Global supply chain disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have exposed a lack of investment in food technology that could have eased the food security issues that have affected many parts of the world this year, a sustainability entrepreneur said on Wednesday (8 June).

Speaking at the grand finale of sustainability solution competition The Liveability Challenge, former winner Eugene Wang, the founder of a firm that makes meat substitutes from microalgae, said that the investment community has been too preoccupied with communications and internet technology, and insufficiently focussed on tech that can improve agriculture and food production, supply and distribution.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which so far has claimed more than 500,000 lives, has upended global food supply chains. It has drained food banks and restricted the planting and harvesting of crops as well as food distribution, prompting calls for a more localised approach to food production.

“This pandemic is teaching us that we human beings have invested too much money and brainpower in internet, communications, semiconductors, and even pharmaceuticals,” Wang told a business and consumer audience watching on Zoom and Facebook.

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