Sustainability in the global food system

By 2050, the global population is estimated to increase to more than 9.5 billion compared to 7 billion today. And 5 billion people will live in Asia alone. At the same time, people in this region are becoming more affluent, their tastes are shifting, and they are becoming more concerned about what they put on their plate.

This is putting increasing pressure on the food industry to ensure that this generation has access to safe, nutritious and affordable food without compromising the needs of future generations. As an industry leader, Cargill believes that companies have a fundamental responsibility to address the social and environmental impact of doing business.

On October 9, 2015, Cargill is hosting an event in Singapore, Supply Chain Matters 2015 , to address the importance of sustainability across food and agricultural supply chains, including the challenges businesses are facing to integrate sustainability in their business agenda and the opportunities ahead in the Asia Pacific region.

“We are in a unique position thanks to our 150 years of experience and leadership in food and agriculture, our breadth of solutions and services, and our ability to take a long term view of the industry to ensure our customers’ continued success and see ourselves grow for the next 150 years,” MacLennan said.

Participants range from business entrepreneurs in Asia, corporate business leaders, government officials and civil society organizations. “We wanted to bring together, not just our customers, but all stakeholders across the food and agriculture supply chains. That includes some of our competitors too. No one can do this alone. We all play a part and we all need to work together if we are going to be successful,” said MacLennan.

Dhaval Buch, Chief Procurement Officer at Unilever, which is a close customer and partner of Cargill said: "Sustainability is at the center of our business agenda. One of the reasons we have made so much progress in sustainability is because we work with partners like Cargill, who share similar intent, who have similar ambitions, and who have similar capabilities across a wider spectrum of the supply chain."

The event features a keynote speech from Cargill’s chairman and CEO Dave MacLennan, followed by a panel discussion with industry leaders and experts, including MacLennan; Olam Co-Founder, Group MD & CEO Sunny Verghese; NTUC Fairprice Co-operative CEO (Singapore) Seah Kian Peng; and World Wildlife Fund’s senior vice president of agriculture David McLaughlin. The panel discussion will be moderated by food security expert Professor Paul Teng, Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technical University.