Top 6 Takeaways: Regenerative Agriculture And Food Systems Summit USA 2023

Regenerative Agriculture And Food Systems Summit USA 2023

TOP TAKEAWAYS:

1️⃣ Row Crop Obsession

2️⃣ “Agribusiness Regen”

3️⃣ Context Crutch

4️⃣ Consumer Push or Pull?

5️⃣ See Ya Later, Emerging Brands

6️⃣ Farmer Focus

1️⃣ Row Crop Obsession

We spend too much time focusing our conversations and efforts on row crop production. Inherently, this makes sense because it is the dominant part of our agricultural systems; however, a regenerative future is not one where this stays the same (in my opinion).

We are spending way too little time talking about regenerative specialty crop production (fruit, vegetable, and nut) that people actually eat! We also need to place more emphasis on agroforestry, silvopasture, perennialization, and re-integrating animals.

There is a MASSIVE data gap between row crop systems and pretty much all others - we need to invest in research and conversation to close this gap. There is also still not enough conversation about animal impact and how important well-managed grasslands are to a regenerative future.

2️⃣ “Agribusiness Regen”

The show did a great job highlighting some of the amazing efforts of large corporate companies. It was really awesome to see all this work coming together!

Many times it is easy to forget that there are incredibly well-intentioned and talented people at these companies who really care and are moving the needle in a big way.

We need to celebrate this work while holding corporates accountable to do it right, prove it with data, and keep challenging them to do more.

3️⃣ Context Crutch

Context is correctly touted as a very important part of regenerative agriculture - meaning that the journey and optimal systems for each crop, region, and farmer are different based on context.

I agree; however, I am concerned this will become a "crutch" for people to do "just enough" and feel good about it. We need to use context as a tool not only to get people started but keep pushing them to continual improvement. Data and tracking outcomes over time seems like a great way to do that.

4️⃣ Consumer Push or Pull?

The role of the consumer is unknown and not enough of a priority. It was not a focus for most or all of the corporates especially.

Corporates are concerned about reducing supply chain volatility, meeting publically stated sustainability goals, and reducing risk / cost.

Emerging brands are focused on building better supply chains and products that can be marketed to consumers as cleaner, healthier, etc.

Corporates (> $100M Revenue) will be focused on consumer "push." Not largely changing the products but just reducing the environmental impact of them. Example: the same Lay's potato chip from PepsiCo but it had a cover crop planted with it. (Incremental Improvement)

Emerging / Scaling Brands (< $100M Revenue) will be focused on consumer "pull." Actually acting like brands that market to consumers - telling stories about the amazing product attributes (taste, flavor, nutrition, etc.) and tieing them back to regenerative agriculture. Example: Everyone on our podcast 😉 (Transformational Change)

There were no retailers in the room that I could see, and we HAVE to include this group who are selling the vast majority of the food in these conversations. It was acknowledged during the last panel, but there is a big opportunity for better representation and engagement from that stakeholder group.

Retailers and consumers are still confused about regenerative agriculture, and we HAVE to fix that.

5️⃣ See Ya Later, Emerging Brands

Overall, the event was very well done and well worth attending. The content was solid and the networking was very beneficial.

My most critical feedback that I shared with the organizing team is the lack of representation for emerging brands.

All the corporate work is amazing, but it is not going to bring the "transformative" solutions we need. It will marginally improve large amounts of acreage, but it can't solve for all of our largest problems at once as emerging / scaling brands can.

We need supplemental improvement and transformational change. Let's get the folks building the "most regenerative" supply chains into the conversation next time. 😉

6️⃣ Farmer Focus

We spend too much time talking about “how to transition farmers” instead of just letting them have the stage and letting them tell us.

My favorite parts of the event were the parts when farmers just talked to us: Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin @ Tree-Range® Farms, Bryce Lundberg @ Lundberg Family Farms, Austin Allred @ Royal Dairy, and Derek Azevedo @ Bowles Farming Company, Inc..

Derek had my favorite comments from the whole show with: "Understand that every farmer is already doing stuff so everything you’re asking for is in addition to that. Have a mindset of curiosity and humility. We’re never going to do anything until we humanize each other and humanize agriculture."

Big thanks to the Kisaco Research team for an amazing event and for including ReGen Brands Podcast as a Media Partner. We are already excited for the next one!