The challenges are piling up

The challenges facing the world today are massive, particularly with regard to pressure on Earth’s resources, climate and environment. Agriculture is a key player with regard to some of the most serious challenges, which concern climate, land use, fresh water use, biodiversity and emissions of nitrogen and phosphorous to nature and the aquatic environment. The problems are expected to increase globally by about 50-80 per cent by 2050. New analyses show possible initiatives that must be brought into play in order to resolve the issues: new agricultural technologies, minimized food waste, and much less consumption of animal food products. 

Public awareness of the need for much greater sustainability in agriculture has spread in Denmark and globally. Young people, in particular, have a strong focus on food with low climate and environmental impacts. This perception is already spreading to the food sector. On 11 March 2019 Arla will present its new global climate goals. iCLIMATE at Aarhus University has organised a conference that will take place in Copenhagen on 18 March called ”Fødevarer i et ændret klima” regarding food in a changing climate. The conference is almost fully booked. 

Awareness is also reflected in significant political awareness in Denmark, especially regarding agriculture’s climate footprint and nutrient emissions. This has led to a steadily increasing barrage of policy support tasks, which means that we must collaborate much more with the ministry to prioritise our efforts. It also creates a swathe of demands for research, so we also need to think in terms of new strategic efforts. 

Agroecology in combination with digitalisation is the way to go

On the EU level the use of pesticides in being questioned more and more. Glyphosate could realistically be banned for many uses in agriculture. Neonicotinoids for controlling insects are suspected as being one of the most important causes of the population decline of bees and other pollinators. Fungicides are also under suspicion, including the role they may play in increasing resistance to drugs used as vital human medicine. Chemical agriculture’s possibilities will diminish in the future. It will probably be replaced and supplemented with efforts based on agroecology in combination with digital agriculture, which can prevent and solve problems more precisely. 

We need to find new, smart solutions. Cultivation systems with a low climate and environmental footprint, with minimal use of pesticides, with efficient use and recycling of nutrients, minimal use of irrigation, and with respect for arable land biodiversity. It is not an easy task but that is why it has been given to us. 

Internally at AU we have been faced with several challenges these past months and weeks. Our classes will be moved to new classrooms on the campus in Aarhus. This will certainly be an improvement. We will be subjected to an international evaluation. I have every reason to believe that this will prove that we belong to the international elite. Simultaneously, our faculty is undergoing changes. We will be getting a new management and probably also a new direction. We must help influence it.   

In the midst of all these challenges it is worthwhile to recall Billy Ocean’s song from 1985 ”When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” You can find it on YouTube with, among others, Danny DeVito in the backing group. You can play it for a mental pick.me-up.