As we head into the ultimate weeks of 2023, it’s time to replicate on the massive matters that sustainability professionals engaged on meals and agriculture grappled with and superior over the 12 months — and which can assist outline the challenges forward in 2024. 

The massive buckets equivalent to regenerative agriculture, sustainable diets and circularity we tackle in GreenBiz’s reporting and occasions don’t change rapidly as a result of these are points that may require a few years of continued work. However the cross-cutting themes inside these buckets are dynamic, responding to financial developments, sustainability classes realized and different developments. 

Unpacking the biodiversity buzz

2023 has been a trademark 12 months for making carbon tunnel imaginative and prescient a factor of the previous. Extra corporations have acknowledged that holistic social and environmental options will carry us nearer to a resilient economic system than optimizing just for carbon sequestration. 

At our inaugural biodiversity occasion Bloom 23, we dove deep into how corporations can higher perceive their nature-related dangers and dependencies and leverage associated enterprise alternatives. We’ve additionally examined this pattern in articles all year long:

As extra corporations assess and disclose their general impacts, 2024 will probably provide insights into how the expanded consciousness will change enterprise practices. 

Giving Indigenous peoples a seat on the desk 

Addressing range, fairness and inclusion has been an more and more essential subject for sustainability professionals for the reason that homicide of George Floyd in 2020. The problem has since reached far past the rights of Black individuals. This 12 months, the function of Native Individuals and Indigenous individuals worldwide in reworking meals methods has develop into a specific focus.

Our protection of this subject in 2023 included:

We’ve solely dipped our toes into the complicated and important function Indigenous peoples should play in growing sustainable meals methods. 2024 ought to additional deepen our understanding of what to do and what to not do in the case of respecting their rights and constructing belief with communities. We’ll be looking out for profitable case research to cowl. 

Getting artistic to fund the transition

Most packages and applied sciences that allow decarbonization or enhance social outcomes require upfront (if not continued) funding. Mobilizing these {dollars} has been particularly tough in 2023’s difficult financial local weather, so we’ve seen extra innovation and creativity round monetary incentives. Nevertheless it additionally led to market consolidation, particularly within the various protein business. 

We’ve checked out this difficulty from many angles — carbon markets, VC methods, company investments and extra:

Following the reckoning we’ve gone by in meals innovation and carbon markets, we might get fortunate and see renewed investor confidence in local weather options subsequent 12 months. Let’s hope the upward swing in local weather tech funding from this 12 months’s third quarter continues into the brand new 12 months.