The cost of not acting to tackle climate change problems is fast becoming more expensive than costs associated with proactively cutting greenhouse emissions and working with nature.
Former global food company boss, Paul Polman, has urged individual farmers to challenge themselves, and their peers, to adopt greater stewardship goals for the sake of their own business, and nature.
He said producers and their supply chain partners, had to be more courageous and accountable for climate costs associated with food and fibre production.
They should experiment with practices which could benefit their business and nature - including regenerative farming.
Farmers should also stand up to be properly rewarded for their transformational environmental efforts.
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First movers would be the winners, given crop yields were now on track to fall by between three and seven per cent with every one degree rise in the earth's temperature.
A 2pc to 3pc increase in global warming translated into a forecast $US160 trillion cost to the global economy, but taking positive action would deliver a $US48t benefit.
The man who most recently spent a decade at the helm of Unilever - one of the world's 10 biggest food conglomerates - said the food supply chain would be essential to achieving a net zero emissions solution and rebuilding biodiversity.
Until stepping down in 2019, Mr Polman oversaw an ambitious strategy to decouple Unilever's business growth from its environmental footprint, lifting the company's earnings performance against its rivals, and receiving a Financial Times accolade as a "standout CEO of the past decade".
He told Rabobank's international Farm2Fork conference in Sydney the farm sector could not pretend a climate challenge did not exist.
It is always better to be an early mover and make dust than to eat the dust
- Paul Polman, former Unilever CEO
It would never be cheaper than now to invest in change.
"It is always better to be an early mover and make dust than to eat the dust," he told about 1600 event attendees from across Australia, New Zealand, the Americas and Europe.
In fact, farmers and their suppliers and customers were already moving, aware that pressure from global financiers, investors and shoppers was building to force their hand.
Mr Polman said 60pc of the world's financial assets under management were now committed to net zero emission targets.
"Businesses willing to be part of the solution will be the ones which succeed," he said.
Successful net positive profit companies asked themselves "how can we profit from solving the world's problems, rather than creating them", and "is the world truly better off because of our actions".
Long term courage
He said business leadership courage meant looking for longer term value in food and fibre industries, "not at quarterly profit targets".
The economics also had to work for, and with, farmers, or else the food industry's much-needed transformation could not happen.
"What does courage look like? It's setting the carbon emission targets that climate science is demanding, not just the targets you can get away with," he said.
The transformation challenge ahead was bigger than the scale of the industrial revolution and would need to be dealt with at much greater speed by supply chain co-operation and partnerships.
While a single business operator or family farmer may find that challenge so daunting it was hard to see what difference they could contribute, he said "all the little actors do lead to the changes we need".
Climate change is not just an energy issue, it requires nature based solutions
- Paul Polman
Mr Polman noted up to 30pc of current emissions could be solved with nature-based solutions and nature needed to be valued more by consumers and the market.
"Climate change is not just an energy issue, it requires nature based solutions," he said.
Transformational strategies on-farm, such as switching to more efficient and organic-based fertilisers; agroforestry plantings and vegetation belts to absorb atmospheric carbon and protect soils and livestock, and new cropping industries, including sea water aquaculture, would be critical nature-based solutions.
So too, would the challenge expanding regenerative farming practices to improve soil health and resilience to weather extremes, and strengthen crop and livestock resilience.
Farming is the solution
"We must keep farming central to the solution," Mr Polman said.
"Unfortunately, we don't see enough finance going in the direction of farmers to help them achieve these improvements in many parts of the world."
He also conceded the wider food supply chain had a lot of catching up to do to transform and fix its emissions problems.
While big names like Nestle, Danone and Unilever were thinking about emissions across their whole value chains, stepping up their reporting commitments on water and energy use, human rights, and more, he lamented board directors on many companies were not competent enough to make the magnitude of changes required.
Rabobank's newly appointed managing board chair, Stefaan Decraene, told the Farm2Fork conference the global banking giant was well aware of its own sustainability responsibilities as it focused on funding growth in agricultural markets.
"We want to make a profit, but we're a bank that doesn't want to make too much profit," he said.
"We want to work for the community, and sustainability, as we tackle the big question of feeding the world."
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Andrew Marshall
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
