USDA’s Agricultural Innovation Agenda: 40 percent production increase, cutting eco-footprint in half by 2050

21 Feb 2020 --- The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has set out a new Agriculture Innovation Agenda promising widespread, bold transformation in order to sustainably feed a ballooning population without negatively impacting the environment. The new initiative addresses the challenges of future food supply in a planet-friendly way, tackling big issues like food loss, waste and propelling food innovation. The goal is to increase production by 40 percent while cutting the environmental footprint of US agriculture in half by 2050.

Among the initiative’s targeted benchmarks is a reduction of food loss and waste “by 50 percent in the US by the year 2030.” This  endemic issue has risen as a priority for industry stakeholders, many of whom are beginning to see this as an opportunity in novel food preservation strategies. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, food loss and waste costs the global economy almost US$940 billion annually.

Supply chains globally have come under scrutiny from the public, who increasingly demand traceable products.The Agriculture Innovation Agenda further aims to develop a strategy that “aligns and synchronizes” public and private sector research. This involves conducting systematic reviews of USDA productivity and conservation data. “USDA already closely tracks data on yield, but on the environmental side, there’s some catching up to do,” notes the federal agency.

Over the last year, supply chains globally have come under scrutiny from the public, who increasingly demand traceable products that require such data. Last month, actionable models for building sustainable food chains seized the spotlight at this year’s World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting, held in Davos, Switzerland. Industry has aptly responded with new launches of transparency products such as blockchain-powered ingredients.

Among other targets, the USDA aims to reduce nutrient loss in national water quality by 30 percent nationally by 2050, while increasing the production of renewable energy feedstocks.

“We know we have a challenge facing us: to meet future food, fiber, fuel, and feed demands with finite resources. This is our opportunity to define American agriculture’s role to feed everyone and do right as a key player in the solution to this challenge,” says US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

 “This agenda is a strategic, department-wide effort to better align USDA’s resources, programs, and research to provide farmers with the tools they need to be successful. We are also continually mindful of the need for America’s agriculture industry to be environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable to maintain our position as a leader in the global effort to meet demand. We are committed as ever to the environmental sustainability and continued success of America’s farmers, ranchers, foresters, and producers,” he adds. 

FoodIngredientsFirst has reached out to USDA for further details on how the federal agency plans to quantify progress toward its 2050 climate action target.

Criticism of carbon sequestration
The USDA’s targets involving carbon sequestration have recently come under question from climate activists. Its briefing details ambitions to “enhance carbon sequestration through soil health and forestry, leverage the agricultural sector’s renewable energy benefits for the economy, and capitalize on innovative technologies and practices to achieve net reduction of the agricultural sector’s current carbon footprint by 2050 without regulatory overreach.”

Rebecca Wolf, Factory Farming Organizer at lobby group Food & Water Action, stresses, “It’s true that we need bold and transformative change when it comes to agriculture’s impact on climate change and dirty emissions, but this plan supports corporate business-as-usual, not the kind of change we need.”

Wolf flags capturing biogas – a benchmark listed under the “Carbon Sequestration and Greenhouse Gas” portion of the new Agriculture Innovation Agenda – as a “pathway to more dirty energy expansion.” Instead, she urges the USDA to focus on transitioning farmers to a system that is “good for farmers, eaters, and the environment, not Big Ag.”

Increasingly, companies are driven by consumer expectations to invest in traceable and sustainable processes. Pegging “The Sustain Domain” as its third top trend for 2020, Innova Market Insights further indicates that 85 percent of, on average, US and UK consumers expect companies to invest in sustainability in 2019, up from 64 percent in 2018.

By Benjamin Ferrer