Modern agriculture operates on a scale that’s hard to fathom. Gargantuan tractors and implements agitate the land, sowing crops in endless rows and gathering their yield at the conclusion of each season. It's a process repeated at millions of farms, big and small, globally, 365 days a year.
This industrialized process has fed the world for decades, but as the impacts of climate change, soil degradation and spiraling input costs get worse, farming will have to transition to more sustainable practices.The good news is, this can be done in a way that protects the land and sustains the farmers that work it, experts told the crowd assembled at Newsweek's The Future of Food & Agriculture Forum. Lin added they have data that shows regenerative agriculture provides the yields we need while supporting the income of farmers. Naturally, governments have an important role to play in making agriculture more sustainable, and they’re doing exactly this in Brazil right now.
Natasha Santos, vice president and head of sustainability and strategic engagement at Bayer Crop Science explained that the large, South American country has created a policy framework to identify and help restore degraded land, so it can be productive again. In this program, she explained, the Brazilian government makes public money available to privately owned banks to work as a catalyst. Those funds can then be used to entice much larger investments from private sources to dramatically scale up projects and get more done.
Farms, of course, grow more than just food. Plants are also cultivated for medicine and other purposes, including perfume. Sustainable agriculture is just as important in these industries as it is putting dinner on the table.
To ensure they have adequate supplies of the items they need, Benmayor explained that they work with farmers to ensure they can produce the needed crops while earning a decent living saying, “For us, natural resilience is ingredient resilience is business resilience. It all needs to line up.” To support farmers, DSM-Firmenich has done several things, including providing a minimum floor price. So sometimes it doesn’t have to be more investment, but the right investment at the right time,” she added.
In addition to helping farmers, implementing regenerative agricultural practices and rehabilitating the land itself, Lin said high tech can also make farming sustainable. She said: “We’re starting to see some tools emerge that can merge … climate forecasting, water risk and water scarcity, match that with your supply chain and your sourcing, and then the missing link is then to match that with your sales and your products.” This could be another breakthrough for sustainable agriculture, though it’s still very early days for this kind of tech, she acknowledged. Breeding and growing different plant varieties that are more adapted to certain conditions is yet another tool.
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