The first major technological revolution in human nutrition was the use of fire for cooking. This allowed more energy to be extracted from food—by converting part of the fibre it contains into sugars that can be absorbed by our intestines—and eliminated pathogens thanks to high temperatures. As a result, population growth became possible without increasing resource consumption.
Hundreds of thousands of years later, agriculture—understood as the selection, cultivation, and harvesting of certain plant species—led to the second technological revolution. The consequences were immense: humans went from a nomadic to a sedentary lifestyle, giving rise to a new expansion of the species.
It took more than 8,000 years for us to witness, in the last century, the development of chemical fertilisers, an intellectual by-product of the military advances of the Second World War, which, together with the use of pesticides, enabled the boom in large-scale monoculture farming. The resulting population explosion has been unprecedented in human history.
In recent years, we have witnessed great advances in many different areas of agricultural operations. To understand them better, it may be useful to reflect on the major challenges facing agriculture in the coming years. Although the birth rate is below replacement level in many regions, the world's population will continue to grow for several decades... and the available land will not. In fact, the amount of arable land per capita has halved in the last 60 years. Added to this pressure are the growing scarcity of water resources, changing weather patterns, the reduction in the global agricultural workforce and increasing regulatory pressure on the sector. The agriculture of the future must be geared towards greater productivity, adaptability, automation and traceability.
In terms of productivity, convenience and adaptation to new climates, advances in genetics have been decisive, both in varietal hybridisation and transgenic modification. For example, our grapes grow seedless and we are planting blueberries – a berry native to cold climates – in the Peruvian desert. Precision irrigation, the use of sensors and smart machinery, biostimulants and fertilisers, as well as certain regenerative practices, help farmers consume fewer resources, extend soil life and reduce dependence on external labour. At the same time, they allow for the collection of a huge amount of data which, once analysed, accelerates the learning curve. Today, our fields produce both quality fruit and valuable data that will enable us to be more productive and efficient in our consumption of resources.
The agriculture of the future cannot ignore continuous investment in innovation. The agricultural value chain is now more complex than ever, bringing together a multitude of specialised players. Those capable of acting as agents of change, driving continuous improvement and integrating knowledge of their environment, will be the big winners of this fourth revolution that we are experiencing first-hand.
By Aritza Rodero, partner at Atitlan - https://atitlan.es
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Addleshaw Goddard (AG), the London-headquartered international law fir...
