UPDATED Photo report: Agri Vision: feeding the globe in 2050

01. The event takes place in Noordwijk-aan-Zee, a strategically located coastal town not far from Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

02. The conference has attracted approximately 375 experts from the international feed-to-food chain, hailing from 44 countries.

03. Wout Dekker, CEO, Nutreco, opened the conference by setting the scene that by 2050 we'd need another four planets Earth to feed everyone. He also reminded delegates of the concept of 'agflation', agriculture induced inflation and that it will be back.

04. David Hughes, Em Prof of Food Marketing at Imperial College, London, UK, kicked off the list of guest speakers with an inspiring presentation on consumer behaviour, now and in the future. He noted that supermarkets have seen their efforts marketing 'premium' products stranded by now applauding 'basic' levels, due to the economic crisis. Saying 'the green bar will keep going up', he referred to an increased awareness for products promoting themes like 'environment', 'sustainability' and 'social issues'.

05. The next speaker, Dr David Orrell, scientist and author on popular science books, dived into the subject of predictions - and why these are hard to give. This last question became extra relevant during 2008's financial crisis. Orrell said, "Is the market ever stable? Apparent stability is actually a balance of many opposing forces."

06. Karl Rose, chief strategist at energy company Shell International, explained his company works with 'scenarios'. There is not one model, but more, helping to develop scenarios for alternative futures. "These help preparing leaders to anticipate and manage uncertainty - and provide 'blueprints' instead of a scramble."

07. Chinese investors simply try to invest in the whole feed-to-food chain, to avoid market volatility issues, explained Sipko Schat, member of the executive board of Rabobank International, and vice chairman of Rabobank International. He also indicated that he expects recovery of the economy in the first quarter of 2010 in the US and China with a bout of inflation to follow."

08. Olivier Kerr, corporate vice president agricultural supply chain of Cargill, added that setting a base price may also be part of a solution for market volatility, "and not an enemy."

09. Acknowledgement that genetically modified crops and other technologies have a role in feeding the world came from Dr Jason Clay, senior vice president market transformation, at the World Wildlife Fund. This is important to save water and carbon emission, he said - in short, to be able to use agricultural land efficiently. "If we don't do anything, by 2050 no wildlife will be left on this planet."

10. A similar opinion was voiced by Prof Dr Andre Faaij, department of Science, Technology & Society, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. He indicated the possibilities for agriculture. "What we produce now can in theory be produced on one fifth of the surface that we use now."

11. Robert Berendes, member of the executive committee and global head of business development at Syngenta International, launched a plea in favour of the use of genetically modified (GM) crops, even in the European Union. He emphasised that not allowing GM crops in Europe was due to 'unscientific' and 'quasi-religious' opposition.

12. A panel discussion on more sustainable production included from left to right Graham Plastow (animal breeding), Matt van der Poel (securing tomorrow's consumers with technological innovations), Theo Hoen (food processing) and Leo den Hartog (animal nutrition and farming). Plastow (University of Alberta) mostly emphasised the increased importance of genomics in animal breeding, whereas Den Hartog (Nutreco) concluded saying we need "sustainable precision livestock farming, based on nutrigenomics, full system control and farm automation."

13. Last but not least, Marc Lammers, 2008 Olympic gold medal coach of the Dutch women's field hockey team in Beijing, gave a masterclass how to create a winning team. Not that results should receive the focus, but any process towards that goal. "Winners always have a plan."

14. The second day of Agri Vision started with an interesting case study from Brazil, as Jose Antonio do Prado Fay, CEO, Perdigao, came to explain the success of his company. He stressed that the company grew 26 times between 1994 and 2008, and that the word 'affordable' is what counts when making products for customers. Fay could not discuss the imminent merger with Sadia, due to the current due diligence process.

15. Margareta Helander, feed development manager at Lantmannen Lantbruk, Sweden, explained her company's dedication to sustainable production. In 2008 Lantmannen started to indicate on the labels of its compound feeds and some food products the output of greenhouse gases in CO2 equivalents per kilo resulting from the production. Kronfagel poultry, for example, corresponded to 1.7 kg of CO2 per kg chicken.

16. Dutch chemical company DSM, also a producer of animal nutrition ingredients, spends a large part of its R&D investments in areas identified for accelerated growth with a focus on sustainable energy sources and production from microbes, "which allow us to do things you cannot do with chemistry," explained Volkert Claassen, vice president white biotechnology, DSM.

17. Purchasing - that is where a lot of progress can be made, as a source of value and product proposals, said Gordon Crichton, director at the Bordeaux Management School, France. As purchasing evolves into 'Supplier Relationship Management', he rhetorically asked his audience whether the emphasis should be on 'management' or on 'relationship'?

18. Huiyi Cai, general director of the Feed Research Institute, China, gave an introduction on China's current feed situation - and indicated some of the agricultural challenges for his country: feed raw material shortage, pollution, food safety, meeting growing future food demands.

19. Thorleif Enger, chairman of Yara Foundation and former CEO, Yara, Norway, highlighted that the world needs Africa to meet future demands as there is much arable land that can be used. Investments are what is needed, he said. "Foreign aid leads to corruption and dependency. We have to make Africans believe in their future, make more investments in agriculture and encourage entrepreneurship."

20. Jerry Vergeer, executive vice president, Nutreco, wrapped up the conference by reminding the audience of the several strategies mentioned in Noordwijk to close the gap between 'surging demand' and 'struggling supplies'. The ultimate goal can be formulated simply, he restated: "We need to double global food and fuel production while halving CO2 emission." Judging from the presentations at Agri Vision 2009, Vergeer said it is possible to reach that goal.