An Introduction to the Core Tools of System Leadership By: Hal Hamilton and LeAnne Grillo System leadership is one output of the Food Lab and Impact Lab, and it borrows from many colleagues and approaches. After Donella Meadows wrote Limits to Growth from the work of a team, people began thinking of global challenges through the framework…
DetailsSince the Food Lab’s beginning 15 years ago, learning journeys have been a core part of our DNA, always accompanying annual summits and sometimes other events too. This year, in lieu of a summit, the Food Lab opted to hold smaller events with more focused conversations. One such event took place in June, a learning journey to…
DetailsThe USAID Feed the Future Learning Community for Supply Chain Resilience is happy to share the launch of a new website aimed to provide coffee companies with the resources they need to combat climate change. The Climate Smart Coffee website, launched in early May, was created to increase private sector engagement and funding in smallholder…
DetailsLooking to ensure that coffee farmers continue to invest in coffee in ways that enable them to grow production and quality in the face of climate change, Olam, a global agribusiness and one of the leading green coffee origin exporters, teamed up with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), investing to improve farmer resilience to…
DetailsThe cocoa industry has taken bold steps to preventing deforestation in the Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI), a public private collaboration between 33 cocoa and chocolate companies (85% of the industry), the governments of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, and led by the World Cocoa Foundation and the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH). This effort is based…
DetailsOne of the Sustainable Food Lab’s flagship project, the Cool Farm Tool, is reaching new fields and farms. Since 2008 the Tool’s mission has enabled millions of growers around the world to make more informed on-farm decisions that reduce their environmental impact. Today the Cool Farm Tool is being used by Food Lab and Cool…
DetailsAs part of our Small Grains in the Corn Belt initiative, Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) and the Food Lab are asking the questions: Can farmers be profitable when adding a small grain and cover crop to their corn and soy rotation? What additional sustainability value can be captured by the supply chain? Is it…
DetailsThe Sustainable Food Lab has worked with the beverage company AB InBev and its Uganda subsidiary Nile Breweries to explore ways to increase the resilience of small-scale grain farmers to the effects of climate change. The Food Lab is happy to share a case study on Improving Grain Sector Climate-Smart Awareness and Decision-Making, documenting the…
DetailsDon Seville, Executive Director of the Food Lab, is a facilitator of the Sustainable Vanilla Initiative (SVI), an industry initiative, which aims to promote the long-term stable supply of high quality, natural vanilla, produced in a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable way, benefiting all partners along the value chain. On a recent trip to Uganda, Don…
DetailsIn collaboration with the Organic Trade Association, the Organic Grain Collaboration has co-authored a new report, titled “U.S. Organic Grain – How to Keep It Growing“. The report includes information on organic grain production, market trends and the barriers to expanding domestic organic grain production as well as industry solutions to overcome these barriers. A press…
Details
