Opinion
DSM Interlaken 2020
The DSM Ingredients Event for animal and human nutrition held at Interlaken in Switzerland from 6–8 June is entitled ‘DSM 2020: Nourish, Protect and Improve’.
It tackled a number of global issues, including feeding a growing population, the rising power of women, the shape of the economy and water sustainability.
After a two-hour drive from Zurich airport, ending with a glorious route past waterfalls and lakes, we arrived at the splendid Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa with a clear view of the snow-capped Jungfrau mountain.
See more images from the DSM Event.
Around 185 guests had trialled flavoured drinks at lunchtime, in premix stick form from 10 variants of personalised nutrition, including ‘defy your age’, ‘essentials for life’ and ‘strengthen your bones’, to name just three.
I arrived just in time to change for dinner in the sumptuous Salle de Versailles ballroom. This is not an event DSM runs every year – the last such global conference was in 2002, although there are annual social get-togethers.
Visitors from China, Korea, Brazil, Ecuador – in fact 35 countries in all – were welcomed next morning by DSM CEO Leendert Staal.
“Nutrition is still in its infancy,” he explained, noting our responsibility to ‘Nourish, Protect and Improve’ the diet of both humans and animals. Memory, vision, learning ability, energy, drive, healthy ageing, skin health, protection and nourishment are all things we can now impact, he added.
“We need to be aware of our footprint on the climate and we question our long-term sustainability;” he said. “We will need to produce 50% more than we do now to feed everyone by 2020.
“Our purpose is to create brighter lives for people today and for generations to come – this is a long-term responsibility.”
How do we effectively provide for an ever-increasing population and how do we solve the problems of over-consumption in some parts of the globe?
The first speaker, Kjell Nordström, associate professor from Stockholm School of Economics, talked about tackling the pile of things to do on your desk. “Later does not happen,” he noted, then making a myriad of accurate observations:
- Facebook is gossip; it’s bigger than sex and very important as it creates a village, a community, which allows us to be alone together and so is very attractive.
- A recent survey of 10–16 year olds revealed that they do not want to travel. It is our parents that travel – we want to stay with our friends.
- 44% of self-made millionaires have dyslexia.
- Control of information technology is key to making money. For instance, each person on Ryanair pays a different price.
- Every day, you are a little bit more stupid, as the amount of knowledge out there grows exponentially because of the internet.
- Universities are creating alliances (eg there is a community of European business schools).
- Women are taking over universities in Norway. There are 80–85% female students with a similar picture in France, Morocco and Abu Dhabi.
“What are young men doing,” he asked, “playing World of Warcraft?”
- According to a number of studies, in business ventures women are not a credit risk – they pay back.
- We no longer create families. ‘Singlification’ is the new way of living, with 64% single households in Stockholm, 44% in London and 42% in New York.
- Europe will be a collaborative state between cities from an economic point.
- Life expectancy is already five years higher in the city than in the country, where there is more likely to be unemployment, poorer diet and civil unrest.
- In developing countries, women leave the countryside first, leaving a ration of eight men to every woman.
- Anyone can become an American in around five years, but it takes three generations to become Swedish.
- Stanford University is known as the Nobel Prize Factory, as 27 scholars have won Nobel prizes from there, but they are from Hungary, Russia and China yet they win the prize in the name of the US.
- If you want innovation, you need to be able to experiment and sometimes fail. Failure is at the heart of the capitalist machine.
- To make money, you need to create and defend a temporary monopoly.
- The survival of the fittest is not due to being the biggest, fastest or most intelligent but the ability to change.
- We will need to use the cities for growing foods – on the walls.
The second speaker was Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics with NYU’s Stern School of business. He discussed whether we are in a U, V or W shaped recession.
“Slower economic growth in the US and Eurozone will impact even on the rapidly recovering emerging markets of India, Brazil and China,” he said.
He warned of over-investment in infrastructure here: too much too fast leads to empty airports and empty roads.
The most important thing is innovation, whether it’s for a greener economy or a new drink. In global economic issues, we have to find the mechanism to improve the coordination between countries.
Lunchtime conversation
Over lunch, I learned of a new drink for breastfeeding mothers called ‘Purita Mama’, which contains omega-3 to improve the cognitive ability of children from when they are in the womb. This is being handed out free of charge through a government programme in Chile.
In the afternoon, Alexandre de Barros, managing partner of MB Agro, covered the biofuel issue and how several hedge funds are now buying crops as ‘soft commodities’.
Following geographic population rise and fall, he questioned whether the decrease in consumption of iron, oil and food in the US will balance with increased consumption in China. He also spoke of an emerging middle class in emerging countries and the major challenges being protectionism, volatile exchange rates, instability due to weather fluctuations and environmental concerns.
The final speaker on Monday was Alexandra Coustea – granddaughter of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who has taken up the baton in defence of all things involving water, lakes and rivers – saying how seeing them as silos is damaging and we must learn to look up and down river if we are to preserve our planet.
We saw film of the dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, where nitrates and fertiliser run-off has caused a complete lack of oxygen and sea life on the sea bed.
“By 2025, two thirds of the world will suffer water shortages,” she said. “It will no longer be the problem of ‘the poor people out there’, but that of your children and mine. We are waking up to the fact that we are all environmentalists and for this community every decision we make will have an effect on their future. Chemical fertilisers are the number one ‘no-no’.
“My belief is that we can all come to the table – scientists and business communities – to protect our water resources.
“The Coca-Cola Company is making huge strides in achieving water neutrality and watershed restoration, while Wal-Mart is investing in sustainable seafood and shifting the whole market towards sustainability.”
People would be more careful if they had to pay the true value of their water, she warned.
After the presentations (under the watchful eye of moderator Sara Coburn, freelance journalist for the BBC) were over, I interviewed DSM head of global marketing for human nutrition and health, Gareth Barker. He spoke of the 12 benefit platforms that DSM offers its clients for food and beverage innovation, including joint and bone health, cognitive, heart and eye health and for many times in life including pregnancy and menopause.
Vitamin D is now the hot topic in Brussels, with recognition of its value to so many of the population now receiving insufficient sunlight due to suncreams and clothing, and poor climate.
Beauty from within is among the newer sectors of development with skin defence and benefits for hair and nails from biotin. Also drinks to protect men’s health, containing lycopene and those containing lutein enabling better eye health including a decrease in macular degeneration and an ability to differentiate objects more easily in the dusk which could impact drivers.
The day was not over and we enjoyed a steamboat-style cruise along the picturesque Lake Thun, with a buffet dinner and jazz band accompaniment amid stimulating conversations with visitors from France, Korea, Tai Wan, the US, Germany, the Netherlands, Mexico and Brazil.
Still writing, and it’s 1.05am – time to turn in!
Claire Phoenix is managing editor of Beverage Innovation magazine. Subscribe here.](magazine/beverage-innovation-1)
See more images from the DSM Event.
About the author
Claire Phoenix is managing editor of Beverage Innovation magazine. Subscribe here.
Also by this author
See also
Latest news
| |