Farmers and Ranchers Front and Center in Sharm El Sheikh

Today's episode is a must see and is reference for all of our futures. USFRA CEO, Erin Fitzgerald, has been on a worldwide tour sharing the voice of the US Farmers and Ranchers globally. She's just returned from the critical and sometimes nail-biting 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or what's called the conference of the parties of the UNFCCC more commonly referred to, and much easier as COP 27, the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference that was held from the 6th of November to the 20th of November in Egypt.

Transcript

Phil: 0:05

Welcome to Farm Food Facts, the webcast and podcast of the US Farmers and Ranchers in action. Today's episode is a must see and is reference for all of our futures. Our CEO, Erin Fitzgerald, has been on a worldwide tour sharing the voice of the US Farmers and Ranchers globally. She's just returned from the critical and sometimes nail biting 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or what's called the conference of the parties of the UNFCCC more commonly referred to, and much easier as COP 27, the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference that was held from the 6th of November to the 20th of November in Egypt. Erin, what are your top three takeaways from your time there?

Erin: 0:59

Well, number one, I'm sure you read it a lot in the press, that it was the first time that Food and Ag was kind of front and center in the dialogue, but I would say ironically, there was no food most of the time. So that was quite controversial. But we did see that, if you remember last year when we went to the climate change conversations, many of us farmers that were there and farm groups, were really calling on agriculture to be more front and center in the dialogues. And we did see that this year we had, a couple farm and food pavilions, but we still are struggling to have farmer engagement. We had the most farmer engagement ever. Actually the farmer constituency grew. We had about 111 different farmer groups present globally, but still, it's such a challenge to get the tickets, and the accreditation for farmer groups and the sponsorship for farmers to be present at the forum. And we would argue that it's still far too little for the amount of participation in both the role that agriculture can play and our farmers in particular as being the eco workforce for the solutions to climate change. And also this year of all years with food security. So front and center in the discussions, it was, it seemed like it could have been a little bit more front and center to have our farmers more front and center. We saw food security being in the dialogue, but this idea of investing in their future for the next 10 years was a little bit missing. And, we just know that the farmers are critical to be included in the conversation, not just for developed nations, but also the developing nations, particularly the global south, where agrarian lifestyles and the ability to drive a livelihood of the communities and development, it just needs to be front and center. So we hope that at COP 28 will be seeing more farmer engagement. We're still pushing for that. We did see food and agriculture for the first time on the agenda, but again, without the actual farmers really be represented in all panels it's tough to go get the job done.

Phil: 3:22

So the farmers are there. The farmers are part of the conversation and dialogue, but what I'm hearing you say is they're not really being heard. They don't have the presence that they've got. How do we change that? How do we, how do we instill both domestically here in the US to Farmers and Ranchers that say, you gotta be at these events? And also how do we tell these events that if you don't have this farmer voice, you know, you're not gonna come up with something that is realistic, accurate, and workable?

Erin: 4:02

Yeah, well, we had Marilyn Hershey from US Farmers and Ranchers included in the dialogue, and she did a great job really saying bring it down to reality of what actually, what she's doing on her farm to both be a solution to mitigate methane. That was a key conversation and as well as food waste, right? She's taking food waste combining to her digester and generating renewable energy in her community. I think it's a perfect example of what, and many in business calls circular economy our farmers have been doing that for, for some time. So really getting those practical on the ground insights from our farmers. And then second, just like really having the authenticity, if you're gonna have a food pavilion and you're gonna have conversations to really make certain that I was walking around and I was hearing quite a bit like farmers should, you know, we need to make certain that every single time in a session panel or a discussion that you have the entirety of the value chain represented. And that may concern that our farmers are included in that. So that's gonna take more farmers to be emitted into the climate change discussion. We wanna make certain that the farmer's constituency amount of badges as an NGO constituency is really increased. And that whenever there's a pavilion or entities that are working on food systems, that they include farmers and ranchers in that dialogue, we saw, certainly saw an increase in that this year. But for the how high the stakes are I would say that we still have a long ways to go, but it was definitely an improvement from the prior year. You know, last year we called on that, we said it needed to happen food and ag, and this year we did see quite an improvement, at least food and agriculture be included in conversation. Now we have a job to do, get our farmers completely included.

Phil: 5:58

So when we hear and we talk to farmers about what they've seen on the news from this conference there was lots of discussion while you were there. We were hearing about it that a lot of parties weren't agreeing on things disagreeing, you know, and all about climate and energy. Not a lot really hit the news about food and agriculture. What are you hearing from the farmers themselves, that were here, that they just saw the news? Are they looking at this as an opportunity to really dig in and, and make the world change?

Erin: 6:40

I think what we saw more than anything this past year, it was like if you read, it seemed like it was more of a conference of the parties. There was a lot more conference, there was a lot more in the pavilions and a lot of the corporate entities, coalition building that was happening on the side events. In terms of the actual negotiations, I, I don't think you saw much come out of it. There was this, what we we're you're hearing is reparations. I would say that it's gonna be, well, that was first time on the agenda. I think as most Americans, you'll hear in the press, like, is that really possible that we can start paying people? So I think that remains to be seen. What I would say is front and center is, again, IT business will need to drive the majority of this and how we see the private sector really mobilize at the clamp, the conference. That does seem to be where many of the thought leaders decision makers are going to have side meetings to really figure out how they make their corporate commitments on sustainability. We are seeing an increase in companies that are making big, bold commitments to climate change. The question then is how do they implement it? And the most important question is how do we develop the economic business case? And I think this is where agriculture really comes into play, and particularly for our farmers, is how do we build the business case for our farmers? They are economic actors and we have to make certain that we have the right business case at hand for them to have a sustainable livelihood and to really also adapt to climate change. So they're gonna need new technology and new innovation, and we're not investing necessarily as fast as we should be in supporting them to achieve those goals.

Phil: 8:39

So what are some of the next steps that we need to take to, to optimize these, to be able to get, you know, the farmer, to economically be able to do it, to get the technology there, to get the businesses there? What do we need to do?

Erin: 8:57

Yeah, so one of the things we've been talking a lot about, and we did just prior to a study, just prior to the climate change talks in this summer, is we asked a simple question, are we investing fast enough in the ag sector? We know we're gonna need technology. We know we're gonna need innovation. And given that there's this whole new interest to invest from the private sector in environmental solutions and community based solutions, is agriculture really getting their fair share from the private sector? We found out that ag is actually receiving 2% of total new dollars that are coming into this space way to environmental social governance funds. And frankly, that's quite low. For investors that really care about the environment and community, we believe that agriculture, both ag technology and our farmers themselves really do provide a win-win. They do good, they provide for the environment, and they also provide for food security and nutrition security, which we depend. So the fact that it's not being seen as a sector to invest in is quite shocking. And we know that we need to increase the amount of investment into this space to really support the ag economy.

Phil: 10:15

Is part of it. When I look at, you know, the VC community and a lot of the people that are throwing money at food, whether it's, you know, cellular agriculture or other new technologies is part of it that, you know, and I say this respectfully to farmers, it's not sexy. You know, when you wanna raise, you know, a billion dollars and you say, okay, I'm gonna grow something from a sell and so on, you know, all of a sudden they get huge amount of dollars regardless of whether or not it's ever gonna show a profit, regardless of whether or not it's ever gonna, you know, reach reality. And do we have to make farmers sexier?

Erin: 11:02

Phil, I think you hit the nail on the head. So last year we did a report transform investment report. We looked at the landscape review of just how much money, do we have enough venture dollars? We have enough startups and new technology moving in this space. And what we found is, yes, there's a lot of new dollars pouring into ag in the venture community, but primarily it's going to sell based alternatives. And if that's the case, and that's one pathway of course as you hear many people are looking at alternative proteins, but then you have to ask, well, how are we gonna help with soil? How are we gonna help our existing farmers have the right innovation technology? We know that agriculture can be carbon negative. We also know that the beef in dairy sector and livestock in particular has an incredible contribution to make in climate smart agriculture in climate sequestration. So why aren't they getting the attention in terms of investment in technology and new startups? Frankly, the alternative protein has kind of I would say taken the energy really of many of the investors. It's, as you mentioned, sexy, but we need to make certain that they understand that it's manure, it's new genetics, it's different type types of technology that our farmers can use and deploy. The other thing is that we do have a great innovation pipeline in ag that we know exists, but our farmers also need the technology, need the investment structure to support the existing technology pipeline to be deployed. So when we think about the Silicon Valley type investors, they're looking for the next big thing. I would say that it's our farmers. They are doing they're, they are the tech providers. They're kind of this eco workforce that everyone's been looking for. Forget Silicon Valley, go out to the Midwest. But that's where innovation needs to be happening. And the investment needs to be happening to support our farmers, not necessarily support disrupting agriculture, but support them to go do what they need to go do, get them the right innovation and tools, and look to make investments that, you know, are gonna support farmers.

Phil: 13:15

What is it gonna take for us to get to zero hunger?

Erin: 13:20

Definitely we wanna make certain that we take an all hands on deck approach. We need a lot more investment coming from the private sector. Right now agriculture's only receiving 2% of total ESG funds. We have got to make certain that when investors are considering making a portfolio based approach on where to put their environmental social governance dollars, right, those are dollars that they're gonna put to work to go solve for the environment that they truly consider that this is the sector that's most essential to helping realize ending zero hunger and solving the sustain for all the sustainable development goals. So that's key in our work to for next year, is to really make certain that we encourage investors to take a portfolio based approach and invest in agriculture.

Phil: 14:14

So basically looking across the entire supply chain of agriculture from farm to the supermarket shelf and really looking at it in a much more holistic way. And that'll be what creates change for us.

Erin: 14:31

Yes, I mean, it, it should, it's sort of strange that many of the investors when they think about solving climate change are betting just on energy, the energy sector, right? You know, if you look at agriculture, we provide a few things. We provide unbelievable nutrition, we provide fiber, and then we provide bio-based products. That's also, and that eliminates anything that's coming from the fossil fuel-based sector. That also creates energy as well. So we can disrupt many of the other sectors that are generating emissions. We can go sequester emissions and we can go help with the most fundamental need of ending zero hunger. So this sector is often forgotten in its contributions that it has both for the environmental benefits and the contributions to an economy. Our point is that we really wanna make certain, when investors are looking at agriculture, they say, okay, if I had to place a dollar bet, I am gonna bet on the American farmer. I know that they can go get this job done. I'm gonna bet on the environmental ingenuity and the ecotechnology that exists in this sector right now. We're not getting what I would call attention from those investors. And we need to do a better job about raising the awareness that this sector is the one that can go solve and be a contribution to the climate change.

Phil: 16:01

So we've got a year till COP 28 in Dubai. What's the one thing that you hope that we can do in the next year to make COP 28 more effective for US farmers and ranchers?

Erin: 16:15

Well, number one, we wanna make certain authentic farmer inclusion. We are really pushing that there's really no sustainable coalition, our effort unless it includes farmers and ranchers uniquely and authentically part of the design and governance moving forward, they need to be at the table. We need to work between now and COP 28 to ensure that we have enough farmers that can attend. We had a lot of food pavilions. We only had 111 farmer groups. We certainly should expect more for the breadth of this conversation that farmers are included. So that's, that's number one. And number two is really making certain that as companies and particularly the finance sector is making big, bold commitments to sustainability, that they consider the important positive contribution that agriculture can play in helping us reach a net zero economy goal. This is the one sector that is most at risk to climate change, but if we can invest in it now, we can adapt to climate change and we can go fix some of these ecosystem services. So food security is front and center. It is absolutely essential. The, the basics to our, all the economies of which we thrive upon. We have to make certain that people are resilient now and we are also preparing and investing in that next 10 years. So we have zero hunger in the face of climate change, and that's gonna take incredible investment from the private sector to recognize that we need to invest in agriculture goal, the order of the sustainable development goals matter. Goal number two, zero. Hunger is act for a reason. So really get helping to make certain people understand that this is the sector that can be a solution.

Phil: 18:18

Erin, as always, thank you for your untiring leadership, your intellect, your hard work on behalf of the US farmers and ranchers in action and for joining us today on Farm Food Facts.

Erin: 18:31

Thanks Phil. Appreciate it.

Phil: 18:34

For more about all food and agriculture, please visit us@farmersandranchers.org. Also, be sure to visit us on Facebook and Instagram at Farmers and Ranchers, as well as on Twitter and LinkedIn at USFRA. Until next time,