Food Systems

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed massive shortcomings in the nation’s labor and disaster aid systems, which have for decades failed to protect workers who come to the U.S. every year for seasonal work.

Will regenerative agriculture alone save us from climate apocalypse? No. But thanks to its much-hyped carbon sequestration potential, unprecedented funding is pouring into efforts to convert America’s chemical-laden industrial agriculture system into something better. And that just might save us yet.

These trends and developments should be generating more attention than they do.

The company is sowing the seeds for a global refresh of its mission — including electrified farm machinery, autonomous field robots that swarm through fields, and smart tractor retrofits that provide farmers with insights into metrics such as the organic matter in their soil.

Native people all over the U.S. are working diligently to reclaim Indigenous varieties of corn, beans, squash, sunflowers and other crops.

Alternative proteins. Regenerative agriculture. The push toward zero. All loomed large in 2020.