The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in 1971, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.
At Davos, panelists framed “agricultural evolution” as a stability challenge: feeding people amid climate volatility, weak rural economics, and fragile supply chains. AGRA’s Alice Ruhweza described climate shocks as compounding crises—hunger, water scarcity, disease, and “long-term development reversals”—citing Zambia’s 53% maize drop during El Niño. She argued the highest-return resilience investments are not only inputs but nutrition, especially “school feeding,” using biofortified staples to reduce stunting and build Africa’s future workforce.
Flora Food Group’s Herman Betten urged leaders to start “with the fork and work your way back to the farm,” aligning products to four consumer drivers—taste, affordability, nutrition, and sustainability—while acknowledging consumers rarely pay more for greener choices. Nigerian entrepreneur Nyifamu Manzo said youth aren’t afraid of agriculture; they’re deterred by “risk, uncertainty and invisibility,” and need de-risking, finance, and market access; her AI-enabled platform has onboarded 8,000 smallholders.
Swiss development leader Christian Frutiger highlighted structural gaps: land tenure security, “slow magic” R&D, and financing for local processing and nutrition (“nobody’s investing in nutrition”). Investor-chef Sam Kass warned scarcity is already here: “coffee, wine, chocolate,” and staple crops like rice may face 10–40% yield declines, driving volatility, migration, and conflict. The path forward blends culture change, smarter policy, and shared investment in farmer resilience.
Good afternoon everyone. I hope everyone's Davos has been kind of kind to them. I know mine has. I definitely have felt a different energy this year. This is only my third one. So let's hope that this panel reinvigorates that for some of the people in this room. Look we're here to talk about agricultural revolution. But in truth, what we're really going to be talking about is whether the world can remain stable, equitable and fed in the decades ahead. So I'm here today wearing two hats. I am a UN goodwill ambassador for the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and I'm also someone who believes that food systems are no longer a sectoral issue. They are now a defining economic climate and geopolitical issue. It is, in fact, I believe, the issue of our time. And if you don't know too much about fat, F-a-t works with rural people. At the first mile across the global South, rural people who are working hard, farming the ingredients that we know and love, feeding a large population of the world. In fact, I think about 70%, but also protecting the Earth's resilience through things like biodiversity and their knowledge of nature is something that Efad recognizes as a tool. In fact, Efad doesn't just see them at the margins of the problem, they are at the center of the problem. They are also the solution. And we have a really exciting panel today. As you can see, we have very cool guests with us that I feel very humbled and honored to introduce. We have Alice Roosa, who's the president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, which is Agra, as you might know it, as Alice is the president of the Alliance for the Green Revolution, but she also works closely with smallholder farmers and governments to strengthen food security, resilience and nutrition across the continent. If we can just give a round of applause for Alice. We also have Ermin Beton, who's a chief sustainability and corporate affairs officer of Flora food Group in the Netherlands. He is guiding a global organization operating in more than 100 countries. Flora food Group has undergone successful transformation to become a culinary driven company anchored in a clear purpose culinary essentials for better food. Please. A round of applause. We also have new farmer Manzo. She's a global shaper of Kaduna Hub and Farm Matrix in Nigeria. She is working at the intersection of agriculture, technology and youth led innovation in rural communities. Round of applause please. Christian Frutiger, who's the vice sorry vice director general head of thematic cooperation, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, SDC and Christian is leading thematic cooperation focusing on science, innovation and partnerships to support sustainable development globally. Thank you Christian. And we also have Sam Cass who's a partner at Acre Venture Partners USA. He's also a young global leader. Sam is working on culture, public health, sustainable investment from farms all the way to our plates. He's an amazing chef. He also recently published a new book called The Last Supper, which looks at how today's food choices are shaping health, climate and future. And I'm going to start with yourself, Alice. Oh, can I get a round of applause for Sam, please? How could I do that to you? Sam?
Leave me out.
Me and Sam have a bit of. a Alice. Can I please start with yourself? I'd love to ask you. From your work with smallholder farmers, how are climate shocks and market pressures affecting food security today?
Thank you very much for that question and I'm pleased to be here. This is my first Davos and I'm looking forward to coming back. So climate shocks have such a domino effect. You know they are not just one happening. When when one climate shock happens it triggers hunger water scarcity, economic breakdown and long term development reversals. And I'll give you an example. In 20 2324 we had El Nino. El Nino is a drought that occurred in southern Africa. In Zambia, maize production dropped by 53%. 1 million hectares affected flooding. Intensive flooding in West Africa same time caused destroyed harvests. Food prices go higher and they become. The food becomes unaffordable for families who spend at least 60 to 70% of their income on food and then water scarcity, families walking hours for water, rising water borne diseases, malnutrition, energy collapse because we have hydropower energy. So really climate when climate when we have one issue in climate, it affects everybody. So I want to give you an example from a place called Kaduna, where she's from in Nigeria, and it's known for dry spells and erratic rainfalls and weak extension systems. And this farmer called Amina, the 34 year old farmer who had never farmed rice independently due to cost, risk and social barriers. We at Agra worked with the state authorities and system actors to address this constraint. We through our support, Amina accessed 400 $400 worth of inputs and bundled with advisory services. She received help from our village based advisors, who are extension systems on soil health, on climate adaptation and on seed use. And as a result, someone who had never farmed now had 14 bags of rice from half a hectare, doubling historical yields. She got some income stability and her experience reflects a broader shift that we are doing that when you support women, when you support people like this, they thrive.
Well then, interesting. I think I know the answer that you're going to give to this question is, what do you think is the biggest investment that we can have? What has the biggest impact in return in rural resilience?
You know, I was going to say women, I was going to say women, but actually I'm going to talk about school feeding. Because think about it. Africa is got at least 70% of its population under the age of 22. We are the only continent that that is going to have a population growth. And therefore we have a demographic dividend. We can provide the world with labor, with skilled labor. But the only way to do that is if we make sure that our children are feeding on healthy food. And so with school feeding, you are addressing nutrition, you're addressing stunting levels. You're addressing the, the, the, your you know that you're going to have you're going to those those children will grow and they will become the labor force of the future. And we have several examples which I can share around what we've done in Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi, where we've directly intervened in school feeding programs by providing biofortified crops like vitamin A, enriched maize, like high iron beans, delivering through those school meals so that the children are getting more efficient, more, more nutrient nutritious food.
Now, I think that's really important. I actually remember going in a field visit early on and speaking to the community about why the children had stopped going to school, and it was because they didn't have school meals at that school. It is absolutely crucial. I agree.
It has been a game changer because even for the children who don't go to school, who live near the school.
Yeah.
When that bell rings, everybody eats. It's so special.
No, it is special. Thank you for that. Ermin. If I can then jump to you. I actually want to ask from a global supply chain perspective, how are we going to align consumer preferences with farmers and create food systems that are affordable, but I think also accessible?
Thank you. Thanks for the question. Thanks for having me here. It's not my first Davos. It's my 17th, but it is my first panel discussions. I managed to be here for so many years and not be on the panel. But it's great to have that.
This is your first panel.
Yeah, absolutely.
I.
I mean, it's.
Like, are.
You surprised? How did it happen?
Yeah.
What did he do?
So I was not expecting a lot of response to this question anyway to come back I represent the Flora food group. And you know, we are more than 150 years old. We were founded in somewhere in the 19th century. The company at least started, you know, to address the malnutrition issue in Europe by inventing a alternative to butter. And we've always looked at people first. So I also believe in many discussions we've had in Davos, and I've participated in many discussions on the panel. We always talk about from farm to fork. It's been a staple, no pun intended, in these conversations. I also like to look at the other way around. So start with the fork and work your way back to the farm, because food really can only contribute to something if it's actually being consumed. So that's why we start with the consumer. We look at their needs, and then we work our way back in the value chain. Our products are spreads, creams and liquids. These are not products that are intended for use or consumption in isolation. Right. We're not an ice cream manufacturer. If you come home you want to watch a Netflix movie, you're not going to walk to the fridge, get a tub of Country Crock and empty it. That's not what our products are about. You could you could do it, but I would not recommend. Our products are used to make better food, to make meals as a cooking ingredient. And because our products are in mostly about fat and especially about unsaturated fat, it also helps you to absorb these vitamins in school feedings and whatnot. So we started with that. But since that, our products are not meant to be consumed in isolation, it also means that change and progress is not done by just us. We collaborate throughout the supply chain. We start with the farmer all the way through the retailer, where the people who buy our products go to to make sure that indeed it is first and foremost needs to be tasty. If it's not tasty, people won't buy it and then it needs to be affordable. And of course, it needs to be nutritious and preferably natural as well. If it all meets these four components. And by the way, more sustainable is a, you know, another one, but it's not something that consumers immediately will pay more money for. Nevertheless, it is important. And that's also why we look at the carbon impact of our products.
And would you consider that inclusive innovation?
We try to and especially when we work with farmers like we we grow, we buy canola, for instance, in East Africa, we work with farmers there on the ground to make sure that first of all, they get a fair price. But second of all, that they are able to invest in their future and also make sure that their farms and their lands stay resilient. So we work with various projects on what some people call regenerative agriculture. I prefer to say more sustainable way of farming to ensure that those crops are available and affordable, but also provide a good income for the farmer. That's indeed where it starts with, but it should go all the way to the plate because also the the average family in Europe, for instance, is 80 to €100 a week to spend on food for a family of four. That's not a lot of money. So our audience are hardworking moms and dads in all these countries that also don't have a lot of money to buy, so it's all trade offs and balances. But I think if you work together, it can be managed.
Yeah. And I think it's interesting what you said about, you know, consumers maybe not necessarily picking out the sustainable item at first, but how do you approach the education on that. Are you educating your consumers on that?
We are educating indirectly. So for instance, we've built a large network of nutritionists. We started in North America. We're expanding this to Europe to educate them on the role of fats in the diet. We all were grown up with the idea that fats are bad for you, and indeed some fats, like trans fats, are really bad for you. They clog your arteries. But there are other fats, unsaturated fats, or polyunsaturated fats like omega three or omega six that you need for health development. But you just discussed for kids to reach their full potential, right? If you do not have an omega three shortage, as you grow up, you will achieve a much higher IQ can be three 4% points in IQ. That means you know the difference between someone reaching its full potential or not.
As a business owner of someone who has a brand that connects, you know, or tries to maintain a responsible supply chain, you know, in in beauty that's particularly difficult. It's not something that's spoken about, but in food, I would have thought people would have that relation more. And Sam, I'm wondering, do you find that when. Sorry, I'm going a bit rogue here, if you don't mind. I'm just I'm genuinely curious.
Let's do it.
When people are at your dinners learning about the food, do they think green beans on my plate? There's a farmer in Kenya that farmed these, and do they make the connection to people? Because I think it's often lost.
Well, first of all. Hi, everybody. How you guys doing? Good. Thank you guys for coming. I think, I, I think for the average, you know, consumer, I think the answer to that still is no. I think we take our food for granted mostly, certainly in the Western world. I think we assume we'll always have a bounty of food to eat and don't really make the connection that, where it comes from, the soil that it's grown in, the resources it takes and all the hard work and risk, the livelihoods and risks, that is, farmers are taking on every day to ensure that we have sustenance. And I think the, the, the lack of that connection is actually part of is, is one of the cornerstones of why we are in such a tough space. I agree, because if you don't appreciate that and have an understanding about what values we should be supporting, bad outcomes start to happen, both from an environmental standpoint, which we'll get into more, but also a health standpoint. And it's that detachment that is leading to a lot of these, you know, dire health outcomes that we're seeing around the planet.
Yeah. And actually, that's one of the reasons I got into the the climate work that I do through the way of people because I care about people. And if we're not protecting the earth for people, what are we protecting it for? It's definitely not just the global north. Right. And that's a perfect segue actually, to your self. If you don't mind me, I'd love to ask you because you're working with young people in rural areas, what are they experiencing right now? You know, I think we think of climate shocks as something that's happening way in the future where, you know, I was in Zambia a couple of years ago, driving across some fields, asking my driver, oh, had they done some burning here? And he turned around and said, no, it just didn't rain this year. The rain season didn't come, you know. So what are people experiencing right now and particularly young people, but also, I guess, what's shaping their economic choices around agriculture.
Thank you so much. And hello everyone. I. I always like to talk about young people because I feel like they push them by the corner. But yeah, it's that young people are not really scared in rural communities about agriculture or what the economic value looks for them, but what they struggle with are like the risk, the uncertainty and the invisibility that do not that comes with it. About 58% of Nigerians are like young people who are between the age of 15 to 35 years old. And just to put it out there in Nigeria, we are over 230 million people and we are fast growing population with young people at the center of it. And most of these young people live in rural communities. I live in Kaduna. I've been spotlighted now and I'm so excited that, oh, there's a farmer from Canada. I've been noticed here in Davos. Thank you.
But I brought I brought her story to Davos. I know. Yes. Tell her that when.
You go back. Yeah. Thank you so but but there's still a lot of young people who are very passionate about agriculture and, but they are not being spotlighted as much. They're not they're not getting the right support that they should get. I always say I am a story of possibilities. I'm here because people put a bet on me as a young person who is working around their cultural solutions just to put it out there. One of the work that we do at Matrix Agro is to support women and young people by training them on climate smart agriculture, resilient agriculture, providing them with financing like fertilizers and pesticides and also connecting them profitable markets. For for us, I see I see agriculture as a business. Right. But for young people who take is like everywhere right now, people want something that is more profitable for them economically, which is still very okay. So they need more incentives to come into their country.
They need to find it sexy.
Yeah, they need to find it sexy, like people always say do. I do not really fancy that because it doesn't have to be all fancy and sexy, because it's a real value to the economy without we have all it in today, most likely. So. Right. And it takes at least for farmers to put food on your table. And the young people are the strongest workforce now to make that happen. So we need to empower them. We need to de-risk them. We need to make them know that this is, profitable to the economy. So they are not going to be giving Aids and all that and just, oh, just come as a farmer, as a young person, make it look all good and sexy. However, knowing that you have value, they are bringing on the table.
But tech is important to that because it's profit. At the end of the day. You're right, it's not just whether it's appealing or not. It's am I going to make money doing this? And if we can increase yields, increase profit through tech, which, you know, you're already seeing AI do that in agriculture, then it's going to make sense for young people to find it attractive.
Yeah. So we work most of my staff I'm under 30 and and most of the young.
Deserves a round of applause. No big deal.
Young people that I work with. Excellent. And most of the young people, most of my staff. I'm the co-founder. My co-founder is also a young person. And we have about seven people who are young people working in my team, and we use technology, so we are AI driven. We have a platform that we use in onboarding our smallholder farmers, who are over 8000 at the moment, and we are scaling to 20,000, mostly women and young people in northern Nigeria. Right. And one of the things that we bring as incentives for these young people are we are young people building for young people, right? So let's let's show them what is possible using technology, using on the ground knowledge. If you've studied I studied my background is in computer science, by the way, but I don't code. I don't write any line of code. My co-founder does that. But I but yes. So it's that you, you can study computer science, you can be an engineer, but you can still come into the food system space, right? Because the value chain is very big and broad. So young people has a space in between to come in.
That's amazing. And how do you see them or how do you see a dignified future for youth in agriculture?
I think it's just to empower young people. Really? Yeah. They need to see the value. We have a saying in Nigeria that you are the future of tomorrow. The young people are the future of tomorrow. And we always laugh about it and say, we are here now. It's not about tomorrow. We need to fix it now. Right? It's today, it's today. So it's not just tomorrow. So it's to incentivise young people to ensure that they see they see a future. I've seen statistics where young people now jump from sector to sector within five, three years have jumped about three roles other than the older generations that I really do admire, that stay in a particular role for like 20 years, 50 years, putting their heart into something. But that's because I think they saw like an incentive. They saw a future there. So if we can provide those future for them in agriculture, showing what is possible, having people like Agra, other funders or investors investing in young people, investing in technology, in agriculture, a lot of young people would want to stay because I have a lot of friends across the continent who are building amazing solutions, across agricultural value chain. And they're all young people, and they want to be here for a long time.
And I think that doesn't it doesn't get showcased enough. The innovation that is across the system. And maybe it's because it's it's it's not hasn't it's not a lot to see, but there's a lot of young people doing things like you're doing, especially with mobile technology. So we just need to harness that.
Yeah. And on the continent it's particularly interesting. I mean, you see all these facts about, you know, 10 million people entering the workforce under 18 every year. It's the only continent with a growing population. I mean, the numbers will be there. It's you can't avoid it. Right. Christian, if I can turn to you for a second, I really want to ask you, how do farmer economics and public investment intersect? But also, where are their biggest gaps?
Yeah, thanks a lot. And, well, I've been up here a few times, and. I've lost count of the panels.
Sorry.
Shade there a little shade.
A little competitive.
Well, I am really.
No, I'm really happy. You know, the subtitle to this event is Agriculture is back. And I'm really glad to hear that agriculture is back here, here and is being discussed. And it's also being discussed from, a young people perspective, because the fact is that, you know, only 1 in 20 farmers worldwide are under 35. And then you look at, at sub-Saharan Africa and, and you see that, well, 70, 80% of the jobs are still in agriculture, but this is not where young people are going. So, you know, who will be growing the food of the future, who will be growing the cash crops of the future. So if we if we come back to your question, farmers are really good economists. They're really good. And like all investors, public or private, they want to make a decent return and a decent living. It's just. And that there we have the obstacles that they have so many issues to deal with, obstacles ranging from climate change to, really short term needs, that it's difficult for them to invest in the longer in the, in the longer term. So some of the big gaps and, one of those which is really often neglected, which one of the major ones is land tenure. You know, if farmers don't own the land or have no land security, they're not going to invest. They just try to sort of make a make a, make a living. And when investments from outside are coming or from governments, so public or private investments, they have to be done responsibly in a way that does not affect the land tenure of the farmers and the capability of the farmers to produce. There are guidelines of the World Committee on Food Security on all this. Unfortunately, they're not really, applied, when investments are are done. So we have a with the Swiss Development Agency, a big project in the Mekong River Delta, which is basically on land governance and really trying to sort these things out. Then another, another area. You said innovation, research and development, R&D. You know, science, matters and it helps. But what we would call slow magic and slow magic is really difficult to do in a high paced time. So there are a few organizations, that, that do that, like the Cgiar, do the longer term research and then, then roll it out. So for us public donors. But I would also encourage private donors to really, you know, look at the slow magic, because the slow magic is going to be needed very fast. If you look at South Asia, wheat, is reaching a tipping point. It cannot prosper at 45 centigrade. So solutions have to be found really, really, really quickly. And then the last point is this whole question on food crops versus cash crops. Yes, food needs to be grown. But farmers need to make a living. And there is one big issue there. And I keep on coming across this in many places in sub-Saharan sub-Saharan Africa that everybody is basically working for export, where the real issue is local production, local processing for local markets, for local consumption and nutritious consumption. And when you sort of look a bit more closely, nobody's investing in nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa. So we have together with, with gain a fund, a debt fund. So it's an open ended debt fund which is called N3 f so nutritious, food financing facility, that tries to do exactly that. But if you look for other nutrition investment funds, they just don't exist. So anybody who is interested in that, please have a look. And, you know, there's a there's a lot of space there.
I also think what you said about land is particularly interesting for societies that have issues around land rights for women, for instance. And it just goes to show that a unique, tailored approach needs to happen at the community level, per community. You know, there might not be a one size fits all solution, but also maybe one of the challenges is that, you know, when food systems, when there's a climate shock or conflict, is when we start looking at them as an economic or a political issue, but really it's an ongoing economic issue, right? We hear about public private partnerships all the time. I wonder what you think their greatest value is.
I'd say two, two points. The first is, is, really identifying roadblocks to investment and then remove them when you basically get the public, the private actors together, the farmers, who are on the ground, the women who actually do the farming, because that's the reality, is that the majority.
Of the farmers, for what it is.
Actually actually doing this are women. And then look at, look at, at roadblocks. And that can really help, very fast. For example, if you look at, you know, irrigation protocols, very often, you can irrigate way less and have a much better yield. But there you need an intervention at the local, national government level in agricultural schools. And you basically have to help the farmers change the practice, because you have to demonstrate because those they won't invest in the long term. So you have to demonstrate, look, this actually works. And and then they will, they will come with you or help them or you help them with, with investment. The other, the other, advantage or the other big area for public private partnerships is really catalyze is de-risk, catalyze investment and catalyze investments into local markets. Access to finance. For the moment you get over the microfinance piece, it's close to impossible. And this is also why there is no local, or very little local processing, because for small and medium sized enterprises that transform the food, your, your your you and your, your friends grow, they just they just cannot grow. They cannot they cannot access finance. They have to access finance at commercial rates, which basically ruins them before they get anywhere.
Right?
No, that's a great way to put it.
Public finance is good. You know the risks. It's the one that can do that. It's the only one that can play that role. Because private private finance will always look for a return. So if we can convince our governments and other public finance to remove some of those roadblocks so that private sector can invest, it would the system would work. Yes.
Sam, can I jump to you, please? I'd love to to from from a care perspective, you know, and when we're looking at the plate backwards, which ingredients are production systems would you say are the most under most strain? But I think the reason I'm really asking you that is why should people care?
Yeah.
You know, I think I think a lot of times we hear the words climate change and that doesn't necessarily sound so bad or two degrees warming. You know, I'm from Chicago. That sounds good being here. That sounds like a good thing. I'm like, let's warm it up. Can we do five degrees? And I don't think we've done a good job at helping people understand what's really at stake. And what's really at stake is our way of life fundamentally, as as human beings. And I first did a dinner, at Cop21, called the Last Supper, entitled The Last Supper of all the ingredients that at the time, I thought that our kids and grandkids weren't going to be able to have. And this is a long list of, like, coffee, wine, chocolate. And just right there, it's like, what else do you need to know? Coffee, wine and chocolate. We should be like, in the streets, like changing this.
Yeah.
But it's a long list. Shellfish, crustaceans, nuts of all kinds. Really. If you're a tree, you're in a lot of trouble. Because what we're seeing is a mass migration of plants and animals north and south because of warming. The thing that I got totally wrong, or that's increasingly changed since that dinner ten years ago, is that it's actually happening right now. This is not a future state. I give a couple examples, but I could take up the rest of the time going through different crops. I'll give two sides of the equation. Chocolate, for example, is being decimated. Last year, chocolate prices were up over 200% last year because of extreme heat and drought and every bite. And now we are in, you know, one of the chocolate, havens of the world. But every bite of chocolate that we eat basically comes from smallholder growers from about ten, ten degrees of the equator.
It's five above and five below.
Five above.
Five below. And so, those that crop, when you project out to the future, most of the areas that are currently growing chocolate and coffee, by the way, is the same. Unlikely be able to support consistent, chocolate production, which means those trees have to move, but they don't walk very well. And the implications for those communities and the people who have their livelihoods wrapped up in one of the most delicious things one can eat are really at stake. So there's you can go through wine is wine is moving to the French, are buying land in England to make champagne. And, you know, things are really messed up when the French are buying land in England to make champagne. That's like emergency alarm bell.
Like.
What else do you got to say? But then we started to get to the big commodities, and, and when you start to project out to 20, 40, 2050 and beyond, that's when it starts to get actually pretty scary. I'll just take rice. But we could talk about wheat. We can talk about corn and soy. Rice, depending on where you are in the world. The estimates vary pretty widely, but we're looking at somewhere between a 10 to 40% reduction in average yields. And that doesn't take into account with extreme weather events regionally. We're going to see total collapses or large collapses of a, of a of a harvest year over year. So it's like an overall decline with a lot more volatility and disruption in between 3.5 billion people rely on rice every day to eat. And so when you start to think about as yields decline, that means prices are going to go up. And we are already dealing with hunger and food insecurity and malnutrition on a level that is completely unacceptable in 2026. That's only going to get much worse. And as you see some dramatic declines, you're going to see forced migration, more political instability, more food insecurity and conflict as a result. And when you deal with those big commodities, it's on a scale that is really hard, honestly, to comprehend the implications of that. And so if we don't start to do much greater work to reduce the overall footprint of, of, of the globe, but also start preparing our food systems to adapt and be much more resilient. We basically have all our eggs in a couple baskets. Almost everything we eat comes from 12 plants and five animals over 70% of our calories. If you're an investor, you would never just put $1 trillion in a couple stocks and hope it works. We have basically done that for our food system, because we've created a system that came out of basically the most stable 10,000 years of of weather in the history of the globe. We just got really lucky for real. It's been like super calm compared to the history of the planet. And we've had natural resources of water and soil that have been super plentiful. But now we're entering an age of extreme volatility with not enough nowhere near enough water, and our soil resources have been replenished, depleted. And so we have to do a lot of work to prepare the system for the future that we find ourselves in.
Well, let's talk about what.
We can do us in this room, what chefs can do, what investors can do. How do we shift demand towards those sustainable systems?
Back to me. Yeah.
Nice picking on you.
So I think, So I yeah, I think, I think it has to start with culture. You know, I spent six years in the white House working on food policy. Now, I have to say, in the Obama White House.
Better qualify.
That and.
Just be very clear.
You better qualify that.
And.
And I ran food policy, and I was also there, chef. So I had both sort of sides of the equation. I'll tell one quick story to sort of show what's underpinning this. So I'm running the first lady's big health campaign. It's like a kind of a big deal. She's like, I want real results and let's make this happen. And it's better be perfect. But there was a policy in the white House of giving out free soda. And it was like the one perk you got, you didn't make very much money and you worked your butt off all day long and you got, you couldn't take anything. We took no perks. But from a tradition long ago you got free soda. But I was like, we can't, it's Michelle's. She's got a huge health initiative. I can't give out free soda. We're going to get creamed in the press. So I talked to her and she was like, yeah, we got to get rid of that. And I was like, okay, cool, we're getting rid of it. So I went and told the, the cafeteria, it's called the Navy mess. We got to get rid of the soda. And I tell the, the chief of staff and the deputy chief of staff, by the way, there's a new policy because we just can't be exposed like this. And they were like, what did you say? I was like, yeah, we can't. They're like, over my dead body. And they were like, this is, this is who we are. This is my ritual. Like, so every day I get my coke. You're not taking it away from me. I was like, come on, like we. What are you talking about? You just have to pay for it. It'll be there, but you got to pay for it. Within like two days, she had organized the entire West Wing. And as I would walk down the halls, they'd be like, you're not really going to do that, are you? And what I realized is. And so then it ended up getting to the president, and he comes in as I'm cooking and he's like, hey, man. And it was like the economy was collapsing. You know, he was dealing with all this, all this stuff. And he's like, hey, man, listen, I just I can't take this one on right now, man.
Like.
People are freaking out and like, I just we got to let him drink the coke. Okay? But what I realized was, was that that one food product had become a real ritual. It had become what people would do to gather at 3:00, take a little break, do something good for themselves. Interact socially with each other. And for some, it was an identity. Like the deputy chief of staff who. I cleaned the story up. It was actually a lot more intense with some vulgarity. It was really her identity. Like you never saw her without a can of this, and it was really who she was. And what I realized was that top down decisions and policies don't work. We are all experts. We all eat multiple times a day. It is who we are. It is how we understand who we are not. It's how we show love to each other and how we show love to our children. And so if you want to change fundamentally what we eat, we have to really change what we value as a culture. And right now, we're not valuing our nourishment. We're not valuing the planet that feeds us. We're not valuing the people who are producing it. And so it's easy to say these policymakers need to change or these companies are bad. But the underpinning that shapes those decisions we skip over. And that's the hard, slow, difficult work, that underpins all the other change. And so I think that's the foundation of it.
Yeah.
But I have an example also about charcoal. We, we wanted to get rid of charcoal. Yeah. It's causing deforestation. And we talked to this community which said no, our food, the food we eat here can only be cooked with charcoal. The taste is different. You cannot put it on on anything else. So the solution had we had to find, we had to come up with a trees, but planting trees only for charcoal so that we'd stop them from cutting down the indigenous trees and planting the eucalyptus, which they could use for so that they could continue using charcoal for them. That particular food, called matoke in Uganda, where I come from, can only taste better with charcoal.
I bet it does taste good though.
Yeah, I can't.
I can't. Fantastic, it's fantastic.
Especially when you put in banana leaves. It's very good.
Beautiful because you're getting hungry now. Yeah. But it is a.
Bit hard sometimes, Sam, to fight the marketing machine of the foods that, you know, like, I mean, I find myself, I'm such a bad eater. Like, I'm really bad, and I.
You buying that? Nobody. You think nobody is buying it?
Thanks, guys.
I really am. I don't know, I eat like a six year old with money. Like it's not. It's not.
Good, but.
I, I genuinely think it's a conspiracy. They're working against me. All the things that are terrible for me just tastes so good and they're so addictive. And we had a conversation Christian on the way here about I just had an epiphany when you said foods are meant to fulfill three buckets. I should let you say them because I don't even fully see this. This is how much of a six year old I am right now. I can't even remember what.
Three buckets.
It's supposed to do for me, but it was to feed your brain.
It's support your brain.
Support your brain.
Feed your gut.
Feed your gut.
Protect the liver.
And at the same time. Now guess how much processed food does that?
Zero.
Never.
Yeah.
And that's like, that's me in a Lay's chips bag. Like that's me. But you're doing.
Really well.
I know, thank you I don't know, it's the height genes. So, you know, it is we're fighting against a bit of a machine and maybe then it's that change of culture, but also the collaboration from the industry.
Yeah, I think.
That's right. I mean, I think, I think we as advocates are trying to make a change, though, have made some real mistakes, like, you know, we try to say you should eat this way. It has vitamin A and fiber. It's really good for you. And they're like love, sex and happiness.
They're like. drink this.
Be the sexy man or woman, get the sexy partner. Live a great life. And it's like love, sex and happiness beats fiber and vitamin B every day.
Yeah.
And what the difference is, is, like, we are speaking to people's heads and they're speaking to people's hearts, and it's emotional connection that actually helps lead to changing behavior. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't still do some work to help people understand the relationship to their brain and their guts and what. But in the end, if you're not connecting with people in an emotional food is emotional. Yeah. Like reminds us of our the thing, the combination of things that happen in your brain that will most likely make you lead to a different food decision is a memory response plus an emotional one? Yeah. So it's like I connect with this and it triggers some sort of recollection of my childhood. That's what we'll get you to make a different decision. So we have to start getting much more sophisticated, and go to people's hearts and connect emotionally, because that is how food, that's how we interact with it.
Good point. And so much so that we ignore. Time and I was like, oh my God, they're not. Wait. Neither elephants or rhinos or all these massive animals. And I'm like, I need to put on muscle. I'm going to how many grams of chicken and whatever do I, you know, it's just we ignore the obvious in the world for that emotion. And maybe that's the beauty and catastrophe of human.
Just needs to be directed in a better way.
Yeah. I want to open up the room to some audience questions, but I also want to remind people, and I hope you do have questions, because I think, how often do we get to be in a room with these amazing people? But I want to remind people it's for questions, not necessarily for like remarks or introductions, but there could be a little bit of that. Does anyone have any questions? Yeah, we've got lots.
Lots of questions. Love that.
Yeah. Should we go here in the front row first? They're coming around with the microphone.
Thank you. Thank you for each of you, for your contributions to this beautiful session. Should I introduce myself, please? Okay, so I'm tuna. Tuna akat from Istanbul, Turkey. And I'm the, like, the founder of youth driven, strategic energy platform. And as a, like a really young individual myself and who is interested in diplomacy, I really wonder that as agriculture evolves under climate and resource pressures, how can youth led climate diplomacy and also youth led, zero waste agricultural models or policies be used not only for sustainability, but also to strengthen food security and regional cooperation? Thank you.
Can I pass that question to you?
Yeah, yeah. Would you like.
Who wants that? That's a big question.
It's a big question.
Sounded to me like, so you're thinking, you know, Fridays for the future. That's youth climate diplomacy.
Yeah. I feel like if I'm if you're happy to answer.
Okay. Yeah, that's a very good question.
By the implementation of like, youth in the policy making processes.
Youth in the policy making.
Process culture also sustainability also zero waste. You can also say.
It's important.
Okay. Thank you so much for the question. I'll try as much as I can to answer that. And for one, I will say co-creating with young people who are building solutions on the ground, for policy makers on the other side, I had a session earlier where I was moderating and I said, this is very important for the policy makers, the government, to be able to co-create solutions and policies that concerns entrepreneurs, businesses, not just agripreneurs, but like social enterprise or anyone on the ground doing businesses because they need those policies to be implemented. However, there are the other the other hand, making these policies, these people are the ones being, held accountable for these policies. They are the ones that are going to suffer for them if it has to be, or the ones that are going to make their businesses better. So it's co-creating with the policy makers, with the entrepreneurs to make policies better for someone else.
I can also add, I mean, we so we Agra has a partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. In fact, it is the largest partnership that we have in creating jobs for youth in this particular sector, the agri food sector. And we've looked at it in two ways. One is to directly create those jobs on the ground, but the other one is to create the policies that can support those jobs. Because really, for them to be lasting, you have to have policies. So we've worked, for example, with the African Union to make sure that the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Policy has a very youth specific enabler. So there's policies there that enable youth. And I think, like she says, making sure that every policy that exists has a special place for a special a special provision for youth. It helps. And in Africa, this is so important because this is the population. This is the population that we have. So we know that we want to to create youth agripreneurs that's what we call them.
Nice.
Yeah. Agripreneurs. And because the average age of a farmer who was was talking about that, it's almost 60, 70. So these are the farmers of for us for the future. And we need to give them the policies. Yeah, yeah.
The other just to that question, it's actually not so it's a really important question. But the the solutions are not so complicated. It's to have also to have youth led, you know, movements at the table where policies are discussed, be that at the local level, regional level, national level and the global level, if we look, if I look out here into the room, you know, the the average attendance is actually intergenerational, but there are many more young people than in the, in the in the conference, in the conference center.
We're very happy here too.
So much happier. Are you having to say.
I do think it's the same. It's the same in the, in the, in the international multilateral system. So it is so keep on insisting and it is our job also to, to, to help you have a seat at the table because that is absolutely central, for, for for the future.
I'll just add one real thing. Just the this the answer to your question will be very different in different countries. Right. But the foundation of it will always be about organizing young people, getting a collective voice, identifying like the key priorities that you think are important, and organizing as many people around. The more people you have starting to align in different organizations and different youth groups, because food is one that no matter what you're working on, health care, women's rights, water, climate, food underpins all of these things. So there's a there's an ability to use food to try to bring an agenda together amongst even groups that are working on very different issues education, health care and, and have those set of priorities. The the more voices you have behind it, the more power you'll have to get a seat at the table. And and that is foundational no matter where you are or what you're working on. If it's just a few we had, we're in the white House and people like one person called, you're like, okay, that was but somebody calls representing like 20 million people. You're like listening. You're like, I'm okay, I'm really sorry. We'll change that. Right. And so that's that's the foundation of I think that that voice and that reach is the foundation of that power.
Thank you for that question. And thank you for the answers, guys. All right. I just want to I'll come back to the front, but there's someone in the back hand really held up high.
He has a height advantage.
Yes.
Yeah. You.
Yeah. Just there. Thank you. Bad being the one picking.
Oh my God.
Thank you so much. My name is Mohammad Arif from Jakarta, Indonesia. You know, obviously in times of normalcy, we're able to balance, countries are able to balance, food self-sufficiency with the benefits of global trade and so forth. But, you know, with, with, with experiences during Covid when we experience vaccine nationalism, when things get tough, you know, food nationalism can arise. How can we, you know, what sort of framework globally can we deploy in order to avoid this? Thank you.
Alice, do you have any thoughts there?
Maybe. Can you repeat it one more time? Sorry, sorry about that.
No, I was saying that in times of normalcy, countries can actually benefit or balance between food self-sufficiency with global trade and cooperation. But when we experience what we experienced during Covid, when we experience vaccine nationalism, when the going gets tough, food nationalism could also happen. How could we avoid this? And what sort of international framework can we deploy to avoid it? Thank you.
Yeah. I think. So. Coming from a continent like Africa, where we do not quite have the self-sufficiency, we have we quite we depend on each other. We we will. You know, whether Mali will import rice from Burkina Faso or we actually do a lot of of, exchange of food. So, I don't think we will have. Yes, I agree with you in terms of, for example, during Covid, the borders actually closed, so they actually couldn't have been any movement of food. In fact, in many places, urban, even though they're moving from urban to rural, was hard that we had we came up there was a lot of urban agriculture that that that mushroomed because of that time, because a lot of they had to feed the cities. I think there's enough, of course, in terms of food policy to deal with this in the Committee on World Food Security. There's a lot of work there. There's a lot of work on the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development that also looks at this. So I think we do have the measures to to do this and, and to control having that kind of vaccine nationalism. But I think the bigger issue is that we actually do not have food self-sufficiency. I that for me is the point. We don't have it. And we need we need to work towards self-sufficiency. At least in Africa, where I come from, we do need to work towards self-sufficiency. But right now we we depend. Our import bill for food is is very, very high and we're working very much on productivity to reduce that, that to increase our sufficiency. And another thing we do in Africa also is we, we recognize the food baskets. So one of the things we're thinking about is southern Africa, for example, is a maize producer. West Africa is a big rice producer. So we want to be able to create food corridors that connect rice producing, places that need rice to the places that produce rice and the places that. So we like to have that. And so the movement is the corridors and the movement the corridors is to our advantage and and our policies on corridors and our policies on intra-africa trade are also important to remove that that self that the protectionism that you're talking about.
Yeah definitely. Dependency is definitely part of the problem. But you also don't want food rotting, rotting at borders. You don't because you know all the days it needs to wait. Kristen do you have anything to say on this I wonder?
Well, a lot, but I there are many more questions.
More questions instead.
Does anyone want to say anything else or should I jump to.
I think keep going. There's a lot of hands.
Oh my God, we're multiplying. Okay, can we come back to the front? Because I promised the young girl here in the glasses.
Hello. Hi, my name is Najwa. I'm from India. So sorry. Yeah. Lovely panel. And it's funny, and I'm very happy to be here, but, so you're talking a lot about agriculture yielding and how to improve and how to, like, include everyone. But, my question is more focused on food waste because there are like 1 billion ton food waste annually and it's like 20% of what consumers need. And there is also like these food waste produce 8 to 10% of greenhouse gases, which is also bad for us. And on the other side, there is world hunger and malnutrition, which is like a huge problem. So my question is like how what are the major roadblocks and how can we reduce this gap.
For the for reducing food waste in general? Yes. Do you have something.
To say on this?
Yeah. I mean I think there's a, there's, there's, depending on where we are, the food waste is being derived from different different sectors. You know, a lot of the work you're doing is to reduce that because a lot of the problems is storage, storage or processing cold storage, especially after it's harvest. So there's a lot of post-harvest loss. So in many in many nations, investment in that key infrastructure it there's people at home. They're not wasting food in most of the countries you're doing. They're not throwing tons of food away. But it's being lost from that farm getting to to those consumers because people just don't have money to throw in the garbage. Right. In the West, it's a totally different problem. We're not wasting. There's not much challenge from from field through the processing. There's some, but actually there's a lot of progress been made. It's pretty impressive about how efficient that part is, is when it gets to us and it goes back to those values and the lack of understanding and connection to the food, where it comes from, what it takes to produce it, and the cost and and the livelihood that stake that we just over by and over, you know, and don't care about the implications. And so I think there's like some there's a cultural shift that needs to happen. It needs to be seen as like a just disgusting, gross, like uncool thing to do to throw food away. But we also have to I think one thing I think we could do is like restructure the fridge, because right now in most countries, it's like you put the vegetables in the bottom bin and then like, you know, day four, you're like, oh, that's starting to look a little bad. And you just kind of close it. And then by day five it's gone. And then you're just throwing food away.
Really.
Good point. And because in the end and this goes back to the marketing challenge we were talking about, in the end, we eat what we see. Yeah. And that's why.
From LG here I should be.
Your we.
Should cut a deal.
Yeah. Right.
Yeah. But but I mean, the reason you, like, want the bag of chips is because you saw the ad that says chips and you're like, oh, I love chips. So you didn't want chips. You saw the chips that made you want the chips the same as in your fridge. If you see the food and you're like, oh, right. But right when it's down here, you kind of forget about it. That has a huge impact on what we consume. So I think we have to think holistically depending on where we are. But it's all going to get started with a cultural decision that says like, this is no longer acceptable because of all the reasons you pointed out.
I mean, my mom literally would always say there are children starving for your meal. Listen to our moms.
If we just if we go back to the post-harvest losses, they can be reduced, right? Yes. Storage, transport, transportation, all of that. But then again, also local processing because whatever does not go into the global value chains then goes local, in bulk markets. But local processing can be done with relatively simple means, and it drastically reduces than than food waste. And it gives access to nutritious food locally in local markets.
Just like just today. Okay. So just to add to what you said about like the post-harvest losses in like rural communities, for us, it's capacity to build capacity on understanding what to grow, how to grow, and for who we are growing for. Right. Because we are currently experiencing about 40% post-harvest losses even in rural communities. And these are because all storage solutions. Yes, part of it. However, people are growing things not for the demand side, which is very important. So we need to block the gap for the demand to overtake these things, but not just produce because you like it or it looks good, but to have the right knowledge on what to grow and for who to grow. So if we can also bridge that gap, which we do at pharmetrix providing knowledge for these farmers, giving them data driven, insights on this is the right time to grow this thing. This is the weather you need to grow. So we have two seasons in Nigeria, dry season and wet season. So wet season. What are you growing? What is the market demanding? Dry season. What is the market demanding? Would also help bridge the the gap for post-harvest losses.
Really important point.
Shall we move on to another question.
Thank.
So here.
So thank you so much for the great panel. My name is Blerta. I'm from Kosovo originally. Even that my background is not so much in agricultural, but I really would like to make link with my area question. So maybe this will be kind of interesting and having a much clearer understanding from my view. So as we thought and as we are seeing right now that, agriculture, agricultural evolution is increasing and shaping by the AI and especially for the farming and the biotechnology. I would like to know from your thoughts of you and from your experience as well, how can global leaders balance this innovation and efficiency with equity, ensuring that the smallholder farmers can develop all of their regions and not left behind the new agricultural paradigm? Thank you.
Good question.
And that it's not extractive or exploitive.
Who wants to answer that one. Yeah.
So we try to innovate in our product. We build in the Netherlands and I keep on repeating it to the the Dutch government. We built a R&D center with zero state support. We just did it ourselves. And we we have 160 scientists there, working every day on finding better solutions for the products that we do, sometimes with the help of AI, sometimes with the help of biotechnology, also works our way back into it. So we do a lot of development days with suppliers to us, for instance, and we try to jointly develop possible solutions. We're also trying to look at new crops, for instance, because there's a lot of monocrops that have alluded to it. Like are there perhaps in Africa, indigenous crops to find that could bring the same oils with or even better Ala content, which, you know, your body breaks down into omega three, for instance. And I think therefore it's also crucial. And then coming back to the public private partnerships here that, you know, especially smallholder farmers are empowered to not miss that train because it's so easy as a global Western company, just, you know, drive on it. But, you know, to the earlier question about food nationalism, we we produce local for local. So we don't ship things all around the world. So we buy from local farms, we process it locally. So also therefore trying to reduce as much waste as possible. But it means that that innovation that we then develop in beautiful Wageningen, Netherlands, try to pronounce Wageningen, which is, you know, sometimes referred to as the Silicon Valley of food. It's really where the whole ecosystem comes. And a lot of students from Africa come to, to learn. That's another part of innovation, I think that is so crucial for, you know, everyone to have access to. And I think this is also where development agencies can play quite a big role. And I wanted to make one point on the earlier point, if you don't mind about farming and about, you know, young people want to want to become a farmer. In my early teens, I had the privilege of helping out on a dairy farm near my grandmother's. And, you know, it was fantastic. Loved it. Farming is a fantastic, noble profession. The problem is that, you know, in Africa in particular, we take urbanization pretty much for granted, right? It's oh, urbanization happening. All these cities, especially in Nigeria, like all these booming. But what happens when that when someone moves to a city, they decide that being a farmer is not their future. Right. And what happens is you lose a food consumer, a producer, and you gain a food consumer. So you create an extra gap. And also there I think in terms of de-risking, I would love to see from development agencies and maybe philanthropy, also try to give farmers a guaranteed minimum price for their crops over a longer period of time. That allows them to invest in the equipment that they need in storage, in infrastructure, all that stuff. Because the thing is, we want to really change the food system and we need to because it's broken. It's completely broken, but it's doable. By combining consumer needs. We have a lot of knowledge in there. That's great. Respecting planetary boundaries. I think Sam alluded, you know, a lot to that. But also looking at farmer livelihoods, if those three don't go together, we won't solve it.
Yeah that's a good point.
Traditional knowledge as well I think we we always think all the solutions should come from university. But they are they are local solutions. There are some traditional solutions that are still there's some innovation there. I think we need to bring it local knowledge. We need to bring more of that.
And.
Localize, localize, localize.
I yeah.
You know, local languages, local realities, local, local traditional knowledge and their fabulous young people in the digital Savannah who are actually working on this. And we should we should support them.
Yeah. Not designed for them. Designed with them.
Yes.
So Digital Savannah in East.
Africa and buy them in Kenya's iHub and everywhere else. Yes.
Okay.
Can I come to yourself in the back? Yes. Oh, sorry. Just behind. Sorry. I'm not sure we'll fit everyone in. Guys, we don't have too much time left.
Yeah, thank you very much. Agriculture is back. It's very good. But it's only. We are only the public forum here. I have no clue what's happening in the main rooms, whether it's also a focus topic there. I'm Renate Hahn. I've been an EU official, an EU diplomat, for a long time. I worked also on the preparation of the UN Food System Summit and the follow up event one. One theme that we haven't discussed here, and I wanted to hear your views on that. 80% of the global subsidies going into agriculture are promoting the production of five crops rice, soy, wheat, sugar, corn. These five crops are also responsible for overweight and obesity, which is also a malnutrition theme and probably currently greater than Undernourishment. What would happen? What could be the benefits if these subsidies were either dropped or redirected? What would what impact would that have on science, on production, on the variety of crops that would then actually also be perhaps more climate friendly in the production in the future?
Thank you.
Should I take that, please?
I think it's a great question. I think my answer is two part. Also, like, you know, any when you're talking about the world, there's a lot of nuance difference between the EU, the America global South, whatever. But I will say that it obviously makes no sense to be subsidizing, crops that do not align with the dietary guidelines, the health recommendations that governments are putting out. So it's an inherent and very deep contradiction. My experience is you're not just going to take them away. And, you know, there is a big system that is well in place. But I will say that most parts of the world, certainly in the United States and in Europe, farmers and eaters, are not making decisions because of the subsidies. A lot of the difference in it's a very it's a wildly oversimplistic narrative that government subsidizes this, which is why I'm eating a double cheeseburger. It's actually unfortunate. It would be wonderful if that were the case, because that's actually something you can just focus on and solve over time. I think it's bad policy, but I don't think we need to be careful not to overstate the impact that it's having in the United States. For example, when I went into the white House, I was like, all right, I'm going to change subsidies, and everything's going to be great, because that was the narrative I was given. And basically I had one economist, economists say if you got rid of them, you would change maybe 1% of acreage grown in the United States because you have very mature ecosystem set up around these crops and big markets. I think that money can be used to incentivize different behaviors, however, particularly around sustainability and and regenerative agriculture and climate smart agriculture. I think the big difference that we really see is those crops have gotten billions of dollars over decades around how to grow them much more efficiently. So productivity on a per acre basis is, is incredible. Whereas things that are nourishing us fruits, vegetables, other whole grains have gotten statistically no dollars in comparison to those crops you mentioned. And that's really why they're cheaper, and that's why they end up supplying so much of our calories. So finding ways to innovate and bring down the cost of those more nutrient dense foods, and using those subsidies to start incentivizing more sustainable, healthier practices, I think is going to be the only path forward. And it will be incremental. It will be through things like crop insurance right now, crop insurance, if you, you know, stop using certain chemicals, you can't get insurance. Or if you start growing certain other crops, you can't get insurance, like so there's a big problem there. So policy is important. But I found that it can be overstated as sort of like the silver bullet that can solve everything. It's it's obviously a piece, but it's not. The impact is not I think always what it, what we would hope it to be.
That's such great.
We're seeing more promotion now of what they're calling adapted crops. So millet, sorghum, legumes I mean Ethiopia has. a huge yeah. We're starting to see those. And those crops are actually are better adapted to climate change than others. You don't have to do as affected. So I think you're right. The subsidy system is hard to fight. But I think if we can promote those ones more and more.
They must change. We must change.
But are we happy to take one more question?
Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Yeah.
There's two.
I don't want to pick.
There's three, there's three. Maybe we take the three.
And we've run out of time. I'm going to go to this gentleman.
You have three minutes.
Yeah okay.
I left.
Thank you for apologizing on my behalf.
Yes, I try to keep it short. Thank you so much. Not just because it wasn't about AI, but about really.
Something interesting. That one.
I'm wondering, you mentioned in the beginning that. And I think we all know that, or at least accept that, that climate shocks are coming more and more often. And especially if we look at the global South, it's, I think, hard to grasp the impact that we're having, because I think if we look at the Western world, if there's climate shocks coming, we just take more money and buy the stuff from other regions. So how can we prepare best or how can we improve the resilience for these upcoming climate shocks that are getting worse and worse? And yeah, that's basically the question.
I mean, I'm kind of actually interested on your thoughts from the private sector on this. Should you take a stab?
Sure. Look, the farmer, from our perspective, the farmer is 3 to 4 steps before the product comes to us. It doesn't mean that we should not be involved in the research. So we do various projects in East Africa in particular, but also Kansas. We have two big brands in the United States, Country Crock and I Can't believe It's Not Butter. They are, you know, made with crops grown in Kansas and surrounding states. And, you know, it's it's the, it's not that just these problems exist in the global South. Also in the Midwest, for instance, there can be floods. There can be, you know, numerous things. And, you know, if you've driven there, like there are endless fields, nothing in between. So we work with initiatives, for instance, to help farmers plant things in between that can maybe absorb the water, improve the soil, make the ground more resilient because there but after a while, crop insurance becomes unaffordable. It's not something that we have to do. We could also simply say, well, it's none of our business is three steps, you know, before the supply chain. But if you truly care about, you know, creating value for people, planet and at the same time also for your company by making profit. Because, you know, I look out the window every Friday afternoon, but there's another money truck. So we have to make, you know, money. That's also what we need to do as company. But you do have a responsibility to work in the field, and we do as much as we can. Maybe not enough. But I think also by being here and engaging and talking and all that stuff, we do take our responsibility and it's, you know, it's a vital thing because if, you know, fields wash away with, you know, rain or torrential rain. Yeah. We will then run an issue in terms of our products being produced and then, you know, not reaching the people that we want to.
It's good business sense to invest in adaptation for farmers. Yeah makes sense.
But it's everyone's task right. It's not just us. It's also those who who come after us. So for instance, the retail companies, they have a responsibility to everyone has a responsibility. And because it's a shared responsibility, I think the investment per company should therefore be, you know, bearable to especially help those smallholder farmers really down in, in the chain that you know, are living from harvest to harvest, because that's the reality.
And we've just run out of time. So that is a great note to end us on.
This will be the last.
One on the clock.
Thank insurance.
I just want to, I just want to really thank everyone for coming and thank the audience for such meaningful questions. Honestly, it's been a pleasure doing this panel. The amazing panelists I have the privilege of moderating with. Thank you so much.
Thank you.