Dr Murray McLaughlin

Agriculture and Food - Is it really the Industry of the 21st Century?

By Dr Murray McLaughlin

The demand for food will escalate as surely as the world population rises to 9 billion within the next 30 years, and more of the developing world will demand more diverse and higher quality food as they see their incomes increase. We will experience at least a tripling of food needs, as the amounts of arable land and water decrease, putting tremendous pressure on the farming community and causing food costs to escalate.

Canada needs to take a really serious look at its place in the global economy of food, and determine its role going forward. Commodity crops will certainly play an important role into the foreseeable future. However, we need to look beyond these traditional crops to ensure a future for our agricultural sector.

Can we integrate into the life science sector? How do we bring genomics, proteomics, and functionomics into the industry? What is the role of bioinformatics? How do we capitalize on functional foods and nutraceuticals? Bioproducts will play a significant role in tomorrow's agri-food industry, but will Canada be able to capitalize on this opportunity?

These questions are valid ones for us to seriously consider. I believe that we have the science base to create significant value in the agri-food industry using the advances in science. Our challenge in Canada is to take the technology from the lab bench and into the commercial realm. We are starting to see more entrepreneurial thinking within our research community, but a lack of capital and business skills are critical issues as we begin creating firms around technology.

As we go forward, we will undoubtedly see the agri-food sector become a component of the life science sector. Genomics and proteomics will become increasing important in ensuring a solid future, and bioproducts will play a significant role in diversifying the industry. The science component is here today to make Canada a global leader.

What we need, is to see the business community for this sector become more active in technology development here in Canada. I believe that the business community only does a fraction of the research they should be doing, and much of that is focused on the short-term. Venture capital is not much better, with only a fraction of investments going to agricultural related projects. In this case, it is primarily because they do not understand this sector, and are focused on information technology and biotechnology sectors that they understand better and which tend to create value more quickly.

The research community is starting to recognize the need to commercialize technology, and university and federal labs are starting to focus more on the agricultural sector. A concern in some areas is the licensing of technology to non-Canadian companies, which could lead to the loss of the commercial opportunities to Canada. I believe there should be a clear mandate that Canadian research, funded by government, be licensed to Canadian companies or used to create new companies in Canada.

The agri-food sector is a late starter in realizing its connection to life science as an industry focused on the health of nations. With Canada's strong research base in the agri-food sector, we have the ability to create a convergence of the sectors that can make us global leaders. It is in our hands to make it happen.

Dr Murray McLaughlin is president and CEO of Foragen Technologies Management Inc., a seed capital firm focused on agriculture-related technologies