Take a few moments to think back to 1984. The world was a very different place. None of us had email – in fact, it was still four years before Sir Tim Berners-Lee would invent the worldwide web that we know today. Very few of us had any form of mobile phone, we had milk quotas, intervention, airlines were all full-service, and banking was almost exclusively done face-to-face at the branch counter.

The world was moving at a slower place, and established companies were comfortable with their role in the traditional world order. Their heavy investment in assets and infrastructure to meet customer needs made it all but impossible for emerging competitors to gain a toe-hold in a market to try and disrupt the status quo. This is best illustrated by the tenure of listed companies in the S&P500 index. In 1958 a company remained in the index for an average of 61 years. This had decreased to 25 years by 1980, and 18 years by 2011. The Economist has forecast that average tenure by 2025 could be as short as five years.

Our ability to generate, collect and analyse data has increased at an exponential rate over the intervening 30 years, driven by unprecedented technological evolution. We can now access and share information 24/7. Algorithms, interfaces and social networks have replaced bricks and mortar as the drivers of business value; and intuition and technological nous are more relevant to the future survival prospects of a business than a venerable history and a current large market share.

While it is a cliché, it has never been truer that change is the only constant in the world of 2015.

A review of recent literature on how our world is likely to evolve over the next 30 years suggests we will not see any let-up in the pace of change. As technology continues to diffuse into our day-to-day environment, we will also have to grapple with the re-emergence of Asia as an economic powerhouse, expected changes to our climate, and approximately two billion additional mouths to feed.

In this, our third Irish Farmers Journal KPMG Agribusiness Report, we have taken a different approach to previous editions, and have set out to explore the macro trends that are expected to shape the political, social, environmental and economic outcomes for the global community over the next 20 to 30 years.

We have identified 19 key trends that are likely to have the greatest influence on our global future.

The report considers the impact these trends may have on how the global agri-food system produces, distributes and ultimately consumes food. Based on our conversations with global agrifood companies and sector industry leaders, we also assess the opportunities and challenges that these global trends create for the wider Irish economy and the primary sector companies in particular.

Read more from this year's KPMG/Irish Farmers Journal Agribusiness report here.