Dr. O. Shawn Cupp, a professor at the U.S. Army with broad research interests in security and defense support to civil authorities (DSCA) military operations based in the United States, participates in Risk Roundup to discuss Food Industry Trends Beyond 2020.
Food Industry Trends Beyond 2020
The year 2020 has brought us enormous, complex challenges. It has been an uncertain and highly stressful year for everyone across nations. From the first day of this year till today, the world has faced all kinds of crises. The biggest of all, the COVID-19 pandemic and its many consequential effects, have brought us all challenging moments.
We have witnessed the loss of loved ones, the loss of livelihoods, the collapse of supply chains, and the fundamental freedoms we take for granted. It has been difficult to bear. We have also witnessed rising social tensions, socially unjust events, loss of trust in the systems, social media horrors, and more. We have seen suffering at all levels and also from a seemingly endless negative news cycle. All this combined with a contested election in the United States and rising chaos across many nations—I think it is fair to say that 2020 has impacted and exhausted us all. The question that is on everyone’s mind is what lies beyond 2020—beyond 2021.
Agriculture is a Strategic National Security Asset
As we sign out in 2020, it is crucial to discuss the Trends Beyond 2021. Risk Group welcomed Prof. (Dr.) O. Shawn Cupp to Risk Roundup to understand his perspective on the emerging trends and know if there is a reason for optimism as we get ready to ring in 2021. According to Dr. O. Shawn Cupp, “Agriculture is a strategic national security asset. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is currently having a profound impact on the U.S. and international agriculture.” He further added his comments on U.S. agriculture—providing the cheapest food period and the most reasonable based upon the percentage of disposable income in the world, averaging around 10-11% of our income whereas Europe and Asia average approximately 20-30% and developing countries are about 60-70% of their income. Of the trading sectors tracked in the U.S., agriculture is the only sector to be positive in terms of trade balance since the 1950s. To know what else he had to say on the budget, trading partners, China, and more, please watch/listen to the Risk Roundup discussion.
Cascading Collapse of Systems
We are part of a complex human system of connected technological, environmental, socio-political, and economic systems that constantly reconfigure and always affect us. In such an integrated world, a small change in the system can be transmitted and amplified by the system’s interconnectedness to have enormous consequences, far beyond the time, place, and scale of the initial alarm. There is a need to evaluate the connected systems to understand where the vulnerabilities are and what needs to be addressed.
Since we witnessed the cascading collapse of numerous systems– it forces us to evaluate the fundamentals on which we build systems– to understand where the vulnerabilities are and what needs to be addressed. While systems at all levels struggle to absorb the shock generated by the ongoing pandemic, it is crucial to evaluate the core concept on which we have built the systems and how they operate. We need to assess whether or not there are trends, if any, to bring resiliency in the systems—especially for healthcare, agriculture, and food production on which we all rely. The time is now to understand the “Trends Beyond 2021” for the future of humanity.
For more, please watch the Risk Roundup Webcast or hear the Risk Roundup Podcast
About the Guest
Dr. Cupp is a faculty member of a multi-departmental teaching team instructing the Intermediate Level Education (ILE), including the ILE Core Course and the Advanced Operational Warfighting Course (AOWC). He is responsible for presentation, revision, development, and evaluation of graduate-level, force projection, maneuver sustainment, resource planning, and force management instruction to a diverse audience of U.S. and international field grade officers. Serves as a mentor and coaches 16 operations career field students as their Staff Group Advisor (ASGA). Educate and counsel officers in a course that develops and improves their problem solving, critical reasoning and creative thinking, leadership development, cultural awareness, and military-media relations. Curriculum, course author, and lesson author duties include A430 Characteristics of Domestic Incidents in the Advance Application Program (AAP) as part of the Homeland Security Studies Program Track V. Subject matter expert within the college for adult education, domestic threats, agroterrorism, and research in homeland security threats.
About the Host of Risk Roundup
Jayshree Pandya (née Bhatt), Ph.D., a leading expert at the intersection of science, technology, and security, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Risk Group LLC, host of influential Risk Roundup Podcast/Vodcast, an award-winning Scientist, and a Futurist passionate about protecting the Future of Humanity.
This passion and dedication to protecting the collective future have taken Dr. Pandya on a journey to understand the language of the universe. Her quest for a security algorithm drives her involvement in a wide range of research to understand the core mechanisms by which the cosmos operates and where the existential risks emerge for the human species. Her research across many domains has contributed to more than 100 publications and is pursued to provide security solutions for humanity’s future. She is the author of the books, Geopolitics of Cybersecurity and The Global Age. Her upcoming books are on Cyberwarfare, Pandemics, and Artificial Intelligence.
About Risk Roundup
Through the Risk Roundup initiative, Risk Group is on a mission to talk with a billion people: innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs, futurists, technologists, policymakers, to decision-makers. The reason behind this effort is to research, review, rate, and report strategic security risks facing humanity. This collective intelligence effort is essential to understand where we need to focus on our collective security–and what destructive forces we need to be mindful about.
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