News

PepsiCo chief scientific officer: Food system must change

The Chief Scientific Officer for PepsiCo says the food production system must make changes to feed the world’s hungry in addition to keeping up with population growth.

Dr. Mehmood Khan told Brownfield Ag News that if nothing changes, “we have a problem.”

“If we continue to grow, consume and distribute food the way we’re doing it today, we won’t have the resources to meet the needs of another 2 billion humans,” said Khan, during an interview with Brownfield.  “Remember, there’s about a billion people on the planet already who are hungry.”

Khan, who is PepsiCo’s vice-chairman and leads the food and beverage maker’s sustainability initiatives, is pushing for totally plant-based food packaging, but not, he said, from plants that would otherwise be part of the human food chain.

“We have to find alternative sources of what you call carbon that is coming from agriculture output that is not usable for food,” said Khan.  “That may be waste products, it may be cover crops, but something else; that’s one important difference.”

In addition to soft drinks, PepsiCo is known for such brands as Frito-Lay, Tropicana, Gatorade and Quaker Oats, among others.

Khan was the keynote speaker at the Ag Innovation Showcase this week in St. Louis.

AUDIO: Mehmood Khan (12 min. MP3)