December 6, 2025
Spotlight Stories
Spotlight 1 – Forbes wonders if higher food prices are the best way to promote regenerative farming. Ready the story, here.
Spotlight 2 – An article in Scientific Data reviews a decade of on-farm data related to improved cereal and legume cropping in Mexico. Check it out, here.
Spotlight 3 – AgTechNavigator says that an investment in technology is crucial when trying to build sustainability on the farm. Take a read, here.
Industry Updates
African governments are moving faster than most of the world to put soil health at the center of climate action, according to a new analysis that highlights a major blind spot in global climate planning. A review of Nationally Determined Contributions by the Save Soil campaign shows that 70% of countries still do not treat soil or agriculture as meaningful mitigation tools — even though soils are the planet’s largest terrestrial carbon sink. The report came on the back of COP30 in Belém, Brazil where campaigners hoped soil-carbon targets will finally be recognized. [link]
Feeding a projected 10 billion people by 2050 will require bold and smarter choices in how the world manages its land, soil and water, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warns in a new flagship report. The latest edition of The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW 2025) report underscores that these essential resources are finite. Safeguarding them is critical to securing global food security now and in the decades to come. Under the theme “The potential to produce more and better,” the report highlights the significant, often overlooked potential of land and water resources to support sustainable increases in food production. It presents strategies for producing more – and better – food for a growing population while ensuring the responsible and resilient management of land, soil, and water. [link]
Nestlé Vietnam and the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE) officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support Vietnam in transitioning to a circular and low-emission economic model. The cooperation focuses on promoting sustainable agriculture, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to accelerating the realization of the country’s Net Zero emissions target. Vietnam is a large supplier of coffee to Nestlé, with the company purchasing nearly USD $700 million worth of product each year. [link]
Shares of Bayer spiked after the U.S. Solicitor General supported the company’s push for the Supreme Court to take up its Roundup weedkiller case. Over the past decade, the German agriculture and pharmaceuticals conglomerate has paid out about $10 billion to plaintiffs who have claimed that Roundup’s main ingredient, glyphosate, caused their cancer. Bayer has maintained that Roundup is safe to use, and earlier this year petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to limit legal claims against the weedkiller. The Supreme Court in June asked the Trump administration to weigh in, and Solicitor General John Sauer on Monday appeared to side with the company. [link]
Food-company stocks sagged Tuesday as the San Francisco city attorney filed a lawsuit against some of the nation’s biggest food manufacturers, accusing them of knowingly making and marketing harmful foods. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that 11 leading food makers, from Kraft Heinz to General Mills, violated California’s unfair competition law and public nuisance statute by engaging in “unfair and deceptive acts.” San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu blamed the suppliers for American diets high in ultra-processed foods, and soaring healthcare costs. The lawsuit seeks an order prohibiting deceptive marketing by the food companies and requiring that they take steps to mitigate the health effects of their products. It seeks civil penalties and other awards, in part to help local governments offset high healthcare costs. [link]
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is partnering with the Ghana Cocoa Board, Forestry Commission of Ghana, and local Farmer Unions to implement the Environmentally Sustainable Production Practices in Cocoa Landscapes Phase IV (ESP Phase IV) inside Ghana. The latest phase builds on the successes of previous ones, transforming how communities manage land integration, forest restoration, and conservation in cocoa farming landscapes while fostering sustainable livelihoods that protect Ghana’s forests. The project has established two Community Resource Management Areas (CREMA) involving about 65 communities in the Asunafo North Municipal Assembly (Ahafo Region) and Wassa East District (Western Region). By promoting community rights to manage and benefit from natural resources, the initiative fosters collaboration and ownership. [link]
In an effort to protect healthy soils and boost vitality, the American Farmland Trust has opened up applications for farmers and ranchers in Virginia and across the nation to apply for grants that encourage regenerative agriculture practices. The healthy soils grant offers up to $30,000 to help farmers partake in four key soil health measures: planting cover crops to reduce soil erosion; minimizing the use of harmful chemicals or over working the soil; maximizing living roots; and diversifying crop species while integrating livestock to naturally fertilize the soil. The main goal of the American Farmland Trust, which is managing the grants, is to protect farmland from erosion through climate change and farming methods that deplete the land. [link]
The Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Starbucks Coffee Company as a strategic step to strengthen Indonesia’s national coffee ecosystem and improve farmer welfare. The signing ceremony in Jakarta marks a shared commitment to enhance the productivity, sustainability, and global competitiveness of Indonesian coffee. Starbucks plans to support four key areas of collaboration: seed and seedling donations, agronomy training, the donation of coffee milling equipment, and biological pest control. [link]
More than 520 chemicals have been found in English soils, including pharmaceutical products and toxins that were banned decades ago, because of the practice of spreading human waste to fertilize arable land. Research by scientists at the University of Leeds, published as a preprint in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, found a worrying array of chemicals in English soils. Close to half (46.4%) of the pharmaceutical substances detected had not been reported in previous global monitoring campaigns. Water companies treat human feces and remove some of the contaminants from wastewater at their treatment centers. The resulting product is treated biosolids, the organic matter from the human waste, and this is often disposed of by being spread on fields as fertilizer. However, it appears that despite decontamination, hundreds of chemicals are leaching into the soil and in some cases staying there for many years. [link]
Multinational food company Kellanova announced a regenerative agriculture deal with Varaha, Asia’s largest carbon project developer, aimed at reducing the food manufacturer’s supply chain emissions. The deal between Kellanova and Varaha will help 12,500 acres of corn farms in India adopt sustainable practices and “sequester and reduce nearly 100,000 tons” of carbon dioxide emission from its supply chain. The companies branded the deal as unique, as it will focus on transitioning smallholder corn farms within the food brand’s supply chain, rather than using the project as an offsetting mechanism, a practice called “insetting.” [link]
The University of Hawaii is leading global scholarship on food system transformation with the completion of a major open access e-book, Food System Transformation and the Realization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Social Movements, Institutions & Governance. The research topic brings together 29 peer-reviewed articles from more than 150 scholars across the globe, exploring how food systems influence at least 16 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The research findings are particularly relevant in Hawaii, where chronic household food insecurity, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander health inequities, and climate change vulnerabilities highlight the urgent need for integrated agri-food system research, education, planning and policy strategies. [link]
On World Soil Day (Dec 4) this year, Mars is joining with partners and farmers in Europe, calling on policymakers and scientists across Europe to enable scalable solutions that aid farmers in adopting climate-smart agriculture practices. The collaborations could help Europe to strengthen its role in global agrifood policy, building momentum in regenerative farming and agriculture. Across Mars Petcare’s European supply chain, more than 300 farmers have thus far implemented climate-smart practices across more than 60,900 hectares, from using cover crops in Buckinghamshire, UK, to implementing no-till cultivation in Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland. [link]
In Case You Missed It…
In mid-September, a new study led by the University of Surrey in the UK found that while vertical farms dramatically increase lettuce yields and use far less water, the carbon footprint of these operations still exceeds traditional lettuce farming. See more, here.