Food Systems - ForumforAg

In this edition of the Food Systems podcast, speaking during an interview at this year's Forum for the Future of Agriculture Annual Conference, Alex Turk talks to Ethan Soloviev of HowGood. Ethan argues AI can help the agri-food system optimise holistically for climate, nature and farmer livelihoods, rather than trading them off. He's largely optimistic about AI despite concerns over energy, water use and emergent model behaviour, and sees it already speeding up decision-making on his own farm. He calls for AI trained on regenerative and agroecological data rather than industrial yield-focused data, so farmers help shape it themselves - and proposes a "moonshot" think tank using AI to build genuinely long-term plans for food and agriculture.

In this edition of the Food Systems podcast, speaking during an interview at this year's Forum for the Future of Agriculture Annual Conference, Alex Turk talks to Martin Clough, Head of Digital Collaboration and Sustainability at Syngenta. The discussion centers on how three powerful technologies are converging: generative AI, big data, and omics science, and how they are revolutionizing agricultural innovation. He explains how historically, product design optimized one challenge at a time (efficacy, then safety, then sustainability), like solving a Rubik's Cube one side at a time. Using multi-parameter optimization now enables solving all challenges simultaneously - all six sides at once.

In this edition of the Food Systems podcast, speaking during an interview at this year's Forum for the Future of Agriculture Annual Conference, Alex Turk talks to Harvey Locke, President, Harvey Locke Conservation Inc and Vice Chair for Nature Positive, IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. Harvey argues that environmental and economic issues are deeply connected. He challenges the traditional approach of balancing environment, economy, and society separately. Instead, Earth is the foundation - humans and the economy are subsets that must serve people, not the reverse. We need to recognize our dependence on Earth's systems and act accordingly. He ends optimistically: bringing together climate officials, investors, and conservationists in one conversation shows progress in recognizing these interconnected challenges.

In this edition of the Food Systems podcast, speaking during an interview at this year's Forum for the Future of Agriculture Annual Conference, Alex Turk talks to Cristina Bruce, Senior Vice President for Sustainability and Social Impact at Anglo American. Cristina discussed the company's focus on sustainable agriculture and the development of polyhalite resources in the North of England. She highlighted the importance of innovation in fertilizer products to address global food security and soil health challenges. With the cost of fertilizer being impacted by the Middle East conflict, this is a timely reminder of alternative sources.

Recorded at the recent Forum for the Future of Agriculture Regional event in Dublin, Rose O’Donovan interviewed Ricard Ramon, Head of Unit for Policy Perspectives at DG AGRI, about the current state of the negotiations with the CAP. Joining online, Mr Ramon said a minimum CAP budget of around 300 billion euros is established to 2034, with significant additional resources available: a requirement that 10% of unallocated funds be spent in rural areas, worth around 48 billion euros, and a further 45 billion euros could be moved to agriculture, if spent early in the period. He highlighted that it is very important to continue to put a big focus on support for farmers’ incomes – the key is matching the right type of support to the right need, whether direct payments, investment, technology or risk management.