Food

The Food Sector

The food sector is a traditional industry, but it has many opportunities for further development. Food lies at the centre of many of todays’ most complex challenges, in particular the sustainable provision of nutrition to a growing global population. Solutions for tomorrow’s food production, processing and distribution systems will arise from information and communication technologies as well as new developments in agricultural engineering.

While some countries struggle to feed their population, one third of the food produced in the world is wasted every year. Nonetheless, many solutions already exist to prevent part of this food to be lost. For example, a better connection between producers and end-users through new models of collaboration that use information and communication technologies, novel techniques for the optimisation of food quality assessment, advanced packaging for improved food conservation, or even innovative promotion campaigns for local food specialties all present interesting business opportunities for rural areas. In parallel, recent technological developments in agricultural engineering to optimise energy and water use offer new perspectives to relieve pressure on natural resources while reducing external costs for farmers. Integrated systems for the production of bioenergy or other types of renewable energies in rural communities could even generate new revenues for rural actors

The exploitation of these various business opportunities would present significant social, environmental and economic benefits for rural communities. The most promising business ideas related to food to be selected in the RUBIZMO project will be featured in the project Virtual library, which will be made available on this website in 2019