July 19, 2025

Spotlight Stories

Spotlight 1 – An article in Nature discusses the future of “future foods.”. Check it out, here.

Spotlight 2 – Forbes writes about how leaders can support agroforestry…along with why it matters. Read the story, here.

Spotlight 3 – The Wall Street Journal invites everyone to meet the fully autonomous farm of the future including drones, AI, and robot pickers. Take a read, here.

Industry Updates

The Indonesian government plans to expand the use of forest land in 2026 to support food, energy, and water security, as well as to enhance downstream processing of forest products to boost regional development. The initiatives aim to contribute to macro-level development goals, including a 15 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the forestry sector and an improvement in the Village Development Index through forestry-related programs in 600 villages. The forestry ministry's overarching policy goals include protecting forests as global carbon sinks and water regulators, ensuring equitable forest management, using forests to support food and energy security, implementing the one-map policy, and modernizing forest governance through digital services. [link]

A sweeping new study, led by Hilary Brumberg of the University of Colorado Boulder, reveals why progress on natural climate solutions is stalling. Natural climate solutions, or NCS, range from reforestation and agroforestry to wetland restoration, and have long been championed as low-cost, high-benefit pathways for reducing greenhouse gases. However, new research drawing on 352 peer-reviewed papers from across 135 countries shows that slowing growth isn't related to ecological obstacles. Rather, the obstacles are human: insufficient funding, patchy information, ineffective policies, and public skepticism. [link]

PepsiCo and Cargill announced a strategic collaboration to advance regenerative agriculture practices across 240,000 acres from 2025 through 2030. The collaboration will focus on the companies' shared corn supply chain in Iowa, where Cargill sources from local farmers to produce ingredients used in some of PepsiCo's most iconic products. Through trusted local organizations – led by Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), a nonprofit organization with deep roots in the Midwest farming community – this collaboration aims to provide farmers with the knowledge they need to implement regenerative techniques and help them produce crops more sustainably. [link]

Chinese researchers have developed a groundbreaking method to convert methanol into sucrose, bypassing traditional agriculture. The innovative in-vitro biotransformation (ivBT) system uses enzymes to transform methanol derived from industrial waste into complex sugars. This method contributes to sustainability by utilizing carbon dioxide as a raw material, supporting carbon neutrality efforts. The research opens possibilities for producing a wide range of sugars for industries beyond food, including pharmaceuticals and industrial products. [link]

The Animal Legal Defense Fund has sued the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to force it to release records concerning its oversight of the Beef Checkoff program, which the ALDF claims is producing “false and misleading” ads that present beef as environmentally friendly. The Beef Checkoff program, which is funded through a mandatory $1 fee per head of cattle sold, has produced ads that the ALDF alleges “make claims that are misleading to reasonable consumers." The ALDF says that USDA guidelines note that environmental marketing claims funded by checkoff dollars “should not overstate, directly or by implication, an environmental attribute or benefit” of a product and further explain that it is “deceptive” for a checkoff-funded ad “to misrepresent, directly or by implication that a product…offers a general environmental benefit.” [link]

A new report from the United Nations says that global demand for meat, dairy, and fish is projected to climb steadily over the next decade, however persistent nutritional gaps and mounting environmental pressures reveal a complex path ahead. The Agricultural Outlook 2025-2034 report projects a six per cent increase in global per capita consumption of animal-source foods by 2034. The trend is most pronounced in lower middle-income countries, where intake is expected to rise by 24 per cent, far outpacing the global average. Output of meat, dairy and eggs is expected to grow by 17 per cent, while total livestock inventories are projected to expand by seven per cent. These gains will come at an environmental cost, as direct greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are expected to rise by six per cent by 2034. [link]

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dubbed modern soil health practices “unsustainable” during a Make America Healthy Again roundtable on Capitol Hill, where speakers called for increasing use of precision agriculture technology and expanding public-private partnerships to boost usage of conservation practices. During the event, Kennedy focused his comments on the loss of topsoil, noting that it is currently being depleted quicker than it can replace itself. He said topsoil could be eliminated entirely within 50 years. MAHA advocate and roundtable host Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., confirmed the second Make America Healthy Again report will be released Aug. 12. [link]

President Trump said Coca-Cola agreed to use cane sugar in its namesake soda, following criticism of sweeteners such as high-fructose corn syrup by Trump’s health secretary. A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said the company appreciated Trump’s enthusiasm for its brand. “More details on new innovative offerings within our Coca-Cola product range will be shared soon,” she said. U.S. Coke bottlers switched to high-fructose corn syrup in the 1980s in a cost-cutting effort. But sugar has held cachet for many as better-tasting. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has vowed to “Make America Healthy Again,” has criticized the food industry’s influence on Washington and what he said is its heavy reliance on processing and artificial ingredients. [link]

Nestlé and Barry Callebaut have teamed up on a groundbreaking partnership aimed at accelerating progress to net zero cocoa production in Brazil. The two companies will undertake a five-year planting initiative, generating 6.2 hectares of agroforestry and 7.7 million trees, as they aim to foster the sustainable growth of Brazil’s cocoa sector by empowering entrepreneurial farmers to enter cocoa production and support existing cocoa farmers to expand their areas in a climate friendly way. Utilizing advanced technology, financial support, and land development, the initiative will incorporate three main projects to address different farmer segments and their challenges, and will also leverage Barry Callebaut’s expertise in seedlings production. [link]

Michigan State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) recently hosted the CANR–Europe Partnership Forum, welcoming academic leaders, researchers and institutional partners from across Europe for a multi-day event focused on advancing collaboration in agriculture, food systems and natural resource sustainability. Key sessions featured presentations by European institutions on their existing partnerships with MSU and opportunities for future collaboration, emphasizing shared goals in research, innovation and joint funding proposals. The forum also brought participants beyond the conference room for immersive, hands-on experiences. Visits to MSU’s Kellogg Biological Station, the Lake Michigan shoreline and the historic Kellogg Manor House offered cultural and environmental context for international collaboration. [link]

In Case You Missed It…

In late May, Google and Arable announced a water replenishment-focused collaboration, with Google agreeing to fund projects to bring Arable’s efficient irrigation technology to farmers in North and South Carolina. See more, here.