How to Overcome Public Mistrust on Global Food Industry

Peter Kermond^*
*Correspondence: Peter Kermond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA, Email:

Food makes up the majority of the world economy. It is also considered to be more important to human health than any drug in the world. But big changes in the industry are causing people to lose confidence in many organizations that put food on the table. The list of institutional offenders includes food groups that make unhealthy products for human consumption, food scientists who genetically modify ingredients, and some farmers who are considered a waste of land. "Perhaps no economic system in the world has been questioned by so many people like the food system,” wrote by Goldberg, who is recognized as the founder of the term "agribusiness" and has been working for decades.

In the recently published book "Food Citizen: Defenders of the Food System in the Age of Distrust", discussed the health of the industry, looked forward to the future, and interviewed many of the most important participants. The food industry and the ecosystems it supports are increasingly in the interests of consumers in terms of promoting health, pioneering sustainable production and distribution methods, and protecting the environment. The changes we see in the food system and new technologies that facilitate the identification of fraudulent activities will lead to safer and more nutritious food systems in the future, this article explains the values and priorities and the vision for the future of the global food system. The world's food system is the world's largest quasi-utility, because the people in the system are responsible for providing food and water to humans and animals, managing land and water resources and use food for food. For non-food uses such as energy, and increasingly, medicines are produced from crops or animal milk. In all these activities, you must create national and global entities to monitor the safety of food and food safety, and managing science and agriculture.

The biggest challenge facing the system global food is to use new scientific discoveries to improve the health of humans, plants and animals, and overcome poverty and malnutrition in the world in an environmentally sound way. To do all this will require more and more new types of cooperation in the food system. The biggest opportunities for food system participants are:

• Invest in medical and scientific food research to provide new and unique foods that can maintain and improve people’s health without relying on increasing animal populations.

• Use robotics for different tasks in food processing and human agriculture, and develop training programs to provide alternative occupations for people displaced by robotics.

• Create a professional organization of certified public accountants to conduct neutral assessments of new food safety discoveries and new agreements that are not affected by specific private interests.

Food leaders can create social and economic value. One of the founders of Jain Irrigation in India described developing a drip irrigation business for small farmers and persuading crop buyers to provide the lowest prices for the production of these farmers and have the opportunity to obtain higher prices, if the market rises. Baldemar Velásquez, one of the leaders of the Farm Workers Organizing Committee, described the dispute resolution committee set up by the late Harvard University professor John Dunlop to unite agricultural and food companies for a win-win situation relation. The committee has brought peace to labor management at the national level and is establishing a global labor relations structure. Candy maker Mars now labels its candy as "occasionally eaten, not more than once a week" as a measure to combat childhood obesity. Wegmans supermarkets did not wait for the law to put nutrition information on all their foods. Not all food companies consume and publicly fulfill their responsibilities as in the "Food Citizen" book, but more and more companies do. In my opinion, they really have no choice but to consider the health and enjoyment of consumers. The most profitable companies in the industry keep the health of consumers in mind and have a value system that attracts men and women who want to promote this effort. I use the term "agricultural products" because it is now generally accepted that food is more important to human and animal health than any medicine. What a woman eats before and during pregnancy can affect the health and well-being of the child from birth to death. Now we have animals that can produce drugs in their milk. Scientists like Dr. George Church have found a way to change the biology of pigs so that its organs, such as its heart, can eventually be transplanted into humans without activating the human immune system. This may be a breakthrough in medicine. Pretending to know what the world food system will look like in 20 to 40 years is presumptuous.

Climate change is already affecting crop cultivation areas around the world. The lives of animals and fish, as well as human lives will be threatened. The scientific development of alternative sources of protein and fuel, such as the use of algae, will become increasingly important. As safe, pure water becomes scarcer, desalination will become more common. Nutritional science and a better understanding of microbes and bacteria, which are still in their infancy, will allow appropriate nutrition programs to target specific diseases. Schools of Medicine and Public Health, Schools of Public Policy, and Schools of Agriculture and Business need to work more closely; cross registration will be more common, academic training will be more multidisciplinary; (and) cooperation between departments will become more frequent and will be adopted More complex tool implementation.