Ray Goldberg – one of the founders of IFAMA – looks back at 30 years of IFAMA. He coined the word 'agribusiness' to enable a systematic study of food as an ecosystem. To broaden the impact, he created IFAMA as an organisation to bridge gaps en get things moving. Now, he argues, the association mustn't get stuck. It needs to move ahead and expand, since food is about so much more than just food.
Goldberg grew up in North Dakota, the son of a grain farmer, who was interested in improving the quality of food. Although Goldberg's expected to go back to his family business after his graduation, his academic superiors encouraged him to stay and become an academic himself.
Agribusiness
Together with John Davis, Goldberg developed the term agribusiness. In agriculture “everybody has to make a living. I thought that in agriculture everybody’s input was somebody’s output.” With the term agribusiness they tried to coin a word that would encompass collaboration and cooperation. “I thought that agriculture and business talked about how we were going to feed the world, provide nutrition and economic development, and improve the environment.”
Agribusiness in Goldberg's vocabulary agribusiness is about creating shared value. It serves both the public interest and private interests. Food is not only about money exchange, it is also about political, ecological and economical questions. "They are all interrelated in agribusiness”, Goldberg says.
Goldberg is one of the three founders of IFAMA, which created together with professors Vernon Schneider and Gail Cramer. IFAMA was born out of the need to create a world wide organization that studies food ras a system that connects agriculture, ecology, health, economy and, of course, political and business decision making.
Goldberg’s message for IFAMA’s future is crystal clear, albeit a trifle critical. IFAMA needs to better integrate agriculture, health, ecology and economics. “I feel that just as we now have business leaders and other kinds of leaders in agribusiness management as well as agriculture economics. I think that we have to broaden our base to get the environmentalists involved, to get the scientists involved and to get the medical community involved in IFAMA. It’s not good enough to think of what we are doing as just a food related system. It’s a health related system. It’s a nutrition system. It’s an economic development system. And it’s an environmental system.”
Agribusiness
Together with John Davis, Goldberg developed the term agribusiness. In agriculture “everybody has to make a living. I thought that in agriculture everybody’s input was somebody’s output.” With the term agribusiness they tried to coin a word that would encompass collaboration and cooperation. “I thought that agriculture and business talked about how we were going to feed the world, provide nutrition and economic development, and improve the environment.”
Agribusiness in Goldberg's vocabulary agribusiness is about creating shared value. It serves both the public interest and private interests. Food is not only about money exchange, it is also about political, ecological and economical questions. "They are all interrelated in agribusiness”, Goldberg says.
It’s not good enough to think of what we are doing as just a food related systemIFAMA
Goldberg is one of the three founders of IFAMA, which created together with professors Vernon Schneider and Gail Cramer. IFAMA was born out of the need to create a world wide organization that studies food ras a system that connects agriculture, ecology, health, economy and, of course, political and business decision making.
Goldberg’s message for IFAMA’s future is crystal clear, albeit a trifle critical. IFAMA needs to better integrate agriculture, health, ecology and economics. “I feel that just as we now have business leaders and other kinds of leaders in agribusiness management as well as agriculture economics. I think that we have to broaden our base to get the environmentalists involved, to get the scientists involved and to get the medical community involved in IFAMA. It’s not good enough to think of what we are doing as just a food related system. It’s a health related system. It’s a nutrition system. It’s an economic development system. And it’s an environmental system.”
Related
Having been at Ifama2015 in Minneapolis and memorizing the speech of Prof Ray Goldberg. I’m proud and hopefull, that on the day that would have been the opening day of Ifama2020 in Rotterdam, Prof Goldberg speaks again and thanks to joint effort, Ifama2020 still can live up to expectations.
Please listen to what professor Goldberg says around min. 42:00 (a bit before and a bit after): "the food system has a chance to make our world so much better. It has a way to show a way to all get together."
#2 Dick, I've been listening there's a big task ahead. The message is clear but what Goldberg is saying nearly at the end, the general media/public is unknown to these developments. Need to get a bigger reach for this message.
Good that Mr. Goldberg speaks about volatility of pricing as I wrote myself about the Lietaers' Terra, as a reference currency that lowers volatility for some commodities.
Yet, I think (from listening closely) he is wrong in stating that "the foodsystem has a chance to make the world so much better...". That is the tail wagging the dog.
We will only have a better food system if first political choices are made on equality, inclusiveness, money as a social technology and, yes, diets, and civil rights and our duty (to stay healthy).
The current food system shaped us, now we have to shape the food system by asking ourselves and others hard questions.
Peter, don't get Ray wrong. His approach is based on creating and showing examples of cases that demonstrate the potential of what can be done. You can't change the world as a whole on the basis of the idea of a new social contract. You need to start out in a piecemeal way. That is where food comes in, as it is an extremely complex ecosystem and as it needs going back to the drawing table as Rabobank's agrifood board member Berry Marttin told me yesterday (the interview will follow end of this week).
And for sure, it'a all about making choices in the πόλις, the city/community (polis) in ancient Greek. That's what politics originally means: deciding on what a community wants and can agree on, given a diversity of ideas, ideals and ambitions and biochemical reality that binds them all. We need to know that we have to relate to another and that we cannot polarise our relationships (unless we don't object to Carl Schmitt's definition of politics as death, killing - metaphorically or even really - those who don't think like us). But indeed, I just made a political choice - a very profound one.