By 2050, the human population is projected to hit 10 billion. By then, Asia, the world’s most populous and fastest growing region, will have 5.2 billion mouths to feed.
Securing the future of food in Asia, where 60 per cent of humanity lives on 30 per cent of the Earth’s surface area, will require the help of technology, and one type of technology that is essential to ensuring the region’s food security is the cold chain.
Cold chain technologies have enabled food sellers to keep food fresh and consumers to buy food from countries on the other side of the continent. In developing Asia, where a lot of the food we eat is produced, it’s possible to help farmers increase their income while reducing the amount of food lost with proper cold storage equipment and post-harvest management.
But deploying the cold chain is not without challenges, particularly in developing countries. Cold chain technologies are expensive, guzzle energy and produces emissions that contribute to climate change.
In the first episode of the Tomorrow’s cities: Engineering the energy transition, Eco-Business sat down with Grahame Dixie, executive director at Grow Asia, a non-profit that works to improve sustainability in agriculture, and Dexter Huerto, segment marketing manager for Asia Pacific at Danfoss, to talk about how cold chain can impact the sustainability of Asia’s strained food system.
Tune in as we tackle questions such as:
- What is cold chain?
- How can cold chain grow in developing Asia?
- What’s the environmental impact of cold chain?
- What are the cold chain options for small-scale farmers?
- What will the future of food look like?
