Delegates representing 21 countries (predominantly from US, Europe, China and Japan) meshed with humanitarians, visionaries and chemists to deliver a strong message: ‘waste not’.
The journey truly began with Tom Clyne’s heart-wrenching photo narrative chronicling six individuals whose separate journeys of passion and unselfish giving tipped the scales in favour of humanity.
Today’s solitary individual is still capable of making a difference, as we learned from containing pandemic outbreaks to monitoring Greenland’s diminishing glacier resources, trekking Amazon rivers to realising wildlife reserves to braving road blocks in wartorn Afghanistan to rescue neglected animals. The restoration of life-cherishing values certainly resonated with the audience as they applauded these accomplishments.
The leap to present day reality was appropriately facilitated by Gary Hirshberg, chairman of Stonyfield Farms organic foods. In 1983, Stonyfield Farms asked the question, Is it possible to build a food business that can promote health, make money and not damage the environment?. The answer appeared on the next slide, with an impressive 21-year compound annual growth rate of 23.8%. Net sales in 2011 were $356m.
It comes as no surprise then that consumers want to eat healthy when confronted with the indisputable facts and health concerns emanating from our food sources.
The staggering rise of obesity among Americans, increased incidents of diabetes, cancers and pesticide-related illnesses begs the question, why are we not supporting more organic decisions? In fact, the statistic is that one in three children born in the year 2000 will later become diabetic in the US.
Alleviating the financial burden on healthcare would be motivation enough to warrant a shift to healthy food. Stonyfield Farms launched PLA packaging in 2010 and makes a strong case for bio-based packaging, leaving the audience with the thought, Why not an edible yogurt cup?.
Talk about timely intervention. President Obama’s presidential memo requesting government procurers to buy bio-based products supporting healthier choices appeared as breaking news in US Today as the keynote presentations commenced.
Drawing attention to the press release, Steve Davies, director communications & public affairs at NatureWorks, could not have delivered a more compelling validation for bio-based products. Kate Lewis, deputy programme manager of USDA’s BioPreferred programme, translated the significance of the decree by highlighting the $500bn worth of annual purchases.
Even the lunch speaker Susan Freinkel, author of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, conveyed a stern message regarding the utility of a synthetic material gone astray.
How apropos, the formulation of plastic in fact was a failed trial that produced a glob that was considered waste until marketing found a way to mass market an inferior copy for the genuine article. It appears that we have come a full 360° on that point.
On a side note, Slow Death by Rubber Duck is an excellent experimental account of how toxic chemistry of everyday life affects our health. It’s a must-read.
For the duration of the two-day conference, a succession of validating and thought provoking presentations were interspersed with a triple stream of expert panel discussions prompting debate on technologies, process chemistry and marketing initiatives.
Memorably, vice-chairman Paul Conway’s keynote address delivered from notes, and a short video clip depicting Cargill’s philanthropic gesture of delivering rice to the Horn of Africa from India dramatising the global severity of ‘Feeding the World’.
The notion that agricultural self-sufficiency is a worthy aspiration is counterproductive and has in actual fact been a root cause to increased food prices. Governments imposing export bans are interfering with global supply and demand thus intentionally or not driving up prices. Interestingly enough, recent statistics show that many countries are importing nearly the exact tonnage as they export of that identical product.
It’s not until we hear from president & CEO Marc Verbruggen that NatureWorks LLC takes centre stage to address, What’s changed since ITR2010?. Dispelling three popular bioplastics myths as a review of the Ingeo value proposition at the outset of his presentation is the mark of a master strategist.
Perhaps the most encouraging news is that, by 2015, a second Ingeo plant located in Rayong Province, Thailand, is expected to be operational. When that plant is operational, NatureWorks will utilise three feedstock sources of corn, sugar cane and cassava. The combined yield capacity of 700 MM lbs will be delivering to a global market.
The 1st generation family of polymers under the Ingeo technology platform now includes a 2nd generation family of monomers and a 3rd generation Ingeo Platform of compounded solutions.
Marc’s closing statement that, “Game-changing technology requires a ‘journey’ approach”, is a mantra to be taken to heart and integrated into daily business practice. As we all know, life is about the journey.
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