After Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, former Nestle CEO and current Chairman, delivered his talk to EU Business School students, alumni, faculty, press, and distinguished guests, he answered questions from the audience and sat down for an interview. Here are 12 important things we learned from him.
1. Agriculture uses a lot of water
“If you had a hydraulic dam, the water comes down and moves the turbines and afterward, this water is returned. Agriculture doesn’t give it [water] back. This is one of the biggest issues today. Today we are withdrawing about 30% more water than what is sustainable. We withdraw it, basically, from the underground reservoirs which we have. And those underground reservoirs are going down at an alarming manner.”
2. For a lot of us organic farming is not the way to the future
“Unfortunately [organic farming] is not using fewer resources. It’s using more resources. So organic alone cannot be the solution. Organic is a great solution for countries like Switzerland, Austria, which have a limited amount of people to feed… but it’s not an answer to the big challenge of how to feed 10 billion people… it will always be the privilege of the people who can and have the money to pay something more. Because [ogranic farming] is more resource intensive and less yield and therefore more expensive. Now, agriculture is a different story.”
Read the full version of this article on the website of EU Business School.