Photo: ©FAO

Bodrum- Start-in Bodrum, an Online Sustainable Nutrition and Food Innovation for Healthy Living Event, was organized on 10-11 October. The event brought together representatives from FAO, the food industry and food entrepreneurs, to discuss diverse topics such as the sustainable food supply chain, reduction of food waste, and digital and precision farming.

FAO Turkey Assistant Representative Ayşegül Selışık delivered a keynote speech in which she presented stunning statistics from the report the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 (SOFI 2020), noting that COVID-19 has reminded us all that agriculture is the most important sector for humanity. Highlighting the importance of efforts to eradicate hunger in the context of World Food Day and the 75th anniversary of FAO, Selışık pointed out that hunger and food insecurity in the world are increasing. If current trends persist, added Selışık, achieving zero hunger by 2030 seems unlikely.

Selışık shed light on the hidden costs of current dietary trends explaining how current diets harm health and the environment. Touching upon the impacts of COVID-19 on food and agriculture, Selışık also called attention to the deteriorating plight of vulnerable groups such as seasonal workers and smallholders.

In order to reverse worsening trends in food and agriculture, urgent action is needed, said Selışık. Among the effective remedies to tackle the alarming situation in food and agriculture, Selışık listed state-level re-orchestration of policy implementation, reducing food loss and waste, and digital agriculture.

The event continued with other speakers who presented a variety of intriguing topics related to the future of food and agriculture. Toloy Tanrıdağlı, Vice President of NametRub Ice Cream at Unilever, explored future trends in the food sector and discussed the myriad challenges facing the food industry. Aslı Zuluğ, the founder of Pacha Chips, shared her success story with the audience and explained the various stages in the development of the product.

During a panel event, Semi Hakim, Mustafa Çakır and Ilke Erdogan McAliley discussed the future of water entrepreneurship, displaying a detailed map of 2020 Turkish Water Ecosystem Stakeholders. Çakır further explained that patent applications in water technologies have been booming for almost seven years.

After the panel, Emrah İnce of Tekfen Agriculture delivered a presentation in which he shared new agricultural trends such as digital agriculture and precision farming. İnce noted that smart farming markets are increasing in value each year, and highlighted the importance of the relationship between smallholders and corporate firms in agriculture.

One of the most interesting speeches of the event was delivered by Ali Rıza Ersoy, who explained how he increased productivity on his farm by rejecting agriculture practices like chemical fertilizers and embraced digital technologies including the use of drones, sensors and cloud systems on the farm. Ersoy showed how digital technologies have shaped decision-making processes in agriculture, noting that very simple technologies can increase agricultural productivity, which in turn may lead to more affluent villages.

Subsequent speakers focused on the use of big data to increase yields and the benefits of functional foods for human health. The second day of the event featured presentations on Turkish coffee and viniculture, and graded start-ups presented on the first day.