We're joined by Jason and Sonya. Welcome. Jason, tell us, what
are the techniques and technologies that are really
making the food industry more sustainable and what are you
looking at Land O' Lakes? Yeah. So we look across the entire ag
ecosystem. We work in crop inputs, we work in animal
nutrition, and we work as a consumer goods company in the
butter and cheese part of the food system. But most
importantly, we have a platform called Truterra, which connects
all of the data across agriculture in
order to give visibility to where there are opportunities to
both improve regenerative ag as well as take credit for the
changes that you've made. Things like how you till crops, the
inputs and crops, soil health in seed that you put into your your
crop lands, and then ultimately how you harvest and move that
through the food system. So a big part of the change in the
culture that's happening with regenerative ag right now is
being data-driven and being driven by the quality of output,
not just the grain itself.
So that's a huge shift for farmers to really reimagine
their role in creating healthier, more productive,
higher yield crops with fewer inputs. And regenerative ag is
really the only set of practices, and there are many,
many different ways to do this that really help to elevate
health of soil, health of crops, and health of the system in a
singular way.
And Sonya, what is the advice that you would give to leaders
in the agriculture and food industries if they wanted to
transform their businesses to make them more sustainable?
- Absolutely. So the advice
that I would give them and do give them is to really focus on
value creation. So you absolutely need a sustainability
strategy. But at the end of the day, what we need are positive
business cases showing the economic and financial value
that's being created for farmers, for companies, and for
governments in order to affect the change that
we need to support our climate goals.
- And does investing in sustainability
necessarily mean that the prices for consumers will have to go
up? - No, it doesn't. And this is a debate that we
have all the time. Should prices go up as we spend more to
transition into regenerative ag? I think one of the fundamental
challenges that we have to solve as an industry, both as CPG and
food companies, but also as suppliers like myself and input
providers like the seed companies, is trying to figure
out how to fund the transition.
So that we don't see price inflation as a function of
changing the behavior of how we grow our inputs. And a super
fundamental component of making sustainability work and drive
the practice changes at the farm level that actually allow us to
transition into a new future.
Sonya, while that transitioning is happening, should consumers
get used to the idea of paying
for an even more sustainable environmental future?
So look, I think there are places where prices might need
to go up because we're internalizing a cost that's been
borne by society. But to be honest, in most areas, that's
not actually going to fly with consumers. When we look at the
research, they're not necessarily willing to pay more
today. And so we need to be practical about how are there
ways that we can use technology and innovations and new business
models in order to drive down what are increasing costs over
time, especially in food with the impacts of climate change.
But also think about who needs to pay. So
for instance, globally, there's over $600 billion in subsidies
that go to food and agriculture. Are there ways to make those
subsidies more effective and to support our climate goals?
- So not necessarily
bad news for the consumer, for which I think we're all
grateful. Thank you, Jason and Sonya.
- Thank you.