Profile


Dr Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech grew up in the Alltech business, having travelled with his father, Alltech’s founder, Dr Pearse Lyons, from a young age to visit customers. Based on All- tech’s belief that agriculture has the greatest potential to shape our world’s future, he launched the Planet of Plenty vision in 2019. He has called for collaboration to improve nutrition, human and animal well-being, and the preserva- tion of natural resources.


not a win-win scenario for all of us. The key question should be: what can we do together?” “The Planet of Plenty concept is still in its early days because I be- lieve the next 30 years are most critical to agriculture. We at All- tech have built upon our own past moving beyond our ACE (agri- culture, consumer, environment) principle. We, as an industry, are the caretakers of the land, we didn’t inherit the earth from our an- cestors, we borrow it from our children. Our mission to improve the health and performance of animals, plants and humans through nutrition and scientific innovation should be the mission of the industry, the world, so to speak. Producing food for billions sustainably and efficiently. And the world is changing; until re- cently people would ask how much CO2


is emitted with the pro-


duction of one kilo of chicken meat. With corona in play the ques- tion now is if there is a kilo of chicken in the supermarket? For the first time in many generations we are experiencing a shock to our system and are seeing food scarcity. The perspective is changing and this can change the way we present ourselves. We need to re- spond and create immunity against the shock which COVID-19 has given our society.”


Compelling stories “I am proud that we are in an industry where we are able to tell the farmers’ story. Compelling stories of a pro-active industry in which being on the defensive is a bygone. As an example, we now


see a tremendous drop in worldwide CO2 emissions but we are


still producing and food is still on the table. The idea that agricul- ture alone is the problem, is just not true. The opposite is true, agri culture is the life support for our planet. And with the disrup- tion caused by the coronavirus we see people going to farms to pick up produce when supermarkets are empty. Where price drove our game in the past, now connection to the consumer and trust are becoming far more important. People now understand again how the food chain works and that helps us to get our mes- sage across. There is so much opportunity for agriculture on a lo- cal level and in society for getting the right food to the right place with the right value.” “The most wonderful thing about the concept of Planet of Plenty is that it is pre-competitive. We can all help to make our industry better for the world and at the same time benefit from doing so. That is what Alltech found out when we signed up to the UN sus- tainability goals. Because this includes being audited, we asked ourselves what is required. That sharpens your mind and gets everyone involved. Such a process also makes you realise the im- portance of inclusion in creating innovative and productive teams. Or as our keynote speaker Cady Coleman said: ‘It’s a proven fact that diverse groups are more successful’. We know that inclusion and diversity in our teams is essential and see that women play a critical role in our company and around the world in agriculture.”


▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 28, No. 5, 2020 15


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28