Sustainability — unarguably one the most used words in the agricultural sector both now and probably for the next decade. Every facet of the agri-food industry is working hard toward sustainability, and it is especially high on the agendas of all players across the egg supply chain.

Noble Foods is the U.K.’s leading vertically integrated company striving to serve the egg industry sustainably, from care and welfare to carbon and waste.

Noble Foods entered the world of eggs over 100 years ago, under the name ‘Deans Foods.’ Way back in 1920, William Dean took the rather rustic and entrepreneurial approach of door-to-door egg sales by a horse and cart.

Today, Noble Foods is still under the ownership of the third and fourth generation of the Dean family, producing 400 metric tons of egg products every week, 58% of which are free-range.

Company facts:

• Manufactures around 750,000 metric tons of feed every year from five feed mills.
• Rears around four million pullets per year across 14 rearing sites from 1–16 weeks old.
• Has 280 laying farm sites, both company-owned and contracted independent farmers. 

Noble Foods is a leader in vertical integration of the poultry industry in the U.K.

Noble Foods has proven and is proud of its forerunning proactiveness, from being the first to trial Salmonella vaccines back in the 1990s to sitting at tier 1 within the BB4 model (a regulated welfare program).

Developing a vision and an approach

Noble Foods has set some ambitious sustainability goals in recent months, making it the main company driver. Graham Atkinson, Agriculture Director for Producers at Noble Foods, was tasked with making it happen.

In Graham’s opinion, sustainability means different things to different people and different businesses. There is no clear right or wrong way of “doing it.” He was not sure how or where to start. However, he had a fair idea of what Noble Foods was trying to achieve and where Alltech could help. So, he asked the question: Could we partner together to make the sustainability challenge an opportunity via the Planet of Plenty partnership program?

While Graham and the leadership team accept that the journey will change direction and they will be thrown some curveballs along the way, they have now clearly and proactively defined their vision and focus into four areas:

1. Carbon footprint: reducing the impact of feed regimes.
2. Food loss: restoring and recovering more usable first-class eggs.
3. Land use: reducing and replacing the raw materials.
4. Animal welfare: increasing, developing and driving the fulfillment of the life of laying hens.

Now, the hard part: doing it! Putting some meat on those bones. To do this, Graham is busy building a collaborative council of key players to come together and share expertise.

A journey joined by others

For a while now, Graham has been hunting for partners who share the same vision and who can act as consultants and facilitators. Partners who can deliver the required infrastructure, skill base, science and knowledge to travel fast. Partners who can safeguard their leadership status.

Noble Foods has committed to 100% cage-free production by 2025.

Alltech, like Noble Foods, is a family-owned and operated business, sharing similar sustainability ambitions and values. These shared common values and ways of working are really what sparked and solidified the partnership — the idea of making a bigger and quicker difference by working together.

Through the power of science and nutrition, Alltech is now working very closely with Noble Foods’ supply chain, from start to finish, to help produce more quality eggs from happier birds and with less environmental impact.

The Planet of Plenty partnership between Noble Foods and Alltech is still in its infancy. The first pilot project has just begun, and the excitement of the partnership’s impact on future egg production is radiating from within the supply chain.

Visit one.alltech.com for more information.

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No matter the segment of the beef system, stress is a natural and unavoidable hurdle that the beef industry must learn to manage. Ironically, it is often the segmentation of the beef system that results in periods of stress. These stressful times often fall around transition intervals, when cattle move from one phase of production to the next. Weaning and feedlot receiving are two transition periods during which calves will experience multiple stressors. Prolonged exposure to stress has negative impacts on calf performance, and these negative effects can result in long-term issues.

When you consider the long history of the beef sector, stress is a relatively new issue being examined and discussed by those in the industry. In recent years, scientists and producers have begun to realize the impact that stress can have on calf performance. Fortunately, however, there are solutions for mitigating stress for your cattle during transitions. First, it is important to understand what can cause stress, as well as the consequences of that stress.

Stressors that can occur during weaning and receiving include:

• Separation from the dam

The social stress of being removed from the mother can be significant. One management practice that gradually weans calves is fence-line weaning. This technique involves placing weaned calves and dams in adjacent pastures that allow calves to be able see their mothers while being physically separated. Make sure you have sturdy fences with no gaps to prevent calves from crawling through to the other side.

• Transportation

It’s inevitable: At some point, cattle will need to be moved. There are many ways that producers can work to reduce stress during transportation — but similarly to humans travelling to new locations or making a big move, this major transition will likely lead to schedule changes and disruptions, changes in eating patterns, etc.

• Commingling

When groups of cattle are mingled together, they can expose each other to new pathogens. Even if the animals are on the same ranch but are from different pastures, producers need to consider a commingling strategy.

• Unfamiliar diets

Going from their mothers’ milk to feed might feel like a stark transition to some calves. The tips later in this article explain how to get calves to the bunk and help them transition to a new, healthy, nutrient-dense diet.

Stress can have consequences on production, including:

• Impaired growth. Stress causes muscle breakdown and can slow the growth of your cattle.
• Suppression of immune functions, which can lead to a decreased ability to resist infection and an increased susceptibility to getting sick.
• Altered behavior, like reduced feed intake.

A wholistic view of beef production is necessary to identify where leverage points exist within the production system. Recognizing leverage points allows for a more effective application of management practices to minimize stress and improve performance. In beef production, the most effective approach to minimizing stress is a preventative one. Implement practices that will help you foster and maintain a resilient herd. Resilient calves are going to be able to handle the periods of stress that are inherent within the beef system. The key to building resilient calves is implementing proactive management practices.

Outlined below are five easy and practical management tips that will help you produce resilient cattle.

1. Vaccinate prior to shipping.

Work with your veterinarian to establish a vaccination program prior to your animals being commingled and shipped. A vaccination program is essential to building a healthy immune system prior to animals being exposed to novel pathogens in a new place and when surrounded by other animals.

2. Castrate animals as early as possible.

Castration is a stressful but generally necessary management practice. Research has shown that animals experience less stress when they are castrated at a younger age. Some producers will castrate at birth, when they tag or maybe when they take cattle out to grass. Whatever fits into your management schedule, getting your animals castrated early will allow them to recoup before other stressors manifest throughout the following transition stages.

3. Minimize commingling.

Just like with humans, anytime you bring animals from different sources together, you run the risk of exposing them to pathogens. You can reduce this risk of exposure for calves by being strategic about minimizing mixing between sources of cattle. There is also an element of social stress as the newly commingled animals work to establish a pecking order.

4. Expose calves to feed bunks and water troughs.

Familiarize your animals with feed bunks and water troughs prior to shipping. This can help reduce stress during feedlot arrival, as getting calves to feed bunks prior to shipping will help them get onto feed quicker. The sooner they get on feed and start consuming water, the better they will bounce back from transportation stress.

5. Proper nutrition is essential.

When transitioning cattle, it is important to make sure that their nutritional requirements are being met. Meeting the cattle’s protein, energy and trace mineral requirements is essential for their immune function and growth. During periods of stress, it is common for animals to reduce their feed intake. In these cases, providing diets that are more nutrient-dense to compensate for reduced intake is recommended.

It is unrealistic to think that we can eliminate all stress from the production system, but we can minimize the duration and severity of the stress that animals experience. When utilizing these management techniques, consider a schedule that exposes calves to stressors gradually, rather than all at once. When calves feel high levels of stress and no mitigation strategies are used, they can experience critical setbacks. The most important reason to help calves through periods of stress is to set them up for success for the rest of their life — ultimately leaving you with healthy animals, a healthy reputation and a healthy bottom line.  

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A look back at history

“To confront the myriad of challenges we face today, we need to have a legacy mindset,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech, at the Alltech ONE Ideas Conference (ONE) on June 24. “We need to look to the past for perspective and for learning.”

With that in mind, Dr. Lyons took the audience back to when humans first started to arrive in North America. People brought and domesticated animals, began using natural resources for food production and required more land.

As this growth was happening, global economies and continents became more connected through railways, highways and shipping lanes. Carbon became the main way to fuel the growing economy and growing planet. Consequently, carbon emissions have increased.

Agriculture was growing. Scientific breakthroughs were leading the way to a more efficient food system and created the opportunity for the rise of brands and businesses that, today, we call the food industry.

The need for agricultural productivity, as well as food production efficiency, led to new farming innovations and a realization about the carbon emissions produced by agriculture. In terms of meat, milk and egg production, farmers began making improvements, responding to the influences and demands of the market.

Since the mid-1800s, the amount of fossil fuels being used has increased by 20,000%, while the human population has increased by 1,329%, and the animals being utilized to feed that growing population has increased by far less, at 524%. In fact, to date, 50% more beef is produced in the United States than was being produced in 1960 — but this increase in production is being accomplished with one-third of the number of animals that was required 60 years ago.

Although scientific breakthroughs have led to a better understanding of our environment, there has not been an agreement about the culprits of climate change. This story is not unique to North America. 

Change is happening

“One thing that is becoming crystal-clear is that a change has started, and it is going to continue,” said Dr. Lyons. “In fact, we saw that the pandemic actually accelerated this change and the acceptance of the changes that were happening around us.

“We believe every challenge can be an opportunity — and, indeed, a gift,” Dr. Lyons continued. “Whatever we believe can become reality, but you won't do things differently unless you see things differently.”

Let’s look at some of the innovations being dreamed of and implemented around the world:

1. Giant air purifiers: Nine out of 10 people around the world breathe polluted air, and this pollution accounts for almost 9 million deaths per year. Some engineers are thinking about how we can create giant outdoor air purifiers that are also pieces of art. Perhaps the true beauty is clean air and clean energy.

2. Cooling the planet by filtering excess carbon dioxide out of the air on an industrial scale: Giant air scrubbers in Texas — which could be a common sight by 2050 — use simple chemistry to capture CO2 and pump it into oil wells, which have been drilled dry in the last century. Some of the greenhouse gases that are heating up our planet could be removed with these types of innovations, potentially contributing to a reduced greenhouse effect.

3. Electricity generators using heat from the Earth’s mantle: This is being done on a small scale in Kenya, but it has great future implications for not emitting greenhouse gases into the air at all.

4. Using recycled plastic as a bitumen replacement in road construction: Among the fossil fuels that have already been taken out of the ground, a lot of them have been converted into plastics, which take over 1,000 years to biodegrade. Some of those plastics can be recycled and utilized in road construction, creating a smoother ride, fewer potholes and a longer road life.

5. Solar roadways: Technologies like Gorilla Glass can be used to create solar roadways by protecting solar panels that are used to pave roads, driveways and sidewalks. If these roadways covered the entire United States, they would produce three times the electricity that we need today.

6. Sonic fire extinguisher: As a result of climate change, we’ve seen more and more forest fires burning. To combat this challenge, scientists are working on a sonic fire extinguisher, which can be installed on a drone and works by using sound waves to separate oxygen from the fuel source.

7. Hydrogen as aviation fuel: Since 1990, the carbon dioxide emissions per passenger flight have dropped more than 50%. Nevertheless, the aviation industry is also evaluating new fuel sources, with hydrogen potentially serving as a new, clean aviation fuel. An Airbus commercial-scale hydrogen plane has already taken flight in the U.K.

8. A “blended wing” that serves as both a passenger compartment and a wing for aircraft: With the entirety of a plane generating lift, this could save 20–30% of the fuel currently required for passenger flights.

9. Green algae as a cleaner of the environment and a source of travel: The ability of green algae to eat bacteria is more prevalent than previously thought, and this finding could have important real-life uses related to environmental and climate science. In addition, green algae could also be a fuel source for many different types of travel, including both in the air and on the ground.

10. Gut microbiome genes are linked to array of human diseases: So much of what is happening within our microbiome is linked to human diseases. As we come to understand more about the science, there will be many new ways for us to overcome human health challenges.

11. An antibiotic alternative capable of treating resistant bacterial infections: Scientists at Durham University have improved the current standard alternative to antibiotics (called peptoids) by altering their chemical structure to enhance their delivery into cells and their effectiveness against bacterial infections. These alternatives could help combat the plague of antibiotic resistance.

12. Methane from animal waste can be used to grow single-cell protein for food: People are not only converting methane into energy with biogas digesters but are also utilizing a number of different nutrients and creating single-celled proteins that can go back into food for animals — and even humans.

13. An intelligent trash bin that identifies food types and encourages recycling: Food waste is an area of untapped potential. The intelligent bin could reduce one-third of our food waste before it even leaves the home.

14. A kitchen appliance that turns waste to compost: There are systems being developed today that will allow us to convert our food waste directly into compost that can be used in our gardens. With a single button, Lomi grinds and heats waste to break it down with no smell and turns it into nutrient-rich compost, reducing up to 50% of the waste that would otherwise be sent to a landfill.

15. Microbial tools could improve productivity while limiting environmental impact: There are new tools to help develop specific microbiomes in the gastrointestinal tract, soil and waste-processing systems. As a result, new nutritional and feed supplementation strategies are being created to improve production efficiencies while limiting the intensity of emissions.

16. Measurement tools to assess environmental impact and mitigation strategies: Tools like the E-CO₂ farm audit systems, laboratory testing and feed evaluations (Alltech IFM™ and the Yea-Sacc^® Value Test), as well as the use of supplementation and pasture management programs to control emissions and the mineral impact on the environment, are critical for reducing our overall environmental impact.

17. Biotic tools for mitigating agriculture emissions and emission intensity: New management systems use filtration to take out methane at the source and potentially use this methane in other agricultural production systems. Manure management, pasture management and pasture nutrition all get back into our understanding of the microbiome and the importance of seeing all of these areas as linked.

18. Using activating enzymes as biological catalysts: Enzymes can help us in many areas, such as improving digestion and feed utilization, beneficially modifying microbiomes in animals and soils, altering fermentation patterns to break down waste and mitigating environmental toxins.

“I believe the agriculture industry will create climate-neutral food,” said Dr. Lyons. “We will continue to be one of those core industries that can sequester carbon, and we will be a big part of the answer to climate change.”

In closing, Dr. Lyons asserted that no industry could have a more positive impact on the future of the planet than agriculture.

“It’s the industry that I'm most excited about, and it’s a great honor to be working in this industry,” Dr. Lyons shared. “We can nourish the world while cooling its climate. We can leave not a footprint but a legacy. What an extraordinary opportunity as we all gather, working together for a Planet of Plenty™.”

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What if, when something went wrong, your natural response was to feel positive, calm and proactive? Can you actually train your brain to handle life’s greatest challenges without stress and negative emotions?

According to Shirzad Chamine, neuroscientist and CEO of Positive Intelligence, Inc., you can do both — and when you do, you will be happier and more successful and will perform better.

This may sound aspirational, but Chamine has the research — and methodology — to prove that mental fitness is the key to unleashing your true potential at work and in life.

More than 500,000 people from over 50 countries have participated in Chamine’s Positive Intelligence research. Having coached hundreds of CEOs and their executive teams, as well as world-class athletes and students from Stanford University, he’s helped professionals worldwide make mental fitness a part of their daily routine.

What is mental fitness?

Mental fitness is our capacity to respond to life’s challenges with a positive mindset, rather than a negative one. It’s measured by your Positive Intelligence Quotient, or PQ, which is the percentage of time your mind spends serving you as opposed to sabotaging you. As a conscious method for avoiding self-sabotage, your PQ can be built and strengthened over time.

Independent researchers have validated the many benefits of a higher PQ, ranging from higher salaries to greater success in work, marriage, friendship and more. Additionally, project teams with a high PQ are shown to perform 31% better on key performance metrics.

Chamine’s approach to boosting PQ, which he recently discussed during his keynote address at the 2021 Alltech ONE Ideas Conference, begins with learning the behavioral neuroscience behind two very different components of the mind: the Saboteurs and the Sage.

This might sound complex, but understanding the roles that Saboteurs and the Sage play in the way we experience life is one of the simplest, most effective ways for overcoming long-term patterns of self-sabotage.

Identifying your Saboteurs

Saboteurs are the negative voices and limiting beliefs and habits that stand between you and the potential you actually fulfill.

• Saboteurs motivate you through negative emotions like fear, stress, anger, guilt, shame and insecurity.
• There are 10 Saboteurs responsible for the most common ways that we self-sabotage. The most common is The Judge, or the voice that tells us to find fault in ourselves, in others, and in our situations and circumstances. It’s constantly judging what’s wrong and fails to see what’s right.
• Imagine Saboteurs as a cast of characters in your mind that keep you in a place of negativity, reaction and self-doubt.

Finding your Sage

By contrast, the Sage is the Saboteurs’ positive counterpart that motivates us through emotions like curiosity, empathy, creativity and calm.

• Whereas the Saboteur fuels self-sabotage, the Sage brain tells us that every outcome or circumstance can be turned into a gift or an opportunity.
• The strength of your Sage is what determines your PQ and enables you to take clear-headed, laser-focused action.
• Understanding the differences between your Sage and your Saboteurs — and identifying which one your mind is serving — is the first concrete step to self-mastery.

“You're not just of two minds; you are of two brains. You have two entirely different wirings in your brain, with different neurochemicals that get produced and very different functioning,” said Chamine. “A big question at any given time is: Which part of your brain is activated right now? That determines everything about how you handle life's great challenges.”

By understanding which part of your brain is activated and the power of Positive Intelligence to determine your response, you can train yourself to recover and switch from negative to positive at a faster pace.

How to strengthen your PQ

1. Intercept your Saboteurs

When you feel a negative emotion, stop to observe and label your Saboteurs. By simply bringing them into awareness, you’ve already weakened their power.

2. Power up your Sage brain

Now that you’ve confronted your Saboteurs, it’s time to shift into Sage mode. Practice PQ reps to activate your Sage mind. PQ reps are simple exercises that involve shifting your attention to your body and your senses for at least 10 seconds. These practices strengthen the self-command muscle that helps you regulate your emotions. You can do PQ reps anytime, anywhere.

3. Choose Sage responses

Now, you can explore, empathize, innovate, navigate and activate to respond with the Sage perspective.

“When your Sage comes in and says, ‘You know what? I can and I shall convert this into a gift and opportunity,’ imagine what emotions you’re going to be experiencing,” Chamine suggested. “You're going to be feeling optimistic. You're going to be feeling curious.

“When you ask ‘How do I turn this into a gift? What could the gift be?’, you're activating a positive region of your brain that's wired for creativity, for resourcefulness,” he continued. “You're creating a positive foundation — not just in your own head, but amongst others.”

With this knowledge, Chamine wondered: What if you focused on building the powers of your mind with the same determination you bring to our improving your physical fitness? Can you imagine the possibilities?

“Moment by moment, one day at a time, that muscle of positivity builds,” Chamine reminded viewers at ONE. “And then, the contagion effect that you create in the world — you have no idea how powerful that is. You create a contagion, (but) rather than a contagion of negativity, you intercept that, and you create a positive contagion. And it's beautiful, as you become part of the solution rather than part of the problem in our world.”

Will you join us in seeing challenges as opportunities and pursuing greater happiness and success through the power of Positive Intelligence?

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“Africa is the fastest-growing continent. Africa is getting educated now. Africa is where you need to be. Africa is where you (should) look to grow your food.”

That’s what Dr. Ruth Oniang’o, a keynote speaker at the 2021 Alltech ONE Ideas Conference (ONE), used to tell her fellow board members when she served on the board of Nestlé. A professor of nutrition and former member of Parliament in Kenya, Dr. Oniang’o has spent her career advocating for food and nutrition policies that will feed the world’s fastest-growing continent and increase access to food across Africa.

Over the past several decades, many African countries have made great strides in reducing chronic hunger, malnutrition and weight loss — but with one in five African people still “chronically undernourished,” including millions of children, there is much more work left to be done to help turn African communities into examples of food security.

Dr. Oniang’o’s approach is a holistic one. Beyond her focus on growing healthier crops and strengthening food assistance, her work is transforming society through avenues that most people may not think of when it comes to food and nutrition.

1. Empower women

The first step to transforming how Africa grows and eats is identifying who’s behind the continent’s current food production.

“In Africa, it’s mostly women who are producing food,” said Dr. Oniang’o during her keynote address at ONE. “And I said, ‘No wonder we are a hungry continent. Women are already overworked. They bring up children, many children. They have to farm. They have to feed them.’”

We cannot solve hunger in Africa without women, Dr. Oniang’o argued. By elevating their value in society and providing them with the education and resources they need to manage their farms, their families and their health, we can create conditions that will allow African women to grow more food, feed a greater number of people and share their knowledge with others.

2. Promote adult literacy

One major key to that empowerment is literacy. According to data from the United Nations, the adult literacy rate in sub-Saharan Africa is around 63% — meaning that one in three adults in the region, or some 182 million people, cannot read. And while some African countries have higher literacy rates, many are actually lower: South Sudan’s 35% literacy rate is among the lowest in the world.

Promoting adult literacy, both via governments and NGOs, leads to more educated adults across Africa, which has positive, long-term effects related to food, nutrition and families.

“Adult literacy is so important,” said Dr. Oniang’o, “because when women are educated, they will not want too many children. They'll want to do other things. They'll take good care of themselves, take care of their family, and therefore, their children will survive better. They want a better life for themselves, and they know what foods to provide to the family.”

3. Provide resources directly

No matter where they are in the world, farmers need resources of all kinds, from education and research to funds to help purchase seeds, nutrients and supplies. Providing resources directly to farmers is one of the fastest ways to improve their conditions and crop yields, as well as the health and nutrition of their families and communities. And providing resources to farmers doesn’t just help build individual and community food security — it can help alleviate poverty, too, since extreme poverty and hunger have “a cyclical relationship” in Africa, according to the United Nations. Hungry people have a hard time working, and people who can’t work have a hard time affording food.

“If we do agriculture properly — if we distribute our resources properly — we can get people out of poverty,” said Dr. Oniang’o. “As someone who has worked with farmers right on the ground, it doesn't take a whole lot. It doesn't take a whole lot to transform a community and to make them have more food and to have them eat better.”

4. Look after the soil

We can’t increase the production of food sources without addressing soil health. Unhealthy, malnourished soil leads to malnourished crops that wither instead of thriving. Finding ways to improve soil health — like rotating in legumes to boost the nitrogen in the soil and supplementing malnourished soils with nutrients — helps foster healthier crops and establishes farming practices that will be more sustainable over time.

Dr. Oniang’o first realized the importance of soil health when she saw crops that looked weak and frail, mirroring the effects of malnutrition in adults and children in Africa. She advocates for ways to help farmers improve their soil health, starting with technologies like rapid soil tests to help farmers identify deficiencies within their soils — a prerequisite to growing stronger, healthier crops. After all, as she said, “If the soils are not healthy, human beings cannot be healthy.”

5. Build and support smart partnerships

“Nobody can do this alone,” said Dr. Oniang’o. “(The) private sector has a role to play. Public-sector government has a role to play. Civil society has a role to play. Everyone has a role to play.”

Implementing change on a continental scale cannot be done alone. It takes local groups and national governments to put all of the practices outlined above into place in support of individuals, communities and countries. National and local governments, NGOs, scientists, farmers and private-sector companies all have a role to play. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) notes that “increasing yields for staple crops (in Sub-Saharan Africa) will require greater investment, both domestically and through assistance from donors and international research organizations.”

Local groups across Africa know what local farmers need. By listening to these stakeholders, private companies, national governments and international collaborative efforts can find ways to be good partners, bringing about change on a scale that local groups can’t accomplish alone. These partnerships can help decrease food insecurity across Africa and transform the future of the continent for the long term.

The future of food in Africa

Imagine it: a farmer in Kenya learns to read. She’s able to take advantage of educational materials and research that help her grow her crops more efficiently, with higher yields and healthier soils for her specific growing conditions. She’s given the resources she needs to put these findings into practice, thanks to partnerships between her local government and private companies. She’s able to feed her family and even has a surplus to help feed others, contribute to a food bank or sell for a profit. She’s valued and respected as an expert; she shares her knowledge with other farmers nearby, and she helps build communities that are more food-secure — and the ripple effects continue to spread.

By investing in her, we invest in the future of Africa. That’s how we transform the future of food: one farmer at a time.

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When it comes to our priorities in life, our day-to-day concerns can often take precedence over our long-term goals. We are constantly focused on what is happening right now, in our careers, families, social lives and more. Very rarely do we take the time, or even get the opportunity, to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. However, when we do get to take this broader view, it is only then that we begin to observe the issues that not only affect ourselves but the world and the people around us. And not only can we identify these challenges, but we can also engage with them and develop the opportunities and solutions that will help us all for generations to come.

This was one of the main themes of “Economics and Health: A Natural Connection,” an in-depth keynote discussion between Alltech president and CEO Dr. Mark Lyons and Irish economist, author and university lecturer David McWilliams during the Alltech ONE Ideas Conference. Over the course of their conversation, the two speakers discussed a range of different countries that significantly influence global agriculture and assessed how their current and potential agricultural practices could affect the world as we know it.

“How do we become what will be described as ‘good ancestors,’” asked McWilliams, “so people in the future can look back at us and say, ‘They left the place in good nick’?”

This conversation came on the heels of a new animation project between Alltech and McWilliams. In a series of short videos, the two teamed up to focus on different nations’ economies in a quest to understand them better and learn how our histories and ideas are interrelated.

“We thought it would be a good way to look at what's the big global challenge,” McWilliams explained. “What are the historic, what are the momentous events going on? And then (we can) say, ‘Okay, how do these percolate down into countries big and small, major producers but also small, nimble producers?”

The outcome of this journey into world economics has been the revelation that everything is connected and that we all have a part to play in the betterment of our planet.

“What the (COVID-19) pandemic has told us is that none of us are alone, none of us can isolate ourselves, and the world is kind of smaller than we thought — and more interrelated,” McWilliams continued.

United States: Going back to its agricultural roots

The first of these country-focused animations looked at the United States. In the video, McWilliams pointed out that:

• The U.S. agriculture output tripled between 1948 and 2015, with enormous gains in efficiency.
• Around 90% of farmers cannot make a living off of their land alone.
• Agriculture only contributes to 7.5% of total U.S. greenhouse gases, far below the 30% attributed to cars.

Taking all of this information into account, McWilliams insisted that the U.S. itself will be the source of change in our environmental future.

“I think American culture is changing, at least when you see it from the outside,” explained McWilliams when asked his thoughts on the current Biden administration and what it means for the future of the U.S. “He's saying, ‘There's no point being wealthy if the wealth is only (in the hands of) a small minority. The wealth has to trickle down to everybody else. And if it doesn't trickle down, we're going to force it up.’”

What President Biden understands, according to McWilliams, is that the environment and inequality are the important issues and that they need to be addressed in order for the world to move forward, even if that goes against previously held beliefs.

“We are now at this phenomenal, intergenerational tipping point that the older generation isn't quite getting and the younger generation hasn't quite articulated,” said McWilliams. “But what it is is a change of macroeconomic policy, and what is driving the entire thing is this idea that we cannot simply be a gratification mindset, all of us together.

“We cannot have an immediate gratification mindset, which is ‘me, mine, my balance sheet, my profit margin, etc.,’” he continued. “We have to have a legacy mindset that we are, as I said at the top of the animation, we're just custodians. We're only passing through, right?”

McWilliams also highlighted the Biden administration’s understanding that the farming community is key to addressing these issues, especially regarding the country’s environmental impact. He said that the president realizes that agriculture is the solution to meeting carbon-neutral targets in the future. With this in mind, McWilliams believes U.S. agriculture is about to go through an enormous change, reinstating confidence and self-belief in the industry that has been missing for a long time.

“Before the industrial age, before the electricity age, before the internet age, there was agriculture,” McWilliams stated. “And agriculture will be the industry of the future, because only agriculture can naturally bring us to carbon neutrality. So, I think it's a really exciting time.”

Brazil: Re-telling the story

When it comes to feeding the world, Brazil is at the forefront. The South American country is:

• The largest exporter of beef and chicken meat globally.
• The world’s fourth-largest producer of swine.
• The largest exporter of soybeans and coffee.
• The biggest global producer of sugar and ethanol.
• The most widespread exporter and producer of orange juice, claiming over half of the global market.

But, according to the animation created by Alltech and McWilliams, Brazil has often failed to spread the good news stories of its agri-food industry. While its soybean farmers may feed billions, we only ever hear nightmarish stories of them forcing cattle ranchers off their land and allowing the rainforest to be destroyed. The video suggests that maybe now is the time for Brazil to reassess its legacy and to show how, rather being than part of the problem, its agricultural industry is actually integral to the global solution.

McWilliams is convinced that as long as Brazil can improve the messaging, it could be at the forefront of agricultural and environmental change.

“It seemed to me that if Brazil gets its agriculture right, the world gets its agriculture right,” explained McWilliams. “And what happens in Brazil will happen elsewhere around the developing world.”

However, he believes that the country first has to get its story right. He suggested that Brazil has to focus on aggressively positive messaging, revealing to people how much of what they eat comes from Brazil and how efficiently it is produced.

“And that, I think, is its challenge over the next 10 or 15 years, because it's clear that Brazil is going to go from strength to strength in terms of basic production,” concluded McWilliams. “The question is: Can it go from strength to strength in terms of people's perceptions of whether Brazil is a good environmental citizen?”

China: A changing economic and agricultural landscape

According to the next installment in this animation series, the next 30 years will be the most important in the history of agriculture. This will be mainly due to the changing economic and agricultural landscape of China and Asia as a whole.

The short video states that in order for China to succeed in becoming the world’s largest economy and military power, it must secure a sufficient food supply for its people and ensure that they are not subjected to inflated food prices. However, this is complicated by the fact that China has limited natural resources, particularly water. The outcome has been a transformation and modernization of Chinese agriculture, an industry that utilizes cutting-edge agriculture technology like no other country. This development has allowed China to stake its claim as the world’s most sustainable food producer.

Another huge trend in China and Asia as a whole, McWilliams pointed out, is that with newfound wealth comes a change in diet. This can be seen with upper-middle-class Asians, who are dining on a more Western diet of beef and dairy instead of traditional tofu and rice. This shift in taste is another indicator of how the continent will influence food and agriculture production and the supply chain as we move forward.

“The future is one whereby China will try and do whatever it can to make sure that its agricultural production remains high and/or that it can buy in food,” McWilliams explained.

Ireland: The benefits of modernizing agriculture

When considering a list of some of the biggest agri-food producers and consumers on the planet, you could be forgiven for thinking that the addition of this small island on the edge of the Atlantic was a clerical error. But Ireland is a significant player when it comes to the global agriculture industry. According to the animation focusing on the island, Ireland’s geographic location and climate make it the perfect place for healthy grass growth. And with healthy grass growth comes healthy cows. This amounts to a total of $13 billion in annual food exports.

However, there are large stumbling blocks scattered along Ireland’s path to energy-efficient and sustainable food production. One is the commonly encountered misconception that the solution to reducing carbon emissions is to reduce food production — something that McWilliams said the European Union is pushing but that he believes is a mistake.

“In order for the European Union to get an aggregate reduction in carbon emissions,” McWilliams evaluated, “it would seem to me much more logical to favor those countries that have had an evolutionary or ecological or environmental gift, in order to actually produce more, not less, in places like this, because your input/output ratio is so much lower here (in Ireland) than it is either in the parched Mediterranean or in the frozen tundra of the North.”

McWilliams believes that in order for Irish agriculture to modernize and grow, it needs to take a leaf out of the book of one of Ireland’s leading sectors: technology, which generates over $25 billion in exports. He said in the animation that embracing innovation could cultivate new agricultural breakthroughs, making Ireland the most resource-efficient, carbon-neutral, sustainable food producer on Earth — something which, in turn, could produce a new export: incredibly valuable ag-tech.

In concluding the discussion, McWilliams reiterated that everything in economics is interrelated and that positive change now will lead to further growth in the future, allowing us to leave a positive legacy for generations to come.

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When he was 26 years old, Dewitt Jones walked into the headquarters of the famed National Geographic magazine as its newest photographer in what, amazingly, was his first professional photography job.

“I remember standing there in the lobby … surrounded by the most beautiful photographs I'd ever seen in my life,” recalled Jones in his keynote address at the 2021 Alltech ONE Ideas Conference. “How was I ever going to prove myself, (prove) that I was worthy of working there?”

Despite his fears, Jones did more than prove himself; his eye for detail and stunning images have made him one of the premier photojournalists in the world. He worked as a freelance photographer for National Geographic for 20 years, and his photography has also been featured in global advertising campaigns for such powerhouse clients as Canon and United Airlines.

And his talents don’t stop at still photography: As a filmmaker, Jones had garnered two nominations for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards before he turned 30 years old.

So, how did Jones overcome his fears and establish such an incredible portfolio of work? As he explained in his presentation, he believes that the key to success is following four steps that reveal the extraordinary in the ordinary and provide a fresh perspective on life:

• Training your technique
• Putting yourself in the place of most potential
• Allowing yourself to be open to possibilities
• Focusing your vision to celebrate what’s right in the world

“When I applied these four techniques, I made some incredible images,” Jones said. “I locked in those images by always beginning by celebrating what was best … and letting the rest fall away.”

1. Train your technique

“Vision without technique is blind,” Jones said. “It's fine to have a brilliant idea, but if you don't have the technique … to manifest it, you have nothing.”

As a photographer, for Jones, honing his technique meant taking thousands of photos in the quest to get the handful of images that would resonate most with readers.    

“When I worked for (National) Geographic, the average article was shot in 400 rolls of film. That's over 14,000 images to get the 30 that go on an article,” Jones explained. “(But) I don't care how many shots it takes. We all know when those right answers come into focus … but you're not going to get (them) unless you're willing to press out on the edge of your own comfortable envelope to take the risk.

“It is not trespassing to go beyond your own boundaries,” he added.  

Jones also emphasized the importance of focusing on perfecting your own technique, not on trying to be better than others or doing what everyone else is doing — a lesson he learned from Bob Gilka, who was the head of photography at National Geographic when Jones was hired.

“He said, ‘You know, Dewitt, the people who photograph for (this magazine) are the best in the world. And you're one of them now,’” Jones remembered. “‘You don't have to prove yourself … but by God, every day, you had better improve yourself. I want you to spend every day trying to be better than you were yesterday.’

“He changed the way I did everything from that day forward,” Jones said.

By focusing on improving our own techniques and strengths instead of worrying about how we measure up to others, Jones argued, we can free ourselves from our hang-ups.

“When we really are doing that improving, not proving, believing that there's more than one right answer (and) reframing obstacles into opportunities, that's when we'll begin to lose all our fear of mistakes or setbacks,” he said.

2. Put yourself in the place of most potential

No matter what your career or passion, Jones said, your chances of achieving great success are slim if you don’t put yourself in a place of great potential. For Jones, that meant literally traveling to locations with the most potential for finding the perfect shot.

“If nature is going to open up multiple windows of opportunity, where do I have the best chance of finding them?” Jones would ask himself. “There are 1,000 ways to come at any challenge to find that extraordinary view.”

Jones recalled one particular photo assignment where things weren’t going exactly as he’d hoped — but by being open to the location’s great potential, as well as to advice from someone who knew the place well, Jones was able to get even better pictures than he’d anticipated.

While on location in Scotland to shoot a campaign for Dewar’s Scotch, the weather wasn’t what Jones had planned for — but a local fisherman advised him that if he came back the next day, he might see something extraordinary, albeit unexpected.

“He said, ‘You know, laddie, there was mist on the water this morning. That's unusual for this time of year.’ And I climbed all over it,” Jones recalled. “I want to be in the place of most potential. So, I'm out there two hours before dawn, and when the light starts coming up, I got the boats, and I got the fishermen. … I got my first right answer, (and) they just kept coming.”

3. Be open to possibilities

Even if you do put yourself in the place of most potential, Jones argued, it won’t make a difference if you aren’t open to the possibilities and what the world has to offer.   

“When the great photographer Minor White would go out to photograph, he would never say, ‘What will I take today?’” Jones recalled. “Rather, he would ask, ‘What will I be given today?’ And I would add: Will I be open enough to see it?”

For photographers, the possibilities are endless — but over the course of his career, Jones noticed that many people mistakenly believe that there’s only so much beauty to go around.

“Mother Nature never stood in front of a forest and said, ‘There is one great photograph hidden here. One photographer will find it, and the rest of you will be hopeless losers,’” Jones said. “No, nature says, ‘How many rolls you got, Dewitt? Bring it on! … I'll fill it up with beauty and possibility beyond your wildest imaginings, right down to my tiniest seed.’”

Along with being open to all of the possibilities, Jones argued that being willing to look for the next right answer instead of believing that there’s only one right answer is not only transformational — it is “the key to creativity.”

“So many things begin to change when you come at the world from that perspective,” Jones explained. “As you press on, looking for that next right answer, … you do so not in terror but comfortably knowing it's going to be there for you. And you really do begin to embrace change rather than fear it. You really do hit the day with a sense of possibility, not paralysis. And you just get more and more comfortable with reframing an obstacle into an opportunity.”

4. Focus your vision by celebrating what’s right

Jones saved his most important step for last, positing that how you see the world — and what you choose to focus on — will affect everything else in your life.  

“It's your vision that's going to make you a success, because vision controls our perception — and our perception becomes our reality,” Jones said.  

Jones began cultivating a vision of positivity when he was hired by National Geographic, who always encouraged him to focus his camera lens on the good instead of the bad.

“What they charged me with, every time they sent me out, was to celebrate what was right with the world,” Jones said. “I mean, why do you think we keep those silly yellow magazines? It's a national sacrilege to throw one away! Why? Because they celebrate what's right with the world.”

Jones acknowledged that it’s not always easy to find — or even look for — the positive, especially in the midst of overwhelming struggles, like the COVID-19 pandemic. But he still encourages everyone to try.

“I'm not going to deny that there's very real pain and suffering in the world,” Jones said. “But if I'm in love with life, I've got a lot more energy to face (it). By celebrating what's right, we find the energy to fix what's wrong. And (it’s) so important … to have a vision that will give us energy at a time when so many things are trying to take it away.”

Even when focusing on the good doesn’t come easily, Jones believes that we can become champions of finding the positive in the world the same way we become proficient in anything: practice, practice, practice.

“Unless you … make it a practice, it's not going to change your life,” Jones acknowledged. “This means that, every day, you have to consciously say, ‘I am going to celebrate what's right in my life.’”

So, how do you begin celebrating the good? In Jones’ opinion, it helps to tap into your passions — that is, things that “fill (your) cup”. This can be anything from sports to music to good conversations, and everything in between. It’s just a matter of finding it in your own life.

“You're going to have to go out and say …, ‘I just had an amazing interaction with my friends. I just saw the sunset. I just read a good book,’” Jones suggested. “Whatever it is that fills your cup up to where you overflow (and) you say, ‘These are things that make me glad to be alive.’”

By taking all four of these steps in our lives, Jones truly believes that we can change our perspective — and, ultimately, change the world.

“We can celebrate the best in every situation and every person every day,” Jones said. “We'll have the tools and the vision to face any challenge … while celebrating, with gratitude and with grace, all that we've been given. That perspective, that vision, it will change your life, as it has changed mine.”

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“As a society, globally, we seem to be struggling with finding a universally agreed-upon set of facts,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech, at the opening of the Alltech ONE Ideas Conference (ONE) on June 22. “With more data at our fingertips, we find it even harder to agree upon the truth.”

A few years ago, a book called “Factfulness” was shared with Dr. Lyons, and it transformed his perspective of the world. Since then, the book has been featured twice in the Alltech virtual book club, and hundreds of copies have been given away to Alltech colleagues and friends around the world.

The book was written by Hans Rosling in collaboration with his son, Ola Rosling, and his daughter-in-law, Anna Rosling Rönnlund. Together, they founded Gapminder to combat misconceptions and present facts, global trends and data in a way that everybody can understand. Rönnlund is also the founder of Dollar Street, which reflects her own passion for photography by using images and videos to promote a fact-based view of the world.

“What if we are wrong about the world?” asked Anna Rosling Rönnlund, the first keynote speaker at ONE this year. “How can we then make sure we do the right things?”

What are the facts about what’s happening around the world?

The world is full of problems. Climate change and COVID-19 are two hot topics, to name a few. To check whether conference attendees’ worldview was up to date, Rönnlund carried out a short quiz with 18 multiple-choice questions on topics that varied from suicide to low-income countries, farming and plastic waste. You can take the quiz here.

The following facts are true:

1. The suicide rate decreased by 25% over the past 20 years.

2. 9% of countries are low-income countries now.

3. 6% of plastic waste ends up in the ocean.

Below are the results of ONE participant responses comparing to the facts:

On average, attendees only answered 4.7 of the 18 questions correctly. The results demonstrated that our perspective of the world is often not based on facts and, as a result, can cloud our judgment.

What causes a skewed worldview?

Rönnlund gave three explanations for how misconceptions are often generated:

1 .The things we learned in school have become outdated.

2. What we see around us is a narrow slice of reality.

3. The news is overdramatic — we only hear about extraordinary events, instead of things like, “Yesterday, all trains were on time again.”

How can we update our worldview?

1. Get a reality check.

To broaden our horizon and see the truth about ordinary things, Rönnlund suggested that we pay attention to what’s happening in reality as well.

“We need to look at how people really sleep, how they brush their teeth, where they go to the toilet even,” said Rönnlund. “We need to see that everyday reality (in order) to understand that most of us are having everyday struggles that look pretty much the same, even though we might be in different countries and on different income levels.”

You can see pictures of items and activities from households with different income levels around the world here.

2. Look at the data.

“But that (seeing everyday reality) is not enough. We also need to look at the data,” Rönnlund noted before sharing 32 things that have improved in the world over time.

For example, legal slavery has decreased dramatically, deaths due to disasters have all but disappeared, fewer children are dying, more kids are getting vaccinated and there are more movies to choose from.

“So, a lot of things are actually improving, but we’re very bad at seeing these slow trends on a global level,” said Rönnlund. “Instead, we see the media, and we see the drama all around us.”

The world is, in so many ways, getting better. However, there are still many problems to solve. The danger of being wrong about data and global trends is that we might end up solving the wrong problems — or solving them in the wrong order.

3. Trick your brain.

Even when we are highly educated and know the facts, the world keeps changing. In addition, our brains love dramatic stories more than the truth about global trends. We need to trick our brains to be smarter without spending too much time learning.

With this in mind, the authors of “Factfulness” developed the 10 Rules of Thumb to control the dramatic instincts in our minds.

What are the 10 Factfulness Rules of Thumb?

1. The Gap Instinct: We tend to think about the world as divided, such as either poor or rich. The majority, however, is in the middle.

2. The Negativity Instinct: Our brains might think things keep getting worse because of what we hear, but sometimes, we should ask ourselves: Would an improvement get publicity?

3. The Straight Line Instinct: When we see a trend, we tend to think it will continue. However, many lines bend.

4. The Fear Instinct: Often, we see and search for stories that are dramatic and interesting, but our brains overdramatize reality.

5. The Size Instinct: Everything we hear on a global level seems to be huge because the numbers add up. But we need to compare, divide and put things in perspective.

6. The Generalization Instinct: For example, we tend to group people together and think they are all the same, even if they have different backgrounds.

7. The Destiny Instinct: Thinking that nothing can be done because of destiny is a bad ground for doing change work.

8. The Single Instinct: We tend to think that we have a hammer, and we want to use it on everything we see. To make smart decisions, however, we need to use a toolbox.

9. The Blame Instinct: This is our instinct of pointing fingers at certain people, forcing them to bear the guilt for things going bad.

10. The Urgency Instinct: We often feel the urge to do something big immediately upon hearing about dramatic events happening around us. “There is a risk of doing the wrong thing and doing too much of it, which might cause problems rather than fix them,” said Rönnlund. “What we need to do is to take one step at a time and keep evaluating and keep looking at it.”

How can we support a fact-based view of the world?

1. Foster data literacy by providing transparent and free data.

2. Make the world more understandable by visualizing data, especially in schools. “We need to serve the brain enough excitement so it’s interested enough to keep listening, and (we should) stay true to the facts and ensure we are not overexaggerating anything,” advised Rönnlund.

3. Be humble and curious. “You don't want to be looked at as someone who’s … wrong, but according to the testing we have done, we’ve seen that most people are wrong in most industries, in most ages, in most educational levels,” shared Rönnlund. “I think, if we are humble and curious and start looking for the data, we will find data, because it is existing.”

4. Keep upgrading our worldview, because the world keeps changing, and so do the facts about it. A lot of data is freely available from big organizations online. “We need to foster this new habit with curiosity and humility, looking for facts, and keep updating them,” said Rönnlund. “It’s not a small thing, because it’s about rewiring the way we think as a species, but I think we have to start doing it.”

5. Beware of unreliable data. Most information around us is not fake, but we get it wrong anyway. We also now have to deal with fake news. Be sure to check your sources.   

6. Reach out beyond your network. When it comes to social media, look for friends of your friends or distant relatives to widen your point of view. Explore other fields of interest to broaden your understanding of how people see things differently.

Fun facts from the Q&A session

• Rönnlund started writing “Factfulness” with her husband, Ola, and father-in-law, Hans, after the three of them worked closely together on Gapminder for more than 10 years to make the world easier to understand.
• Their collaboration began after a family dinner, where Hans shared his struggle to explain global health to medical students. At first, Rönnlund and Ola helped Hans simplify the information by creating more appealing visuals. Then, together, they started to innovate and find better ways to teach global health and development to a bigger audience.
• The three authors wrote about five big risks for the future in “Factfulness,” and the number-one risk was a global pandemic.
• People can be happy with what they know about the world, and it’s hard to change or upgrade that knowledge. The writers focused on two things: first, what people are most often wrong about, which they determined by screening populations with factual questions, and second, why we have such a hard time understanding the world around us, which they explored by looking at the brain.
• Rönnlund and Ola are continuing Hans’ legacy by creating new content and new factual questions so that people can stay updated on different topics. They are working to create more teaching materials that can be used in the classroom.  

“Factfulness is recognizing that a single perspective can limit your imagination,” said Dr. Lyons in the conclusion of the session. “And remember that it is better to look at problems from many different angles. When we see the world in this way, we truly become possible-ists, people who can really see clearly how progress can be made, the potential ahead, and make sure that we can play a role in making it better.”

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Growing up near the rice fields and beaches of Bali, Melati Wijsen saw the impact of plastic waste firsthand as it littered the landscape and endangered local wildlife. She was spurred into action, and at just 12 years old, Melati and her younger sister, Isabel, founded Bye Bye Plastic Bags, with a mission to rid the world of plastic bags and empower young people to take action. Hear from Melati on the youth-led movement to build a brighter future and what this could mean for business leaders.

In this episode of Ag Future, we revisit a conversation that Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech, had with Melati Wijsen, Founder of Bye Bye Plastic Bags & YOUTHTOPIA, as a part of the Alltech ONE Ideas Conference in 2020. For more information and to register for ONE 2021, visit one.alltech.com.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Melati Wijsen. Click below to hear the full audio or listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Dr. Lyons:    Welcome to the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience. I'm Dr. Mark Lyons, President and CEO of Alltech. Founding Alltech in 1980 was just the beginning of a vision for my parents, Dr. Pearse and Mrs. Deirdre Lyons. They desired to build a business, but they also wanted to ensure that that business would have an impact on our planet far into the future. Today, our customers, partners, and more than 5000 team members around the world are working together for a planet of plenty, propelling our founding vision into a new world of possibilities. We are inspired by the challenge to produce enough safe, nutritious food for all while caring for animals and sustaining our land, air, and water for future generations. Our natural resources may be finite, but human ingenuity is infinite.

                        Planet of plenty is a vision of promise and positivity for the future. It's our belief that the world of abundance is achievable, but it will take all of us working together. It's a vision that must be led by science and technology, and a shared will to make a difference, to plant trees we will never see grow. In 2020, these ideas seem to be growing in importance and urgency. Our special guest today on the ONE Virtual Experience was motivated very early in life to make a difference.

                        Growing up near the rice fields and beaches in beautiful Bali, Indonesia, Melati Wijsen was impacted when she saw plastic firsthand as it littered the landscape and endangered local wildlife. She was spurred into action at just 12 years old. She and her younger sister, Isabel, founded Bye Bye Plastic Bags with a mission to rid the world of plastic bags starting at home in Bali and empower young people to take action. She has spoken on world stages such as TED and the United Nations. She has been honored by Time as one of the most influential teams in the world, and has also been named to CNN Heroes Young Wonders and Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

                        Melati graduated from high school one year early and recently founded Youthtopia, a global community that empowers youth through meaningful, short peer-to-peer programs and provides them with tools that they need to become young changemakers themselves. Melati, welcome to the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience.

Melati:            Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be joining you today.

Dr. Lyons:    Well, you have an incredible story and I think one that will not only inspire the ONE Virtual Experience normal adult audience, but also their children, the kids and teenagers that we've invited to join us today. Could you maybe just start with telling us a little bit about what inspired you to take on this role of being a changemaker?

Melati:            Yes. Well, for starters, I grew up on the island of Bali here in Indonesia. Growing up here, we had a childhood which meant playing in the environment 24/7. We were always in the rivers, running through the rice fields. That at an early age grew such a strong connection between myself, my family, and the environment around us. When we started Bye Bye Plastic Bags when I was 12 and my younger sister was 10, we had no idea what being a changemaker even was, what an activist even meant. We just saw plastic pollution being a problem, plastic pollution ending up in places that it absolutely should not, and it wasn't rocket science. We just asked a simple question. How can we get started? How can we get involved?

                        The rest was pretty much history. My sister and I rolled up our sleeves without a business plan, without a strategy, but the pure passion to just protect the environment in our home.

Dr. Lyons:    When you specifically got things started with your sister and you decided you were going to do something, what really started that journey? What was the seed of inertia that got things moving for you?

Melati:            This is a question that we get a lot of the time. One thing that I have heavily reflected on especially during this time right now is after seven years on the frontlines, what was it? What was that moment for us? It's very difficult to pinpoint one moment. To be honest, I think it was a whole collection of moments growing up on the island of Bali. Again, we were always in nature whether that was doing our first surfing lesson and really being out there in the ocean with plastic coming out after every single paddle, or learning how to plant rice for the first time and actually planting it on top of plastic. All of those sorts of moments where you may be hearing it for the first time through my story, but for me, it was my reality.

                        I don't know if I can give you an exact moment for me, but I definitely know that me and my sister saw this problem, and at the same time, we were very much inspired by the story that we learned at school. Think back to the time when you first learned about Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Lady Diana, all of these incredible leaders who throughout history made a difference in their community. My sister and I, after learning about them for the very first time, we thought we don't want to wait until we're older to start making a difference. We went home that day, connected the problem of plastic pollution, this motivation that this class, this lesson had for us, and combined the two and said we're going to make our island home of Bali plastic bag-free.

Dr. Lyons:    That's incredible. I think one of the things that all of us think about is how would I have started that at that age? Or if I know young people at that age, what would I be thinking of what they were doing? What did your parents and maybe your community think about this when you got things going in those first stages?

Melati:            My parents, first and foremost, they come from completely two different worlds. My mom is Dutch, my dad is Indonesian, totally different cultures and backgrounds, but they both found themselves on the island of Bali. When they were raising me and my sister -- also, me and my sister, a little bit of background, we were that kind of sisters that never fought. We are best friends. Even up to this day, we tell each other everything and we do everything together. We were always doing projects, not as big as Bye Bye Plastic Bags, but we were organizing the village bazaars. We were organizing how to make tree houses with our friends. We're always up to something.

                        So when my sister and I went up to our parents and said we're going to do this, we're going to make Bali plastic bag-free, they thought and we thought it was just going to be another summer project. But here we are seven years later and our parents have been an incredible source of support, which we're very, very lucky to have and to call our parents as one of our biggest supporters. They've also taught us a lot about balance. I'm sure we'll get closer to that throughout the entire discussion of how young changemakers and the support system around them require that sense of balance.

Dr. Lyons:    Maybe we could talk a little bit about those early stages. You must have faced a lot of challenges. Maybe you could explain a little bit of what took place. How did you get things moving? How did you get some of the first signatures on your petition?

Melati:            To be honest, when I think about our very first days with Bye Bye Plastic Bags, it blows my mind. It still does. I have a lot of projects that we started after Bye Bye Plastic Bags where I just want to capture that same sense of spontaneousness. I don't know if that's a word, but that level of passion that just went into creating something overnight and turning into this large movement that became much bigger than just me and my sister overnight. At first, we posted our first Facebook post and the first likes were my mom and my dad, the auntie and the uncle. Then we thought, well, what can we do from there?

                        Obviously, the first step was building our team, and that was often more other young people, other peers, our best friends. From then on, we started a petition. So what you were referring to, how did we get the first signatures on board, we put it up online. And within the first 24 hours, we had 6000 signatures already agreeing that Bali should be plastic bag-free. I guess this was really the first "aha" moment for us. This was where we realized that more people agreed with us. We were onto something big and the time for change was now. Since then, we've really used that momentum that we built as one of the largest youth-led movements in the country to see how we could build those conversations and turn that into action and positive impact.

Dr. Lyons:    That must have been so exciting to get that level of response.

Melati:            I just want to share one story, just the level of excitement to give you an idea of what that was for me and my sister at 10 and 12 years old. Every morning just before school, we'd rush to our parents' computers and log on to our online petition and reload the page. Every morning, we had thousands and thousands of more and new names that signed the petition. That was something that we did every morning for the next several weeks forward.

Dr. Lyons:    That's incredible. It must have been such a rush every morning to get up and just be thinking about what the response was. Certainly, I think that message then moved even beyond Bali to international. It's extraordinary. Ultimately, you've faced some challenges. Obviously, it wasn't all smooth sailing the whole time. What did Bye Bye Plastic Bags actually achieve and what were some of the roadblocks you had to overcome to get there?

Melati:            Over the last seven years of campaigning on the frontlines, we have come across many obstacles, everything from how do we keep that long-term motivation going. Being 12 years old, starting the movement all the way up to today where I'm 19, that long-term motivation, keeping people hopeful in the movement, keeping people excited about the change that is coming while it still didn't come fast enough, that was probably one of the biggest challenges. The way we overcame that honestly was just to keep the movement fun, keep the movement as creative as possible. Being a youth-led movement, that wasn't too difficult.

                        I think one of our biggest achievements that we have accomplished after seven years, six years on the frontlines together with the like-minded, our biggest and proudest achievement is the ban on single use plastic bags, straws, and styrofoam on the island of Bali.

Dr. Lyons:    It's an incredible achievement and it's something that I think a lot of people with a lot more experience, with a lot more resources couldn't have achieved. I think everybody watching this will be watching with admiration in terms of what you and your sister and the whole movement have done.

                        You really touched on an interesting point there that I think every organization struggles with. You have a founding principle and everybody feels very passionate about it in the beginning, but how do you keep that energy going? You mentioned something that we find very important within our culture, fun. You've got to keep things fun. Right now, we're in a world where we're a bit separated. Obviously, social media has been a huge part of your movement. What have you learned over the last seven years in terms of social media, how to use that and how to influence others and keep that mission alive and strong?

Melati:            Well, I could write a book about all the different lessons because if one thing is for sure, Bye Bye Plastic Bags was my life school. There's no other textbook that could teach me what I learned through the hands-on experience. Some of the biggest tools and learnings that I've had is really how can we collaborate more? How can we create those connections and those partnerships to create meaningful impact in our communities? I think that was one of the biggest takeaways over the last seven years and something that I really hope we can be a living example to show that collaboration. But also, youth empowerment is key if we want to see change happening.

Dr. Lyons:    Absolutely. That's a lot of what you're working on now. You've moved on. You're talking about a lot of other ways to engage with young people, and you've created something very exciting and new and something I was very inspired by first learning about it when we chatted earlier, Youthtopia. What is Youthtopia about and what is it that you want to achieve with this new ambitious effort?

Melati:            Yes, and thank you for letting me share a little bit more about Youthtopia. I don't know if you can tell, but my cheeks always get very hot and excited when I talk about the new project that me and my sister are working on. Think about the seven-year journey that me and my sister had. It brought us to so many extremely beautiful stages all around the world from the TED stages to the UN headquarters. My sister and I were going all over the world, but our biggest audience, no matter where we were, was always young people, other students, other like-minded, young people that were always curious about our story.

                        Whenever we stepped into the classroom, they sat a little bit taller, leaned on their chairs and said, "If they can do it, I can do it, too." But the question we always got after presenting and sharing our story with Bye Bye Plastic Bags was young people coming up to us and asking, "How can I do what you do?" This is where the larger passion of me and my sister really came into, which is education, specifically peer-to-peer education, and youth empowerment. How can we mobilize an entire generation of young changemakers?

                        That's what Youthtopia is all about. We're a community-centric platform with learning at its core and we work with real life, frontline, young changemakers. We use their experience. We pull together their knowledge and put it into a program for the rising young changemaker. We provide the education systems and the educational programs that the current traditional system doesn't have in place right now.

Dr. Lyons:    Yeah. I think for a lot of us, we're going to think, okay, that sounds fantastic. How do we define youth empowerment? What can we do to make sure that youth do feel empowered? I think a lot of times, young people today feel a little bit disconnected, disheartened particularly in this moment where COVID has been such a challenge. What can we do to define that youth empowerment and make sure to support it?

Melati:            This is again where my passion for education comes in, so cut me off at any moment when I talk too much about it. This is really where a huge passion of mine and a belief of mine is, that the education system needs to change. A big reason why young people all around the world feel a disconnect is because a big chunk of our day, five days a week, we spend it at school and we learn about things that are not relevant nor happening in the moment. Where when we come back home, when we turn on our phones and go through Instagram, we're seeing all of these bigger problems. This heavyweight suddenly sits on our shoulders and we want to play a more active role in the community we're living in, and we're not being provided with that.

                        When we talk about youth empowerment, we have to expect more from the young generation. We have to expect more and to guide more with the relevant tools, the relevant skills, and educational material our generation is asking for. I really think that youth empowerment, especially in the space that I'm in with the young people I've gotten to meet, we're empowering each other with our stories, with the other things that we're learning and sharing with each other. I think that that's really where the power of youth empowerment is.

Dr. Lyons:    I think a lot of people are going to be wanting to get onto Youthtopia hearing about it when they go through this. How can other youths get involved? Is this something that is limited to Asia? Is it something that's global?

Melati:            This is definitely going to be a global project and we welcome anyone that would like to join and learn how to become a young changemaker. As most startups nowadays, especially led by the Gen Z, the best source of information at the moment as we build is our Instagram page, youthtopia.world or our website, which is the same handle.

Dr. Lyons:    Awesome. Let's switch gears a little bit. We're in a moment right now that is truly unprecedented. One thing that we're seeing in the lens that we have is that a lot of these mega-trends are speeding up. And things that we were speaking about before, sustainability, climate change, and it being accepted and being something that we're really going to focus on are two that we do see speeding up.

                        We took a great quote from Martin Luther King a few months back and said there's a fierce urgency of now and that this is a moment that we've got to grasp. How do we grasp the opportunity that is being presented to us right now in a moment of such change and really continue to move these types of things forward?

Melati:            I asked myself this question a lot and I definitely don't have the answer. I think it's a learning curve that we are all experiencing. I guess the way that I would approach an answer would be to zoom out and zoom in at the same time and really personally reflect on what this time means to you. This is on a global scale. I think we're being given an opportunity, an unprecedented opportunity, not a challenge, not a risk, but this is an opportunity for us. I think young people as well, again, we often look at challenges or burdens without the heaviness, but we again look at it more as an opportunity.

                        I think we have to look at it as when I say zoom out, think about the timeline that we have set in place. Five years ago, the United Nations invented the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. This has become a framework that is implemented or spoken about all around the world, in classrooms, in board meetings, in government halls. The 17 SDGs is a framework or acts as a framework and a guideline of 17 different goals from humanitarian issues to environmental issues that we have to reach. 2020 and this year, we have hit the ten-year mark to reach those goals or not. I think with everything going on, we're being given an opportunity to reflect and refocus, restructure, reinvent the time that we're living in because we know already way longer before the 17 SDGs were invented, we know that the current system no longer works to our favor or to our benefit. And if we do not change business as usual, we're headed to an unlivable future.

                        The opportunity that is right in front of us, where and how we grasp it is by first and foremost becoming face to face. Once we do the whole zoom out, come up close. Embrace the confrontation that is happening right now on a global scale and on a personal scale, and understand what side you want to be on: the part that makes the future worth living or the history that doesn't move us forward. I think this is where we as individuals have a huge role to play in creating the movement forward.

Dr. Lyons:    Yeah, I think it's really that moment. It is a gut check moment in a way to really say where are we going and how are we going to change the trajectory if we don't like that place that we're going to end up. For a lot of the audience, and I'm thinking particularly even within our core business, the word 'activist' often strikes a tone of fear. People are thinking, "What is this person doing?" Of course, we know one of the big challenges that we have as humans is sometimes not embracing change, which is certainly something we need to be doing right now. How do we help people to overcome that fear and actually see that opportunity that you're highlighting for change?

Melati:            I love this. I love that the word 'activist' already makes people a little bit uncomfortable. That's good because that's when we know we're doing our job right. The role of an activist, especially young activists, is that we don't have that level of diplomacy. We know we do not have the time for chitchat and how's the weather. We get down to business. We know what we want. We're determined. Activists, especially in the recent couple of months, couple of years back, especially with the youth movement on the rise, we make people uncomfortable. The goal is to make us as uncomfortable as possible so we know we have to change. It's about applying the right kind of pressure.

                        Notice the reason why I don't mention the word 'fear' is because I think that that's not necessarily where the movement even comes from. The movement comes from a place of passion, of authenticity, and of love. I think that's why older generations or people that are afraid of change, they come up from a place of fear. They come up from a place of not willing to change because they're stuck in their comfort zone. Again, that's where we come in to make you as uncomfortable as possible so that we can change and move things along.

Dr. Lyons:    Yeah. We like to say that the magic in life starts at the edge of your comfort zone, so I think that's absolutely what we need to be doing and provoking in certain regards. Fear is one of the most useless emotions I think we have. I'm thinking about people watching this and saying, like you've said, "I'm a young person. I want to get involved." But a lot of people do feel intimidated or uncertain about themselves. How did you have the confidence in yourself to say, "Yes, we can go and get this done" and what would you suggest for young people if they were wanting to embark on such a mission themselves?

Melati:            I think that there are a lot of reasons why you are feeling this way and rightly so. Don't feel like it's not normal. There are definitely moments even where I find myself feeling super overwhelmed because when we look at the problem that the world is currently facing, we can feel very small and very -- well, just simply asking the question, where can we start? Where do I start? And how do I start? I think one piece of advice or one learning that I've had through my own experience is if you find just your piece of the puzzle, where can you add your strength, your power, your authenticity? Fuel it with your own passion. For you, it might not be plastic bags. For me, that was something that opened a whole opportunity and started me on this journey. It might be feeding the homeless, fighting for the forest and the rights of the trees.

                        Find your own passion and what is happening in your local area. I think once you find something that you deeply connect with, intimidation and the butterflies in your stomach is a healthy and good way to keep you on this path, to keep you moving forward because you also have to understand that it's bigger than you. It's bigger than one person. For me, this was the biggest lesson that I still cherish and carry with me to this day. We're a part of something bigger. There's a bigger message here, and young people are here to play a role in a bigger picture.

Dr. Lyons:    Fantastic and very inspiring. There are going to be other people watching this and they're going to be thinking, gosh, this young lady, very inspiring, very impressive, has spent a third of her life now focused in this area, but I'm a little later in life. How do I become a changemaker as well or how do I help to mentor changemakers? What would be your message perhaps to the audience a little bit older?

Melati:            Well, first of all, you're probably in a position of power, so I hope that you are using it to the potential of creating a world and a future that we are proud of, that is legal, that is just, and that is fair. I think that as a company owner, an industry leader, a government representative, being an adult, there's so much that you could do for good. When we talk about empowering young people and bringing us and inviting us into the space, that is one thing that we need more of. We need to be invited more often to conferences, to sit on panel discussions, and when we're not on stage, to be in the room.

                        Too many times, I'm finding myself in these beautiful, incredible, wealthy, knowledgeable conference rooms, and I ask the question, how many of you here are below the age of 30? Not because I want to see how many old people there are, but just because I want to make a point of how many or too little young people are in the audience. This for me, you have so much power as adults to invite us into those spaces. That's one of the ways that I think that you can empower and foster us into the realm of changemaking as well.

Dr. Lyons:    Yeah, I really like that idea. I recently was introduced to a book called "The Good Ancestor" and it was basically talking about future generations, generations that aren't even with us. Somehow, we need to also be thinking about them and bringing their voice into the room. I think that type of concept of getting more listening sessions and engagement with youth and what's really important on their agenda is a great suggestion and something we should be thinking about.

                        I might just think a little bit back on plastics. Plastics had been a big, big focus. That was the initial core issue that you guys identified and moved ahead with. Plastic is really part of a larger problem, which is a huge reliance on fossil fuels, which has been the dominant driver of climate change.

                        Do you have any thoughts about how we can use that focus and that success you've had with plastic to maybe put a light on the bigger issue of overuse of fossil fuels?

Melati:            Well, if we think about it -- and it touches on a way bigger point and I like that we're headed into there. When we think about problems or issues or challenges, we often box them or label them as if they're separate. Plastic pollution is connected and intertwined to climate change. Climate change is intertwined to gender inequality, to poverty. We have to start understanding that there is a global interconnectedness to all of these issues.

                        Think about the Black Lives Matter movement. There is no racial justice without climate justice. There is no climate justice without racial justice. Just before diving into that, of the plastic pollution, I just wanted to paint the picture of just how the narrative needs to change that everything is interconnected. Plastic bags, for example, the very thing that it's made of is from the fossil fuels that we need to keep in the ground. The reason, without even knowing it when we started, plastic pollution or going up against plastic pollution, it's a low hanging fruit. It is something where people are ready for as individuals, consumers, businesses even, government even. We're all towards a willingness and an intention to see how we can find alternatives.

                        When we started, for example, Bali banned plastic bags. That opened an entire discussion of okay, now what? What is the long-term solution? How can we look more into other types of alternatives not only for plastic bags, but for other plastic products for the entire waste management system? I think using the fact of the discussions on plastic pollution as a leverage to climate change and the climate crisis is a good way to go and a good start to open the larger discussion.

Dr. Lyons:    I think it really touches on the actual opportunity. Maybe you have a plastic ban in one location, but it creates commercial opportunities. You are getting an opportunity now to engage with business, to engage with policymakers. Have you been able to see or identify anything within companies that's maybe restricting them to see the opportunity that some of these changes and perhaps aligning with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals could actually create for them?

Melati:            Yeah. I'm not sure if I'm answering your question 100%, so please correct me or guide me in the right direction. But from what I get and where I think I would like to answer is that right now, what I'm coming on to when I'm in board meetings or when I'm with a government meeting, I constantly hear the excuse that people are not ready or even business leaders themselves are not ready for the change. But when I dig a little bit deeper, I'm like, why are we not changing fast enough? Is it a budget issue? Not really. Is it a consumer issue? I may live in a bubble, but I don't think so. I think the demand is there.

                        What it comes down to is definitely what you're touching on, is that systemic support is not there. I feel like the government regulations are not changing or adapting nor supporting the level and the speed of change. So business leaders can hide behind that and have no consequences or need to change their behavior. I think it's a little bit frustrating because when we talk about the elephant in the room, that's the elephant in the room. We're having too much gray area. People are hiding behind the willingness only and the inspiration only without actually implementing or changing the regulations, the policy frameworks to be able to actually implement that change.

Dr. Lyons:    We've been touching on a lot of different topics and I like the way that you phrased that the Sustainable Development Goals give us a framework. For us and for me personally, I feel like one of the most important of the Sustainable Development Goals is the last one focused on partnerships, and you've already mentioned collaboration. How do you think that policymakers, youth activists, and even companies can come together in partnerships to bring about the change that we need?

Melati:            I couldn't agree more. There is a very strong need and urgency for more partnerships, more authentic partnerships to take place.

                        To touch on it a little bit as well, I think when we look at partnerships, especially between young people and businesses, government sectors or departments, it's often viewed upon as an annual CSR program or a charity event where it's a one-off partnership. I think moving into 2020, learning everything that's happening around the world right now, we have to understand that when we talk about partnerships, it has to be more long-term. It has to be sustainable.

                        The way that authentic partnerships can take place is if there's a true transparency and communication. What I mean by that is take for example when a big corporation sets a goal or even a government sets a goal and a massive commitment. We love viral articles and viral videos and headlines, but we need more than that. In order to have a real working partnership, transparency and communication in the progress of achieving that commitment is necessary for us to be able to commit fully and to be able to contribute back into the partnership in a meaningful way. I think that that's what young people are really looking for, just to have a seat on the table and be taken seriously at the same time.

Dr. Lyons:    This is a time of challenge. It's a time of separation. You guys have had to deal with that and modify what you're doing. Maybe a two-part question, the first, how have you adapted your program through COVID and kept that engagement? Then maybe I'd ask, you're an optimistic person and I think that's one of the things that makes what you're doing very attractive and something that people want to be part of. What makes you optimistic for the future?

Melati:            Okay. The first question, with Bye Bye Plastic Bags, we were definitely more hands-on. You could find us at a bazaar, at an event, at a conference. We're doing three to five events a week. As a youth led movement, that was a lot for us to be doing. When COVID-19 happened, we had to switch everything online. We kept it as interactive as possible with our followers and continued our educational outreach there.

                        But with Youthtopia, we use this momentum and this growth in online learning to our advantage because Youthtopia's signature programs live online. That, for us, has been a real boost and actually worked to our advantage where we now host a lot of webinars, and again, interactive peer-to-peer panel discussions. We've had a lot of traction continue forward there also simply because we see that kids, young people all around the world, especially now, what is being amplified is the question of how can I create positive change? Our goal with Youthtopia is really to become that go-to headquarters for young changemakers all around the world.

                        What keeps me hopeful is exactly that, I would say, seeing young people from all around the world, all corners, no matter what background, no matter what culture, them coming up with the craziest and coolest and just so simple solutions. Being so determined no matter how often they're met with barriers and challenges. Their persistence, that's what inspires me. I feel like this sense of global community that we have as young changemakers has really been, again, amplified throughout this COVID-19. I think it's really brought us closer together as a global community, so I'm grateful for that, but it's also what fuels me every single day.

Dr. Lyons:    Yeah. It is one of the paradoxes of this time. Somehow we are physically separated, but somehow socially we're actually coming together, so it's great to see that you're experiencing that as well. Well, Melati, this has been fantastic. It's been really exciting to talk to you. I think it's been inspiring for me personally. I think for the audience, they will feel exactly the same, so thank you for being with us and sharing your story.

Melati:            Thank you very much.

In this episode of Ag Future we revisit a conversation that Susanna Elliott, chief of staff at Alltech, had with Lynda Gratton, professor of management practice at the London Business School and founder of the advisory practice HSM, as a part of the Alltech ONE Ideas Conference. While human progress and smarter technologies have risen to great heights, these advancements have prompted some anxiety about where we’re headed. Lynda discusses a framework based on three fundamental principles to give you the tools to navigate the challenges ahead. For more information and to register for ONE 2021, visit one.alltech.com.

The Following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Lynda Gratton. Click below to hear the full audio or listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Susanna:      Is our technology becoming a Frankenstein to be feared? And what happens when the world turns gray with an aging population? For the first time in our history, more people are over the age of 65 than under the age of five. Ahead of us is the promise of a longer and healthier life, but the life that we know just might be over.

                        Welcome to the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience. I'm Susanna Elliott, and joining me today to explain both the possibilities and the seismic change ahead is the author of The New Long Life, Lynda Gratton. Lynda is widely regarded as an expert on the future of work. She is a professor of Management Practice at the London Business School, and sits on the World Economic Forum's council. She is ranked one of the top 15 business thinkers in the world, and today, she's here to help us understand what it means to be human in a world of technological innovation.

                        Lynda, it is a privilege to welcome you to the ONE. We are living in the vortex of an enormous transformation. I know you've referred to the next ten years as perhaps the largest and fastest transition ever, and much of this shift is as a result of technology. Can you talk a little bit about the changes that are on the horizon for us?

Lynda:            Well, technology is one of the shifts that's fundamentally changing our lives. And of course, during COVID, I think we all realize that technology was baked into our offices, but also our homes. Really fascinatingly, on the 14th of March, so this was just as COVID struck, I ran a webinar at London Business School about virtual working. One of the questions I asked was what is your experience now? There were about 2000 people on the webinar and I gave them five different descriptions. The one that most people said was, "I'm feeling a bit lonely at home" and the one that only 2% or 3% said was, "My technology is letting me down." I think we forget just how brilliantly technology has held up. That means that in the months to come, this question of hybrid work, where are we going to work, is going to be possible because of technology.

                        Now, if you think about the technologies that we have in our home and at work, one of the questions that I think is reasonable to ask is does it mean that we're going to all lose our jobs? There's some debate about that. My own view is that technology will fundamentally change almost every one of our jobs. I'm a professor. I can imagine that some of my job will be done through AI, some of it will be done through a chat box, and there's only part of what I'll carry on doing. So it will change all of our jobs and it will add new jobs, which by the way is very difficult to predict.

                        I live here in Primrose Hill. If I'd shown you in 1830 -- I wasn't alive in 1830, by the way. But if I had been and looked out onto the street here in Primrose Hill in the center of London, you'd have seen many different horses going by. In fact, there were more than a million horses in London. If I said, by the way, there's now something called a motor vehicle, you'd have said, "Well, obviously, that's going to destroy all those people's jobs. Who's going to look after the horses? Who's going to shod them? Who's going to feed them?" But what you couldn't have imagined was the jobs that this new technology, this motorcar would create. The fact that it would build oil companies, that it would have rubber companies, that it would build a supply chain, that it would make sure that people then travel so they had more leisure and so on.

                        The simple point I would like to make about technology -- two points really -- number one, all of our jobs are going to change. That means that upskilling and reskilling becomes a lifetime event for everyone. Number two, we can't really predict where the new jobs are going to come from, so we have to remain flexible and also be really capable of navigating the future.

Susanna:      I love that message, Lynda. I think it's one part exciting about the possibilities, but then there's also a little bit of anxiety I think we still feel when so much of that change remains unknown. What are some things we can do now to prepare? I know in your book, you talk quite a bit about moving away maybe from the routine tasks. Maybe you can elaborate on that a bit more, about the things and the choices we can start making right now when we look at our work.

Lynda:            Well, there are so many things that we can do really to prepare for the future because of course, technology is not the only force that's changing our life. My one book, The 100-Year Life, was about the demographics, the fact that many of us are going to be living into our 90s and 80s. That means that we'll be working into our 70s. So the very structure of our life, the idea of full-time education, full-time work, full-time retirement, that becomes an impossibility. So if you bring both of those things together, the huge changes in technology plus the fact that we're going to be living so much longer, what that means is we have to prepare for what I in the book called, what Andrew Scott and I called the multistage life. The idea that you will need to be thinking about your education right the way through your life, upskilling and reskilling. It means that you have an opportunity to take time out. Why leave all of your leisure time until your retirement? Why don't you bring some of that back so that at 30 or 40 or 50, you could have a gap year?

                        It's a completely different way of thinking about our lives. Actually, in terms of preparing for it, one of the points I make in The New Long Life is it's a great opportunity for us to think about what could our possible selves be. What could we be that's different from what we are now? Because in a long life with lots of technological change, the opportunities to change the way that you live, to change your skill set even begin to change your identity. These are all now possible.

Susanna:      It's amazing. I spent a lot of time reflecting on this part of your book because it's something that I guess we've just always grown to accept, that there's this three-stage life and perhaps even not given it much thought. You have education, you have work, and then you have retirement, and how all of those lines are now being blurred. I really love the idea, especially as a mom of three young kids right now. I've often said to my husband, gosh, I wish that I could live my retirement right now when my kids are young. But I guess the question though, how realistic do you see us breaking that three-stage model? Will it happen in my lifetime or is this something that may take a few generations before we change the whole societal framework?

Lynda:            No, I think it's happening right now actually. Although COVID, the pandemic, has created enormous loss and deep anxiety and pain for many people, it's actually accelerated many of the trends that I've talked about when I've been talking over the years about the future of work the digital trends. Actually, many companies are now asking their employees, would you like to work flexibly? Would you like to continue to work from home? Would you like to flex the hours you work? Not surprising, most people are saying, "Yes, I absolutely would."

                        By the way, I don't think that's particularly because of the pandemic. I think any company that had asked that question a year ago would have had the same response. It's just that they didn't ask the question because they couldn't imagine that people could work from home and still be really productive. So I do think that what we've experienced in the last year as it is -- it is a year now, isn't it, almost -- has actually fundamentally changed the way we think about work. And whereas with the pandemic, we thought about how do we restructure a week, I think actually, a legitimate question would be, well, how do we restructure a year?

                        If I could work anywhere, well, why couldn't I travel the world at work? Or if I don't have to work all the time then why couldn't I take six weeks off? Why couldn't I work for four days a week? I think these are all legitimate questions. By the way, social change happens not usually because a corporation wants it to happen. It happens because individuals say, "I want this and it's important to me." If those individuals are important to the company, let's say they have particular talents that are valuable or they're high performers, companies listen really hard. So all across the world, I'm hearing companies saying, leaders saying, "We need to change the way that people work." The more that you and your colleagues say, "This is what we want," the more likely you are to get it.

Susanna:      Yeah, I think you're actually leading into a point that I really loved in your book, talking about the importance of becoming social pioneers and how often when we have huge leaps forward in technology that the gains aren't felt immediately, that we have to have social ingenuity that responds to that human ingenuity at first.

                        Right now, you describe that there's this widening gap between the technologies and between the social structures, although perhaps as you've mentioned there, as a result of COVID, we've been able to speed up again in terms of maybe our acceptance of flexibility. But right now, as we continue to live in this gap between what was and what could be and what will be, what are some ways that we can cultivate that social ingenuity?

Lynda:            Well, thank you for that question. Really, if you look at the history of change, the history of social change, why does anything change? Why do we now have pensions when we didn't use to? Why do we now have something called a teenager when we really had nothing? No age group was called a teenager, but now there are. It's because individuals say, "This is what I would like to happen" and they're social pioneers. The group I'm interested in is people in their 70s who are saying, "I now want to work. Stop discriminating against me. Stop telling me I'm old. I want to start my own business. I want to be a digital expert. Why is it that only young people can be digital experts? Why couldn't the old?"

                        I think there's a whole bunch of people at different ages doing different jobs who say, "I'd like to live my life differently." The more people do that, the more that we look around and see them and say, "Wow, that's exciting. Maybe I could be like that." That's why, by the way, in the book, we talk quite a lot about networks. Because we say if you spend all your time with people who are just like you, the chances are that you never see what other lives could be. That's a real argument for building diverse networks, which are diverse in terms of gender obviously, but also in terms of age groups and the sort of jobs that people do.

                        I'm not myself an entrepreneur, but I have friends who are. That's why when I thought about setting up my own business, I looked at them and thought, wow, I could do that. If they can do that, I can. So building diverse networks turns out to be really important if you want to be a social pioneer.

Susanna:      I think that's fantastic because one of the key points I drew from your book, too, was an expanded view of inclusivity. We don't normally think of age as being a part of that. I know within the book and even within some other interviews, I've heard you really challenge the stereotypes and generalizations that go with various generations. I wonder if you could speak to that a little bit further particularly you, the aging population, and the over 65 group.

Lynda:            Yeah. Well, thank you for that question. I feel a little bit of a party pooper because I know we love generational labels. We talk about Gen Y and Gen X and Baby Boomers, but honestly, there's no empirical evidence for any of it, none at all. It's made up. In fact, if I showed you, if I gave you a whole bunch of data about people, and from that data predict what generation they're in -- I don't mean you gave them the age data, but just how they felt about themselves and so on -- it will be very difficult for you to predict what generational group they are. That's the first problem with generational labels.

                        The second is that it assumes that everybody within that label is the same. I'm a Baby Boomer, but that doesn't mean to say that I'm the same as every Baby Boomer. One of the really interesting things about living longer is as you live longer, the diversity within an age group increases whereas if you look at your one-year-olds, they all pretty much look the same. I know for me, I have lots of children, so the only thing I ever remember about kids is they walk at one and they talk at two. That's about as far as it goes with me. But actually, by the time they're 16, they're already different. And by the time they're 60, people are completely different from each other. You can have an incredibly healthy 60-year-old, a 60-year-old who's gone and exploring the world, and another 60-year-old who's staying at home and frightened of everything and doesn't want to get out of their home.

                        We've really got to just look at people for what they are and particularly in consumer terms. If you as a technology company think that the only people who are technically literate are young people, you're missing out on actually the largest cohort that there is, which are the people who are over 40.

                        I think it's really important that we drop our stereotypes of generational labels and just look at people for what they are. Some are young, some are old. They're different within their own age groups.

Susanna:      Yeah. The implications of generalizing could be tremendous. As you mentioned from the business point of view, the opportunity that exists when we're looking at a demographic that is perhaps the most affluent of that demographic that has ever existed, they could be spending $15 to $20 trillion a year, and yet you'd see very few advertisements targeted to that over 65-year age group. Perhaps you can talk a little bit about how you would be advising companies and CEOs who are considering that growing over 65 group without overgeneralizing.

Lynda:            Yeah. Well, the very fact we just used the term over 65, that immediately tells you something, doesn't it? You imagine that even though most of us are going to live now into our 80s, possibly our 90s, we're still saying somehow when you're over 65, you're all the same as each other, and there's no evidence of that. What we're seeing is that as people are living longer, healthy living becomes really important. People said to me after I'd written The 100-Year Life with Andrew Scott, "What did it mean for you? What difference did you make?" The simple truth was I became healthy. I lost weight. I started Pilates. I started walking and running for an hour every day, and I'm a hell of a lot healthier now than I was four years ago. People are really focusing on healthy living. That's a very, very important part of what it is to be older in our society.

                        The second thing is they want to carry on learning. If you live to 90 or 80, you really have to work into your 70s. I was just on a call with one of the US' largest insurers just an hour ago, talking to their managers and saying people need to walk into their 70s now. We have to accept that and help them to do it and support them to do it. You're in a country, of course, where you've got all sorts of people over the age of 70 in very senior position. So we have to be much more accepting that people are perfectly capable of being highly productive into their 70s and 80s, and possibly into their 90s. That means it's a very exciting time.

                        I'm 65. I'm very pleased that I'm 65 now as opposed to being 65 when my grandmother was 65 because although she went on to live into her 90s, she was really treated as if she was old at the age of 65. Certainly, I don't feel old at 65. I think that's helped me become the person that I am and the person that I will be as I age.

Susanna:      I want to pick up on that point on education just a little bit. In our organization, we've always had a focus on lifelong learning. In your book, you illuminate the idea that learning becomes a choice. It's something we do throughout our lives because again, it's no longer sectioned off into this three-stage traditional narrative. My question for you -- and you're in the London Business School -- is the university model now broken? What do we need to do at a university level to make education accessible throughout all of life?

Lynda:            Yeah, it's completely broken. No question about that. It's shocking how slow universities have been to change. Having said that, two things have happened, which have really accelerated, in fact, during the pandemic. The first is that there are amazing online programs. Some of the universities are very active. Harvard, for example, has as many people online now as it does in its campus. Companies like Coursera are doing an incredible job of giving people the opportunity to learn online. During COVID, one of the things that's happened is we've all become very relaxed about virtual working. I teach all of my classes now virtually. Now, I'm not going to be doing that forever, but certainly this year, I have. The feedback honestly has been pretty good. There's a lot to be said for virtual teaching.

                        I think we've really learned how to teach virtually, which of course has got a completely different cost point than if you have to come along to a university campus. I think the second thing is that universities are also realizing that they have to think about older people.

                        Now, Stanford, for example, as always -- well, certainly for some years has had a wonderful program for over 60-year-olds, but it's very, very expensive and really not accessible to anybody except for the wealthiest. But nevertheless, you can begin to see that there are opportunities for us to reach out to people in every age group. Certainly, one of the things that we're doing at London Business School is to think about our alumni, the people who came mostly to do an MBA in their mid-20s. We want to be much more actively involved with their learning right the way through their life and not just when they're on our campus.

Susanna:      Yeah. It's interesting because people now pursue learning in very nontraditional ways. It might be through YouTube. It might be through podcasts. They may not be interested or able to commit to doing a degree at a particular time. Do you see a role for technology to play and beginning to track how people learn the pathways in which they learn? Maybe they get a credential in one place. It could even be through some virtual learning or a podcast or YouTube again. Is there a way that we would begin to track that? I don't know if there's blockchain of education that we begin to build as a society.

Lynda:            Yeah, that's absolutely crucial. There are two ways that technology firms could really, really, really help right now, or three ways, but let me just talk about two. The first is the whole business about -- well, let me give you the three ways companies can help. The first is in the recruitment process, to help companies recruit rather than simply saying does this person have a degree or not. Because one of the shocking aspects of the labor market, particularly in the US, is that if you don't have a degree, you don't even get looked at even though you might have some great skills. So the first thing that technology can do is it can help people get into the recruitment process even if they don't have a college degree.

                        The second thing they can do is really build amazing online education. I follow all of this, by the way. I'll speak about that in a moment, but I'm very, very interested in technology of companies who are doing this because they will make the world a better place. There are some amazingly experimental, innovative online programs now being built.

                        The third, which is the point that you speak about and I think is absolutely crucial is credentialing. It's very difficult for an adult to be really persuaded to learn a lot unless there's a credential at the end of it. Now, there are amazing credentials for digital skills. IBM, Microsoft and so on have actually built a whole suite of training programs that end up with a certificate, but that's not yet really happened in other softer skills like customer service skills, decision making, empathy and so on. We do need to help people credentialize their skills so that when they go for a job, they can say, look, I can prove that I know how to do this.

                        If I were to add a fourth thing that I think technology could really help, it's again your point, and this is about navigation. There's a fantastic report that came out in the US this week actually that showed that many people doing relatively low paid jobs, as part of that job, have some of the skills that will help them do a higher paid job, but they don't know that. They don't know how to navigate into those higher paid jobs. They also don't know what skills should I be adding so that I can do this higher paid job. That's absolutely crucial. Navigating across the labor market is so important for individuals, and technology can really help.

                        Now, my plea to you is please start businesses that do that. I co-chair the World Economic Forum Council on jobs, so that's where all the tech companies come to Davos every year. One of the things that I've said as part of my role there is that I would like to build an ecosystem. I like even just to write the ecosystem of all the companies that are working in helping people get jobs. I'm on the lookout all the time. Certainly, at London Business School, we have a whole bunch of MBA students who are building businesses that support employees to find work and then to credentialize the work and so on, so it's an incredibly important ecosystem of technology.

Susanna:      Yeah. I'd actually like to stay on this topic of company's roles in helping to navigate this new landscape because so much of our audience here on the ONE Virtual Experience, they are business owners themselves. How should they be rethinking the typical career path for their organization? How do we break free of that, "You're 65. It's time to retire" and break that link between age and stage when we might have somebody -- it might not be 30 years in the company as a significant thing. It could be 50, 60 years with an organization moving forward.

Lynda:            Yeah. Well, I think it's quite -- first of all, it's about forgetting the stereotypes. I've mentioned that already, which is to say don't stereotype people on the basis of their age. Age is very malleable. We basically age pretty much as we want to age. Each of us can change the way we age by the choices we make on a daily basis about how we live. Do remember that age is malleable.

                        The second thing to say is that I don't think there are any big policy decisions here. I think it's actually having conversations with people. I was talking to a company yesterday. It was one of the big German manufacturing companies and they said, "We're really worried because we've got all these 50-year-olds who are incredibly expert in our methodologies. We're worried that they're all going to retire. What can we do about that?" Well, the obvious answer is you talk to them and ask them what they want. Once you do that, you'll find that they will tell you what it is they want because very few people actually want to leave work at 50. The idea that you leave work at 50, and then spend from the age of 50 to age of 90 playing golf, nobody wants to do that. I don't know anyone who wants to do that. They want to stay productive, but they probably just don't want to work in the way that you're describing work, so listening to individuals.

                        Again, technology plays a really great role there. My advisory company, HSM, does two big things. One thing is that it joins our companies to talk about the future of work. We've been doing that for more than a decade now. But the other thing it does is we have a platform where we can get up to 200,000 people in a company talking about something that's important to them, and we find a way of moderating and facilitating that conversation. We've done quite a lot actually, which says to people, "What is it that you would like?" and they will tell you what they want.

                        For example, some 60-year-olds are saying, "I would love to mentor other people. I would absolutely love to mentor the young." The young are saying, "Wow, I'd love to mentor an older person, so why don't we get that happening?" They say, "I'd really like to be part of this, but I don't want to work every week. I want to take six weeks off." I think being more responsive to what it is people want at every age, not just the over 60s, is a very smart way forward. I think one of the things that we've learned from COVID is we actually can arrange work in many different ways and still be highly productive. Who would have thought that I would be sitting here in my personal home studio, talking to you? I wouldn't have probably done that a year ago, and yet this is probably the third webinar I've done today. It's amazing. We've all learned incredible skills.

Susanna:      We have. I want to pick up on your point there with regard to intergenerational relationships because another piece of your book that stood out to me is the importance of relationships. Here we're talking quite a bit about the changes that technology is bringing forward, but how we will be successful ultimately comes down to how we remain human and how we connect to others and the importance of connecting beyond our generation. Perhaps you can talk a little bit more about what we can do to cultivate relationships throughout this longer life.

Lynda:            Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that question. I've been talking about the role of families, communities, and neighborhoods in almost every one of my books. I've written ten books now and it's been a theme that's gone right the way through. In fact, the first book, I wrote about the future of work, which is called The Shift, which I wrote ten years ago. I really talked quite a lot about neighborhoods and families. I think of all the things I spoke about in that book, that was the one that didn't really make a difference.

                        I didn't really see people investing in their families in the way that I thought they might want to. Men weren't taking any more paternity leave. Women were struggling with maternity leave. People were struggling with looking after their kids. I think that's a shame. I think, again, COVID has shown us that it's possible to work from home. It's possible to be more related to our families at home and to our neighborhoods. I think quite a number of people are going to say, "If I can work from anywhere, why do I need to live in a big city? Why wouldn't I want to live in a smaller suburb or a smaller town where I can walk around, where I can take the kids to school? I don't have to get in the car all the time." These are, in my view, very positive and healthy choices. I think we will see people really actively making choices that provide healthy families. That's the word that I would use. What can you do to support healthy families? The more that companies can do that, the more vibrant our society becomes.

                        There's a virtual company based out of California that I've written about quite a lot actually. One of the things that they say is we never meet each other. We're all completely virtual, but that doesn't mean to say that we don't socialize. We socialize within our neighborhoods, not to our colleagues. I think that's a really interesting point, isn't it? Why wouldn't you want to spend time with your neighbors and with your family, not necessarily with your colleagues? There's another thought about families and communities.

Susanna:      Yeah. When we think about that, what are some ways that companies can very practically help contribute to society in this new 100-year life, particularly when you think about enhancing families, maybe allowing people to have more opportunity for that lifelong learning, or these, "I'm going to take a year off and I'm going to go travel the world?" What should we be thinking about if we are company owners, managers, and trying to incentivize that for our team members?

Lynda:            Well, I think it's again listening to the individuals. For me, autonomy and travel are my biggest loves. I headed up one of the big consulting practices at the age of 32. I was the youngest director ever at the age of 32, and I left to come into business school. The reason I did that is I wanted autonomy. I was working in one of those consulting practices where I was on a plane all the time. I was working all hours and I didn't want that. I came into academia in part because I wanted the autonomy. But of course, other people want different things. So I would listen to your high potential people and find out what it is they want. I think you'll be surprised that many are taking very thoughtful views about their future.

                        One of the interesting things about families is that in most countries of the world, men and women work. Mothers and fathers work. So when we built organizational structures, we often built it with the idea that there would be a man who would work and there would be a woman or a partner, mostly a woman, who would stay at home and look after the kids. That's a tiny minority of our families. Most families have both working parents. That gives them actually a lot more choice because they're no longer dependent on one income. They've got two incomes, so they can act as a unit in terms of the choices that they make.

                        I think that listening to what it is people want at different stages of their life is a very smart thing to do. I myself, I run my own business, as well as writing about businesses. In fact, I sit on the board of a multinational, so I do see huge companies, but I also see small companies. My company's only 20 people, so I feel all the issues that everybody else is feeling in terms of managing a relatively small, in my case, technology-focused business. Listening to your employees, I think, is at the heart of getting that right.

Susanna:      You've also done some extensive consultation work for governments, particularly in Japan. I know you were brought in at the request of Prime Minister Abe to take a look at the 100-year society. What are some learnings that we can take from Japan?

Lynda:            Well, Japanese people up until recently live longer than any other people in the world. In fact, Hong Kong is currently on the top of the list of populations who live into their hundreds.

                        The way that Japan does it if you go into the communities is that they eat very healthily. If you've ever been to a Japanese restaurant, you know they're eating a lot of fish, and that's amazingly healthy. Not so much in Tokyo, but certainly out of Tokyo, they have very strong communities. Somebody will bump into a neighbor on a daily basis and they walk. In fact, actually, if you look at the places in the world where people live into their 90s, in the hundreds, they almost always walk. I know that many of you are going to be living in cities where you get into your car every day and drive to work. That's terrible. If you look at places where people live to a hundred, they do three things, as I mentioned. Firstly, it's about what they eat. Secondly, it's about being part of a community, as simple as talking to a neighbor every day. That seems to make a massive difference to your mental health. Thirdly, walking every day, not necessarily big exercise, but actually standing up and walking. Those seem to be the three things that certainly Japan is very keen on.

                        Part of what Prime Minister Abe wanted to do was to move people out of Tokyo and encourage people to live in the countryside. In fact, the COVID has absolutely accelerated that trend. So people are much more interested now in living in the countryside because they don't have to commute into Tokyo every day.

Susanna:      It's fascinating, some of those three points that you've mentioned, how critical they are to mental health, which is something that is quite critical at the moment. We're talking about it a lot within our organization. It's also very significant in the sector that we work in, agriculture, which will be most of the audience that's listening to you through the ONE Virtual Experience. Those are important points.

                        Just taking that a step further, as an individual, I'm listening to you here on the ONE Virtual Experience from my home on my laptop. We're still in the midst of COVID coming up on the holidays. Lynda, what should I be doing right now when I think about this possibility of living many more years? What are some of the choices I need to be making right now?

Lynda:            Well, I would say this is the time, especially at your age, to really put down a foundation for a long life, a long, healthy life. We all know what those things are. Just as I said, from Japan, if you go actually to the website for The 100-Year Life, which is www.100yearlife.com, you can fill in a diagnostic that tells you how much you're preparing for a long, healthy life. It basically asks questions around three areas or four areas because there's also stuff about money. One is whether you're living healthily. Honestly, we all know what that is. It's about food and exercise, simple as that.

                        Secondly, it's about whether you're developing your skills, how much time you're setting aside to learn new things. Thirdly, it's about whether you're building strong, meaningful relationships with other people. Fourthly, of course, it's about whether you're saving enough money. If you're doing all those four things, you are in brilliant shape.

Susanna:      That's great. I imagine that's part of the advice you're giving your children. I know you mentioned several kids. Is there anything you would change when you look to the next generation?

Lynda:            I actually have eight children and we've got 11 grandchildren, so yeah, there's a lot. When you say what would I change, what do you mean by that?

Susanna:      Would your advice be any different when you look to the next generation or would it be pretty much the same as what you've just shared?

Lynda:            I think when I look at my own kids, who range from -- the youngest is late 20s, and they go right up into their late 30s. One of the things we talk about in The New Long Life is this notion of possible selves. At any stage in your life, you can reinvent yourself. You can be something different. I think that's really good advice because I think when you start off, especially when you're young, you think, "Well, maybe I've got to do this for the rest of my life" and the simple truth is you don't. You can be lots of things.

                        I've always encouraged my kids to be explorers. In fact, my father encouraged me to do the same and it was a great piece of advice. I remember -- this was unusual actually. At the age of 21, I hitchhiked -- this was madness -- from the north of England right away through Europe, right away through Syria, right away through Jordan into Israel. I had a scholarship to look at child rearing practices in a kibbutz. I wouldn't suggest my children hitchhike right away through Syria and Jordan these days. But when Chris was young, was 18, I said go live abroad for a year, and he lived in Shanghai, Mumbai, and Singapore as a journalist. He wanted to be a journalist. He didn't actually turn out to be a journalist, but that's what he wanted to do when he was 18.

                        I would say to young children, just explore the world. I know COVID is terrible, but once it's over, we can start moving around again. I think the best thing that a child can do is to explore the world. I love seeing the rest of the world. It's a wonderful way of learning. I've learned so much, as you say. I spent quite a bit of time in Japan. I come over to the States obviously quite a lot as well, but Japan in particular is just the most fascinating country. If you haven't been, as soon as you can, buy yourself a ticket and go and have a look at it. It's astounding. It's an astoundingly different country, the same in Africa. I mentioned to you I'm hoping on the 28th of this year, this December, to be over in Tanzania to have a look at the Serengeti. Africa is an extraordinary place, so that would be my number one advice to my own kids, is explore the world.

Susanna:      Yeah. We would be very much in sync with you from an Alltech perspective. We always consider travel to be the great educator.

Lynda:            Oh, great!

Susanna:      Yeah, we do. We love to travel here at Alltech. We've talked about so much change from the three-stage life now becoming an entirely new narrative, and all of the societal changes that need to go along with that. What do you feel is maybe the greatest challenge to change as you consider education and government, and even how we view age? What would you narrow down to be the greatest challenge?

Lynda:            One of the things that I do in my teaching -- and I do it actually when I advise companies as well. It's something that you may want to think about in your own company -- is I build personas. I build just one page descriptions of individuals who are typical of the people in your company. Then when I teach, I ask my students -- I do that, by the way, in my new book. You'll see that there are characters that I ask the reader to think about. I ask them to think about their lives.

                        One thing to remember is it's much easier for us to understand the trends that are shaping our world through the eyes of an individual. It's much more difficult to understand them just in a broadest way. For people who are educated and who have agency, I think, honestly, they can grab the future. If I look at my own kids, highly educated, you can see they're going to have a great life. But in a way, that's not the challenge. The challenge that we all face are the kids who don't have that.

                        One of the sad aspects of the trends that are shaping our world is that all of them lead to great inequality. In terms of tech, we know that people who have higher education are much less likely to have their jobs automated. In terms of demography, we know people who are educated and wealthy live 12 years longer than people who aren't. In terms of family structures, we know that people who don't have resources, it's incredibly difficult for them to have stable families. I think as we think about the future, we actually also have to think about how do we within our companies and within our societies and with our government support those people who don't have the chances and choices that we've got.

Susanna:      I can't agree with you more. I think that really came through strongly in your book. In order for technology to bring progress, we all have to be able to flourish from it and to create a construct in which we enable that to happen. Hopefully, that's the case. We do things like make education more accessible and so on. I want to end on a note that we have asked all of our participants here in the ONE Virtual Experience. We were focused on optimism for the future, and your book in and of itself, the prospect of a longer, healthier life, is full of

                        Can you maybe tell me a little bit more about as you look to the future, what is it that makes you optimistic?

Lynda:            I think technology makes me incredibly optimistic. I can't wait to have a car that I don't have to drive myself. I've got already a very advanced car and I can see it's dying for me to stop driving it because it's constantly trying to drive my car. I think it will be amazing when we have technology that allows us to see each other even more clearly than we do now. I can see that virtual reality is going to play an incredibly important part. Wouldn't it be marvelous if I can teach you in a more interactive way?

                        I think that technology is absolutely going to make our lives more exciting. But as machines become better, we humans also have to become better. We have to become more human. As machines become more technology, we have to become more human. And being more human is about empathy, creativity, innovation, so I also see the future as a real opportunity for human innovation, human creativity to build a better world.

Susanna:      I can't ask for a more perfect note to end on, staying human in a world full of technology. Thank you so much, Lynda. It has been a pleasure speaking with you.

Lynda:            My pleasure. Thank you for inviting me.