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There’s an emerging coalition of leaders across the agrifood supply chain — including farmers, agribusinesses, researchers and global CPG companies — that are working to build agriculture resilience.
Resilience demonstrates social, economic, and supply chain durability in the face of climate change and our growing population.
We’ve made progress to date, working with partners and customers to transition farmers to regenerative and sustainable practices across the globe and across multiple supply chains. However, there’s still a long way to go.
We like to visualize it with a map of the impact gap.
The impact gap is the gap between our goal state — resilience — and our current trajectory toward meeting that goal. The gap represents the investment, partnerships, agricultural practices and environmental outcomes that support a more resilient food system.
How can we support all those elements, accelerate our efforts and reach resilience within the time constraints of climate change?
At the Regrow Agriculture Resilience Summit, 120 leaders across the agrifood supply chain gathered to discuss just that. Together we outlined 3 core pillars of agriculture resilience, which will guide our efforts to close the impact gap:
- Make resilience a core business strategy
Let’s build a case for corporate investment in resilience by assessing the value of regenerative programs beyond immediate ROI (like carbon outcomes or GHG abatement). Regenerative ag programs have indirect benefits too. For example, some agribusinesses have expanded their volume with key downstream buyers because they have credible, certified low-carbon product.
Not to mention, the cost of inaction is getting higher with every climate event. Floods, droughts, high winds, heat and other weather events destroy crops, processing facilities, farming communities and transportation routes. If we continue to neglect our responsibility to build resilience, climate events will continue to affect our supply chains. - Collaborate across supply chains and sheds
In agriculture, collaboration is essential for progress. We need to forge strong partnerships across the supply chain and at the landscape level.
At the Summit, we discussed the importance of finding trusted networks within our industry. Which organizations have strong relationships with farmers? How can organizations bring new people to the table for regenerative programs, using the trust they’ve built among peers and partners?
Each stakeholder in our value chain plays a unique role in promoting agriculture resilience. For example, brands might be great project funders, while nonprofits can help broker relationships. Ag coops and working groups can help accelerate grower engagement and education.
By understanding our individual strengths, we can contribute to a more collective system that builds holistic resilience and supports all stakeholders in the industry. - Find and Remove Barriers to Scaling Programs
Let’s take an honest look at regenerative ag programs. How did your outcomes match with corporate goals? Was the program effective for both business leaders and farmer participants? Did you encounter any hurdles in the start-up process that could be streamlined in the future?
Asking tough questions can allow us to find the barriers to program scale, and address them appropriately. As our CEO, Anastasia Volkova, mentioned in her Summit keynote, we need to find past mistakes, learn from them and make new ones.
You’ll hear more about this from Regrow in the coming weeks. We’re working with industry partners to break down each of these pillars and develop a shared roadmap for action.
Building Agriculture Resilience in a complex system isn’t without challenges, but we’re seeing firsthand how organizations that focus on these core steps are making steady progress. At Regrow, we’re committed to supporting this journey to achieve meaningful climate and emissions goals together.
Get in touch for more.
