foods is available in today’s markets, making it is easier for consumers to explore foods from around the world.

And there’s China again, leading this time in adventurous eating, with 96 percent saying they like to try new foods. And once again, the Chinese are trailed closely by Spanish consumers in an open-mindedness about new foods (94 percent), while the French (81 percent) and Irish (74 percent) are more likely to stick with what they know.

There are apps for that

When it comes to technology, Chinese consumers are far ahead of their counterparts in the seven other countries surveyed by PERIscope in 2017.

Asked if they have ever downloaded a food app, 76 percent of Chinese consumers responded that they have. The next closest are Americans at 34 percent, with only 19 percent of Irish and 18 percent of consumers in the U.K. poking at food icons on their smart devices.

What is influencing consumer perception?

The survey of dietitians looked at the sources of consumer nutrition information. Most (73 percent) said consumers rely on blogs and websites, followed by social media (70 percent). Fifty-eight percent turn to television and radio for most of their information.

The survey also reveals a paradox by asking where consumers get the most nutrition misinformation. Seventy-seven percent cited social media, 67 percent pointed to blogs and websites, and 63 percent said celebrities often get it wrong (a change from 2016, when celebrities were believed to be more misleading than social media).

Consumers gauge their health and weight, according to the dietitians, by comparing themselves to people in magazines or on television (72 percent), friends/family members (64 percent) or people on social media (57 percent).

Food consumers in China are far more likely than those in the other seven countries of the PERIscope survey to share recipes via social media — 77 percent of Chinese respondents versus the next highest social media users, Americans at 41 percent.

Where are registered dietitians sourcing their own information? According to the Today’s Dietitian survey, most (80 percent) of RDs have bookmarked the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s MyPlate website for nutrition education. Sixty-five percent include the published resources of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics among their tools.

What leaps off the page

“For me, the most interesting story is revealed when we look back at the 2001 report and track the changes over time,” said Deeley. “The world was certainly a very different place, and that is reflected in those reports. Today, we know that health and well-being have changed dramatically over time, with people now making more conscious decisions to enjoy a holistic approach to physical health and emotional well-being.”

Although dietitians say consumer awareness of healthy food has increased and mindful eating is on the rise in 2017, they note that issues of access and cost continue to prevent certain populations from being able to eat and purchase healthy food.

“For low-income consumers, RDs say that cost, above all other factors including physical health, is the largest barrier when making food purchasing decisions,” suggests the Today’s Dietitian study. “This often makes healthy eating options out of reach for low-income families. RDs recommend increasing affordability and availability of nutritious food in low-income areas to help reduce barriers to healthy eating.”

The polling for what’s hot and what’s not in 2018 is underway. It will be interesting to see how these trends persist, shift or change altogether in the coming year.

WHAT: An idea, even in its root meaning, is “to see.” Da Vinci, Einstein, Edison, the Wright brothers, Tesla, Bell, Borlaug and Fleming — they had the ability to see what others could not. Because they opened their eyes to possibilities and thrived in pursuit of them, we have light. We have abundant food. We can even fly. Ideas change everything.

The transformative power of ideas will be the focus of ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference 2018. Join us to explore how ideas can germinate into innovations that change the course of our businesses and lives.

WHEN: May 20–23, 2018

WHERE: Lexington Convention Center

Lexington, Kentucky, USA

one.alltech.com

MORE: Register before Nov. 1 to save $600. Details on sessions and speakers will be available in early 2018. To view last year’s presentations, visit ideas.alltech.com, where access is free after sign-up.

Agri-environmental firm Alltech E-CO2 has a strong track record of success in Europe and in Oceania trials.

[ROSEWORTHY, Australia] – Global animal nutrition leader Alltech has introduced Alltech E-CO2 to strengthen its service offering to livestock producers in Oceania. Alltech E-CO2 provides on-farm environmental assessments and programs for producers, processors, retailers and governments to measure and reduce the emissions associated with producing agricultural products. After an initial pilot phase in Oceania, Alltech E-CO2 is excited to provide Carbon Trust certified Oceanic models to the Australian and New Zealand industries.

“Through the analytical tools of Alltech E-CO2, we are able to work alongside producers to make gains in their herds’ efficiency and their farms’ profitability, all while lowering their carbon footprint,” said Matthew Smith, Alltech vice president of Asia-Pacific. “Today’s producers do not need to make a choice between profitability and sustainability. Alltech E-CO2’s data proves they can achieve both.”

Alltech E-CO2, with its headquarters based in the United Kingdom, has developed a portfolio of environmental software and services in response to the need to further understand and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and the food chain. Its clients range from small family farms to integrated livestock operations and commercial feed mills, as well as large retailers and processors increasingly under pressure to reduce their environmental footprint and meet government and corporate sustainability targets.

“Alltech believes that the future of agriculture depends on solutions that are beneficial to the animal, consumer and environment,” said Dr. Susanne Roth, Alltech E-CO2 coordinator for Alltech Oceania. “We believe passionately that reducing the environmental impact of agriculture involves simultaneously delivering value to the farmer.”

Alltech E-CO2 assessments determine the environmental impact of a farm as a holistic measure of overall efficiency. Assessments are directly linked to physical and financial performance, where custom feeding regimes and management practices can be developed to sustainably improve farm efficiency and profitability.

Recent environmental assessments conducted by Alltech E-CO2 on 58 dairy and 11 beef units across Europe has shown how farm efficiency improvements can boost profitability whilst also reducing the carbon footprint of the enterprise. In the study, which was carried out utilising Alltech E-CO2 environmental tools, various herd efficiency improvements delivered an average of €238 (AUS $358) extra per cow per year for dairy and €44 (AUS $66) extra per head per day for beef, and there was a significant drop in carbon emissions.

To learn more about how Alltech E-CO2 can help you and your agricultural production, visit www.alltech-e-co2.com or email Susanne Roth at sroth@alltech.com.

What does the future hold for farming and the entire food supply chain?

Everything from automated farm implements and nonstop reams of data to consumers’ ability to trace their food to its source and create supply chain reversal, according to a panel of agribusiness experts.

Looking ahead into that near (and already here) future was the basis of a live video panel discussion entitled “Farming the Future.”

What’s changed about what it means to be a food consumer?

“I think we’re in the middle of a food movement,” said Mary Shelman, former director of Harvard Business School’s Agribusiness Program.

She cited the rise of “engaged eating” — taking the consumption of food beyond simply eating to making food choices that are considered nutritious, safe, culturally appropriate and produced in environmentally sustainable ways.

“A big piece of that is the millennial consumer,” she explained. “Technology is all around them. They get information in different ways. They have different values. They’re the biggest demographic group in the U.S., and they’re just at the stage of having families and moving up in their income potential, so they’re very attractive to the food industry.”

Shelman noted that the millennial generation, born between the early 1980s and 1990s, has a much greater understanding of the relationship between health and food.

“What they eat is part of their identity,” she said. “Food actually reflects who they are as a person, as well as their values.”

This presents what, in her view, may be the food industry’s biggest challenge.

“Not only do they want products that meet certain price and safety points, but they also want products that have a purpose,” she said.

Shelman noted that these “prosumers” have a strong belief in their purchasing power’s ability to affect the change they wish to see in the world. They “vote” with their dollars.

What’s changed about what it means to be a farmer?

Aidan Connolly, chief innovation officer at Alltech, recognized that the rate of change occurring in agriculture is outpacing comprehension of its scope and scale.

“I think that if anybody thinks that agriculture is going to be the same in 20 or 30 years, they’ve got their head in the sand,” he said.

Connolly, who has written about digital disruptions that are currently transforming agriculture, cited those technologies: “…robots and drones, blockchain, nutrigenomics, the internet of things, virtual reality and enhanced reality — these are technologies that can fundamentally change the ways in which we understand what happens when we grow plants or animals.”

Perhaps the most widely felt game-changer in agriculture has been the arrival of “big data.”

“You have a tool here that looks at millions and billions of observations, whether it’s productivity, food intake, the way we grow our crops, how much rain you get — all of this can be integrated into very precise models, and that’s going to be the big change in agriculture,” said Dr. Karl Dawson, chief scientific officer at Alltech. “We’re talking about moving to ‘armchair farming.’ We’re going to be making our decisions from a site, sitting in front of a computer, looking to see what we can predict in the future. That’s a tremendous tool that we’ve never had.”

What does this imply about the knowledge and skills required of the 21st-century farmer?

“I think we’re looking at a fundamental change in what that person is going to look like,” said Connolly. “They won’t necessarily grow up on a farm. They might grow up in a city. They won’t necessarily have the skills of understanding animals or plants. They will understand data, analytics, equipment and decision-making about all the various technologies and which investments should and should not be made. So, dramatically different skills from those used for the last thousands of years will determine who is and who is not a farmer.”

Key among those talents are analytical skills that are tied to data and information, according to Michael Boehlje, distinguished professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University.

“We are going to have to increasingly develop that skill and feel comfortable with looking at numbers, looking at information,” he said.

Boehlje emphasized that this doesn’t mean a farmer has to transform into a number cruncher but will need to understand the stories that the numbers tell.

“It’s not just the story they (data) tell in terms of average yields,” he explained. “It’s the distributions that count. It’s what happens when you are in parts of your field where you have low yields and where you’re getting high yields as well.

“The same is true with animals,” continued Boehlje. “We’re starting to see different animal performance even in the same pen. That’s a function of their genetics and a number of factors. We’re going to get more granular in the data. So, data assessment, data summarization, data visualization, strategic thinking, risk assessment — those increasingly are going to be the skills that we need to have.”

Attracting a new generation of talent to farming

Shelman agreed that new and emerging farm technologies will enable agriculture to be successful in meeting increasing demand, but attracting and retaining that new generation of farmers requires something more.

“Supply and demand economics don’t tend to move in lockstep,” she said. “For instance, in crop farming in the U.S. today, prices are relatively low compared to other times in the last five years. So, there’s a need to maintain an economic viability for farmers to survive — and, in particular, to attract new, younger farmers.”

Shelman pointed out that the average age of the American farmer today is reaching 60 years.

“We need new talent, and they will only come in if there are attractive returns in the sector,” she said.

This new generation is being attracted to farming for very different reasons than their predecessors.

“It’s about being able to understand the market,” said Shelman. “It’s, ‘How do I deliver this differentiated product that has extra value?’ So, it’s not just about producing at the lowest price, but producing what different segments of the market want and being able to sell into those channels.”

The result: supply chain reversal

The industry is seeing the rise of “demand-driven chains with consumers increasingly telling the entire chain ‘what we want, how we want it and how it ought to be done,’” according to Boehlje.

“So, a really important skill that is going to be much, much more important for farmers is going to be understanding and working in an interdependent system, rather than as an independent farmer, that is very focused on relationships, collaboration and interpersonal skills — things that many farmers have historically not liked to do,” he said. “But those are going to be skills that will be essential to being a successful farmer.”

So, how can farmers change the way they sell foods?

Consumers are moving beyond the traditional demand for cheap, accessible, safe food to shopping decisions that align with their values, according to Shelman.

“I think that provides some opportunities at the farm level,” she said. “First, to become much more market-oriented and know what the market is interested in buying rather than what you want to sell.”

Added Boehlje, “We’re increasingly seeing this entire food production and distribution industry move very dramatically from a commodity orientation and a supply chain mentality to a differentiated product orientation and a demand-driven system. And the technology to get that done is increasingly available.”

Shelman cited as examples the rise of brands such as Laura’s Lean Beef or Pete and Gerry’s eggs, items that come with specialty propositions.

“If you look at the Amazon Fresh website, you can buy hamburgers from a single cow,” she said.

She acknowledged that dealing with the market at such a level is not for everyone in farming, but it’s increasingly popular among consumers.

“There’s tremendous resistance in the system to making those kinds of changes because our system has been set up to move big quantities of relatively undifferentiated products,” said Shelman.

Dawson cautioned, however, that there remains a messaging gap in the commercialization chain that has failed to win the buy-in of the middleman.

“Alltech Angus was an example of a succulent meat product that received very good reviews, but, quite frankly, we never could make it go because there was a barrier between us and the consumer,” he explained.

Still, noted Connolly, technologies enabling transparency and traceability are ushering in a new era for the farm-consumer relationship.

“We are seeing very large changes in consumer behavior,” he said. “Apps on phones, websites, the ability to see through cameras what’s actually happening on the farm, to see through blockchain what has occurred in the way your food is processed — these are all tremendous opportunities for farmers to engage directly with consumers of their food, and I think, eventually, that makes for a more profitable farming system.”

Success in farming, said Boehlje, will depend on an ability to move away from the mentality “If I produce it, they will come.” That, increasingly, is not the industry of tomorrow.

WHAT: Imagine using precision nutrition to meet the needs of individual animals. Imagine meeting the expectations of the new consumer, “the prosumer.” Imagine the farm of the future.

How will technologies help to achieve greater transparency and safety?

This is a new age in agriculture in which nutrigenomics and big data play an everyday role in revolutionizing the way food is produced.

Join moderator, Peabody Award-winning journalist Tom Martin, for a live webinar discussing the future of agriculture and technology with a panel of agribusiness experts that includes:

- Aidan Connolly, chief innovation officer and vice president of corporate accounts at Alltech.

- Mary Shelman, former director of Harvard Business School’s Agribusiness Program.

- Professor Michael Boehlje, distinguished professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics

and the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue University.

- Dr. Karl Dawson, chief scientific officer at Alltech.

WHEN: Monday, Sept. 25 2017

9:00 a.m. ET

WHERE: Reserve a spot now via this link. If you are unable to attend the live webinar, you can register via the link to receive the recording.

OTHER: Media only: Email your questions for the panelists in advance of the webinar to press@alltech.com.

Farming the Future will also broadcast on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/AlltechNaturally/.

Follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #FarmingTheFuture.

It was “all hands on deck” on a recent Friday afternoon in the atrium at Alltech Corporate Headquarters in Nicholasville, Kentucky. Founder and president Dr. Pearse Lyons gathered staff for a soft launch of the company’s selenium-based yeast product AT-001, and to talk about research indicating its promise as a supplement to maintain cognitive function and brain health.

In his remarks to the assembled Alltech staff, Dr. Lyons noted that the turning point had come about over 10 years ago when Alltech’s own nutrigenomic research indicated that its product Sel-Plex®, when fed to animals, was observed to favorably alter the activity of certain biological pathways that, according to scientific literature, are associated with several serious human illnesses, Alzheimer’s prominent among them.

Alzheimer’s is an irreversible degeneration of the brain that robs its victims of memory, cognition and personality, and eventually leads to death. Some 500,000 new cases of Alzheimer's disease will be diagnosed in the United States this year, according to the website UsAgainstAlzheimer’s. The cost is enormous and getting worse. Total payments for health care, long-term care and hospice for people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias are projected to increase from $259 billion in 2017 to more than $1 trillion in 2050, according to the BrightFocus Foundation.

The late Dr. William Markesbery, founding director of the renowned Sanders-Brown Center on Aging at the University of Kentucky, had taken a keen interest in Sel-Plex.

“This is something we have to work on,” Dr. Lyons recalls him saying.

In 2009, Dr. Markesbery published the results of a study in which Sel-Plex was fed to a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease and significantly reduced the levels of amyloid plaques relative to groups of the same mice fed a normal diet.

It is known that the hallmark pathologies of Alzheimer’s include the formation of amyloid plaques, abnormal clusters of protein fragments that build up between nerve cells in the brain, and tangles of dead and dying nerve cells made up of twisted strands of another protein called tau.

Dr. Ronan Power, vice president of Alltech Life Sciences, recalled Dr. Markesbery’s excitement.

“He said, ‘Hey, you guys have something here. Look at these results. I mean, this is extraordinary. This is a dramatic reduction in amyloid burden in these animals, and I’ve never seen anything quite like it before. We really need to pursue this.’”

Soon after, Dr. Power began that pursuit, working with researchers such as Dr. Mark Lovell at the Sanders-Brown Center.

“When we saw that this material might have an effect on pathways associated with Alzheimer’s disease, we went to the Food and Drug Administration and showed them what we had,” he said. “And they said, ‘Okay. You’ve got enough safety data here from registering Sel-Plex as an animal feed additive. We’ll allow you to do a Phase 1 trial.’”

The Phase 1 trial examined safety by providing AT-001 to healthy, elderly human volunteers, while others in a control group received a placebo. All were monitored closely for any adverse effects.

“We did that, and it came through with flying colors,” said Lovell. “We actually administered increasing doses of the material up to 800 milligrams per day, which is far in excess of the recommended daily allowance for selenium. And we saw no adverse effects whatsoever.”

Additional measurements revealed that, in volunteers receiving the AT-001, markers of inflammation decreased dramatically.

“Inflammation is one of the processes that’s thought to run in parallel with the development of Alzheimer’s disease, and inflammation may well exacerbate dementia progression as well,” said Power.

There was more.

Spinal fluid was drawn from the volunteer patients.

“The spinal fluid is the same fluid that surrounds and bathes your brain,” explained Power. “It’s kind of a closed circuit. You can take a sample of spinal fluid, but you can’t exactly go into the brain and take a sample because that would be ultra-invasive.

“So, looking at the spinal fluid and monitoring the level of amyloid protein, which can form the brain plaques that I was talking about — when we looked at the levels of amyloid protein in these volunteers at the start and at the finish, we saw that in the people receiving AT-001, the levels didn’t fluctuate at all,” he continued. “They were basically the same at the start as they were at the end. In the people receiving the sugar pill, we saw that the levels had dropped significantly.”

Puzzled by these results, Dr. Power turned for answers to Dr. Gregory Jicha, the chief clinician and professor at the University of Kentucky’s, National Institute on Aging-funded Alzheimer’s disease center.

“I said to Greg Jicha, ‘Well, heck, this is a bust, because this shows that the people who were getting the sugar pill actually did better because they have reduced levels of amyloid protein in their spinal fluid.’ And he said, ‘No, no. You’re wrong. If it’s reduced in the spinal fluid, you have to ask yourself, where has it gone? So, more than likely it's gone into the brain and formed clumps. Right?"

Reductions in amyloid levels in spinal fluid can be an indication that the amyloid has migrated into the brain and has clumped or “aggregated” into plaques, thus the decrease noted in spinal fluid. The unchanged levels of amyloid protein in the spinal fluid from the volunteers taking AT-001, on the other hand, potentially indicated that they had fewer amyloids migrating to the brain.

The Alltech-Sanders-Brown team, led by Dr. Jicha and Dr. Ronan Murphy at Sanders-Brown, now has a Phase 2 trial of AT-001 underway involving 60 volunteers.

“These are patients who are still healthy, but who may be at increased risk of eventually developing Alzheimer’s disease either because their parent(s) had Alzheimer’s disease or because they carry ApoE4, the only genetic marker that’s recognized to be associated with Alzheimer’s disease,” said Jicha.

There will be a repeat of the spinal fluid measurement, and, this time, brain imaging is being employed. The researchers are looking at differences between those treated with AT-001 versus those on a placebo.

“We’re looking at inflammatory markers in the brain and Alzheimer’s protein levels in the spinal fluid, the latter being one of the early signals that we got in our Phase 1 study. Those proteins continued to show trends consistent with moving toward advanced aging and increased risk for diseases like Alzheimer’s, and in the treated subjects, we saw that process slowed tremendously. So, now we’re looking to see if in a large population this is really true.”

Alltech researchers are working to determine what is responsible for the cell death and tissue loss noted in the Alzheimer's brain.

“We are trying to maintain the health of that part of the cell that becomes dysfunctional and sets off the cascade of events that eventually ends up in those structures (plaques and tangles) being formed, which in turn lead to brain decay, neurodegeneration and death,” said Dr. Power.

Most of the current pipeline treatments for Alzheimer’s focus on antibodies targeted to the structures that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, those amyloid plaques and the tangles, he explained.

“You’re going to see a number of these pharmaceuticals coming onto the market, but they are going to treat the symptoms rather than the cause,” said Dr. Power. “I feel that the best chance is to try to track this disease back to the point at which it starts and try to nip it in the bud. Better yet, if you can help the situation with simple nutritional supplements rather than pharmaceuticals, that has got to be a good thing.”

What about the federal regulatory obstacles in place to ensure that substances marketed to the public are as safe as their manufacturers claim? Dr. Jicha recalled when General Mills ran afoul with the FDA over a claim for one its top-selling breakfast cereals.

“Cheerios was advertising that it would reduce your cholesterol and prevent heart attack and stroke,” he said. “Well, that automatically makes Cheerios a drug that needs to be regulated by the FDA, and perhaps your doctor might have to write you a prescription for your next bowl of Cheerios. So, we do need to be cautious about that as well.”

Jicha cautioned against overstating implications.

“The human studies that we have done to date have not focused on patients with Alzheimer’s disease,” he said. “We’re focusing on patients with risk for Alzheimer’s disease. And so, one should not confuse AT-001 with a medicine. This is not to treat a particular disease. This is a supplement to augment health and perhaps bolster resistance toward processes that could potentially lead to a variety of diseases in the future.”

Dr. Power clarified the distinction.

“AT-001 is a yeast product, and so, essentially, it is a plant or, as the supplement/nutraceutical industry would call it, a botanical,” said Dr. Power.

A suitable analogy, he noted, might be cinchona tree bark and quinine, or foxglove and digitalis. Cinchona bark extract was used as a remedy for malaria as far back as the 1600s, but the active ingredient, quinine (a drug), was not identified until the 1800s. Likewise, foxglove extract was used for heart conditions in the 1700s, but digitalis, the active drug ingredient, was not isolated until 100 years later.

“Based on the track record of other potential Alzheimer's treatments, waiting to register the active substance as a drug could take at least another eight years, many millions of dollars and no guarantees of approval.”

But, said Dr. Power, "Releasing AT-001 as a supplement allows people to perhaps get some of the benefits."

Ultimately, however, if supported by clinical trials, the goal is to develop a single, pure compound that has been isolated from the scores of compounds present in the parent preparation, AT-001. Designated AT-002, this single compound has “very obvious effects on Alzheimer’s disease progression, based on studies in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Power. “If AT-002 makes it on to the market, it will be much more potent than AT-001 because it is the pure, concentrated active principle. And, we (or whoever brings it forward) will hopefully have the human data to make direct claims about its effect on Alzheimer’s disease.”

In the meantime, the company is making the AT-001 supplement available through its Alltech Life Sciences division with a commitment to reinvest all net proceeds from its sale into programs to research and develop new products for human health applications.