Ag innovation solves extinction from climate, food insecurity, and soil erosion.

Right now, extreme weather events are jeopardizing global crops, resulting in crop shortages and price spikes. And in the long run, unchecked climate change threatens a third of the world’s food production, which could completely destabilize global food security and disrupt livelihoods.

There exists a desperate need for innovation in agriculture. But what does innovation look like when it comes to what we eat?

For us at my company, Nobell, it means transforming the soybean into the world’s most powerful protein factory to make delicious cheese. For activists, it might look like creating non-profit strategies for tackling food waste. For policymakers, it comes down to supporting game-changing R&D investment. And for a farmer, it means striking a balance between sustaining traditional practices and embracing cutting-edge technologies that improve crop yields, reduce environmental impact and enhance crop resilience.

Collaboration needs to start at the soil.

The key to implementing truly transformative innovation lies in uniting all these stakeholders to create a shared commitment toward more sustainable methods of growing our food. And the critical truth that I’ve learned from talking to growers across the country is that the most effective collaboration comes when we stop trying to impose top-down solutions and begin thinking from the soil up.

Luckily, the soil is precisely where we can find a blueprint for action that connects the need for change to the realities faced by those who will actually implement it: farmers.

Consider the reemergence of sustainable agriculture. This shift has improved soil health, cut cropland erosion and advanced the ability of soil to act as a crucial carbon sink. Another powerful example is the increased adoption of cover crops, which have the potential to offset the emissions from 12.8 million cars. What has made these two initiatives so successful is that they benefit both the planet and the farmers growing our food.

Farmers provide food and raw materials to humans and animals all over the world. They know that agriculture must be part of the solution. In a 2021 report, the agriculture interest group Field to Market expressed as much: “It is clear that a certain amount of change is already unavoidable. Therefore, action by agricultural stakeholders is necessary for both climate mitigation and to enhance the resiliency of U.S. cropland to extreme weather events.”

What could this innovation look like?

Much of today’s agricultural industry already shares the same ideals as those fighting to address our climate crisis. Stewards of the land care deeply about their soil and some of the biggest agricultural groups in the world do too.

Many innovations that preserve global food supplies and farmer livelihoods are innovations that also preserve the planet. On a farm, it’s sustainable practices such as no-till and cover crops. It looks like heat-resistant varieties. It looks like crops that can outcompete weeds, fungus and pests. It looks like drones, satellites and AI that can both track conditions on a farm and control agricultural operations precisely. Take for example InnerPlant, a company developing a new type of seed technology that harnesses plant physiology and unlocks data to improve global agricultural yields and sustainability.