Having enough high quality protein to feed a growing world population in the future could very well be dependent on an essential amino acid known as methionine.

Now, essential amino acids may not be very sexy, unless you’re a molecular biologist – but they are just what they say they are – essential to life – and they serve the critically important function of being the building blocks of proteins. Hence, the importance in feeding the world. That is why Novus International executive vice president Giovanni Gasperoni recently wrote a white paper on the Global Outlook for Methionine in the Next Decade.

Methionine is beneficial as a feed supplement across the spectrum of livestock production, but particularly in poultry, which is an important and inexpensive source of protein through both meat and eggs. “It cannot be synthesized by the animal, so it needs to be added to the diet since the animal needs more than they can receive from corn or soybean meal,” Giovanni says. Because poultry is such an important protein source, the demand for methionine is proportionate to the demand for protein, poultry in particular. Giovanni says because of growing populations and income, China, India and Africa can benefit most from increased use of methionine in poultry. “China is the fastest growing country for methionine,” he says, because industrialization of the poultry industry has already occurred there and the next step for them is to move more into processing of poultry meat.

Because the corporate vision of Novus is “helping to feed the world affordable, wholesome food,” Giovanni hopes people read the paper to better recognize and appreciate the role of feed supplements like methionine in achieving that goal. “For people to understand that improving the efficiency of the animal is the way to go for a more sustainable world, a way to make the cost of food more affordable for everybody,” he says.

Link to Novus white paper here.

Listen to or download my interview with Giovanni Gasperoni on the importance of methionine here: Giovanni Gasperoni