BANFF, Alta. — Speakers at the Global Business Forum say the COVID-19 pandemic is fundamentally changing the way the world's economic and social orders function — and some of those effects will be permanent.
In a series of online sessions broadcast to a ballroom in Banff with just three people at each table to prevent spread of the disease, subject experts from around the world said the virus has accelerated and amplified trends they were already seeing.
Trevor Noren, executive director of New York analytics firm 13D, said the recent civil unrest and violence in the United States has been escalated by a pandemic that has disproportionately hurt poorer families and Black people, while adding greatly to the fortunes of the richest Americans.
He says COVID-19 is "gasoline for a fire that had already been lit," predicting more anti-trust actions to break up big American corporations and more power for movements to reduce financial inequality.
Murad Al-Katib, CEO of Canadian food processing giant AGT Food and Ingredients Inc., says the pandemic has drawn attention to food security and that stands to accelerate a technological revolution in agriculture here.
He says the expansion of plant protein crops such as peas, lentils, and other legumes in Prairie fields has boosted productivity of the industry and processing into value-added products will continue to grow, calling on government to help that process.
"Governments are paying attention now. COVID has everyone spooked … COVID wasn't a slap in the face, it was a punch in the nose for governments to recognize that they can't just leave food and food systems entirely to fragmented private sector imports and distribution."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2020 .
