Miller Magazine Issue: 117 September 2019

51 COVER STORY MILLER / SEPTEMBER 2019 What makes food safety unique and differ- ent from other areas of public health is its multisectoral nature. Food safety is fun- damentally multidisciplinary. It cuts across different sectors such as health, agriculture, fisheries, industry, trade, environment, tour- ism, education, and economy. Food safety must be integrated along the entire food chain, from farm to table, with the diffirent sectors: government, farmers, food compa- nies and consumers and taking advantage of public-private partnerships…Consumers are increasingly demanding information about their food to make informed con- sumption choices. In that contex, digitaliza- tion and information technology will have a profound impact on food standards. The sharp increases in food prices that occurred in global and national markets in recent years, and the resulting in- creases in the number of hungry and malnourished people, have sharpened the awareness of policy-makers and of the general public to the fragility of the global food system. By 2050 the world’s population will reach 9.1 billion, 34 percent higher than today. Nearly all of this population increase will occur in developing countries. Urbanization will continue at an accelerated pace, and about 70 percent of the world’s population will be urban compared to 49 percent today. In- come levels will be many multiples of what they are now. In order to feed this larger, more urban and richer population, food production must increase by 70 percent. Annual cereal production will need to rise to about 3 billion tonnes from 2.1 billion today and annual meat production will need to rise by SUSTAINABLE FOOD SAFETY AND FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN