World Grain - October 2016 - 90

FEATURE: BÜHLER EVENT OFFERS SOLUTIONS FOR FEEDING THE WORLD

Johannes Wick, CEO of Bühler's Grains and Food, speaks at the Bühler Networking Days event Aug.
22 in Uzwil, Switzerland. Photo by Meyer Sosland.
Continued from page 86

occurs post-harvest, with poor logistics
and storage and inadequate cleaning
being the major culprits. But developed
countries also waste about one-third of
all food produced, with most of the responsibility resting with consumers who
throw food away.
5HÀHFWLQJ WKLV GLFKRWRP\ WKH HVtimated cost of obesity-related health
problems, mostly in developed countries, is about $2 trillion, which is about
2.8% of global GDP, while an estimated 840 million people worldwide suffer
from hunger.
"So one-third of global energy is going into the food supply chain and onethird of that is just wasted," Roberts
said. "It is a huge opportunity and responsibility for our industry to try to do
something about this."
Scheiber noted that the world is using
about 1.6 times the resources than can
be replenished each year.
"Obviously that is not a sustainable
situation," he said. "Bühler is stepping
up to bring the industry together to try
to discuss not only the problems but
also solutions for solving those problems. We take the responsibility of the
90

food and feed industry for a sustainable
world very seriously. It's time to step up
and make a difference."
MEGATRENDS
Bühler executives discussed several
megatrends that will be featured over
the next 30 years or so - particularly
nutrition, food and feed safety, sustainability and the Internet of Things (IoT).
"As the leader of our industry, we
want to anticipate megatrends and lead
the discussion about how our businesses will evolve in the future," Scheiber
said. "Our industry plays a key role -
since corn, rice and wheat are the most
important staple foods for 4 billion
people. And with the impending protein gap, grain processing will become
even more important."
Roberts said protein demand is expected to increase dramatically through
2050, as it is estimated 265 million
tonnes of protein will need to be added
to the global diet by that time.
"We are not going to do that purely
through livestock meat," he said. "So as
a company we are investing very heavily in different ways to deliver protein to
the global markets. Pulses, lentils, peas
and other plant proteins give us a fan-

tastic opportunity to meet those goals.
They have a low water footprint and are
VLJQL¿FDQWO\OHVVLPSDFWIXOWKDQWKHWUDditional protein production."
He said insects and algae also have
the potential to help meet soaring protein demand.
"Insects have a shorter timeline and
are more targeted toward animal feed,"
KHVDLG³2EYLRXVO\¿VKHDWLQVHFWVQDWurally. And algae are viewed as a sustainable protein source for the future."
5REHUWV VDLG VLJQL¿FDQW SURJUHVV KDV
been made in terms of food and feed
safety, but even greater strides will be
made in this area in the near future. He
said alternatives to the current method
of killing bacteria in food through heat
treatment likely will be developed.
"The problem is when you do that you
also damage the heat sensitive nutritional elements," he said. "We need to have
treatments that enable us to maintain
the nutrition. Thereafter we also need to
think about bacteria - what impact does
the good bacteria have on us? How can
we do this selectively and only eliminate the pathogens that we don't want
in foods. That's the pathway we're on."
Another megatrend, described by
Bühler as the "Internet of Things" (IoT),
will be an important driver moving forward as computer, sensor and even robotic technology provides opportunities
for food and feed processing companies
WRRSHUDWHDWPD[LPXPHI¿FLHQF\
"The impact of the Internet of Things
is mind blowing," said Johannes Wick,
CEO of the company's Grains and
Food division. "Our solutions become
smarter with every new generation, as
we include more and more sensors that
allow different devices to connect and
exchange information. For our customers, this translates into higher quality
and increased output at a lower operating cost."
Dan Dye, CEO of the United States'
largest milling company, Ardent Mills,
Denver, Colorado, said the forwardthinking nature of the three-day program made the long trip to Switzerland
worthwhile.
October 2016 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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World Grain - October 2016

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