São Paulo, August, 2008 - Inspired by the Sustainable Food Lab, the Brazilian representatives decided to convene their own multi-stakeholder sustainability initiative. This was almost a year and a half ago. In August, Hal Hamilton, leader of the Sustainable Food Lab traveled to Brazil to give the keynote address to the organization that his own organization spawned: IPAS - Iniciativa Pro-Alimento Sustentavel.

About 180 people gathered for a day and a half meeting to raise the profile of sustainability among the participating organizations and closest stakeholders. Goals also included generating potential for future joint innovation work and generating shared learning from past efforts to inform future ones.

Towards this end, professors and researchers from the agribusiness program (PENSA) at the Business School of the University of Sao Paulo wrote and presented business cases of currently sustainability efforts at each of the participating organizations:  Sadia, Nestle, Klabin, Carrefour, Bunge and a partnership between The Nature Conservancy, Sadia and Adecoagro.

During the gathering Gilbert Tomazoni, President and CEO of Sadia, the founding company of IPAS also addressed those gathered, "If society is not on our side, if people do not vote for us every day, we do not have a future. A brand is like a sail blown by the wind. If we all work together, we will be like the planets in the sky. Imagine the momentum we can create if all the planets align." he said.

After the seminar leaders set five themes in which to organize the work of IPAS and set timeline and schedule for follow up meetings to ensure follow up in each of the thematic areas:

• Consumer (education and information)
• Rural field (quality of life, education...)
• Suppliers (sustainability criteria)
• Food (donation and waste)
• Supply chains

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Brazilian Food Lab Takes Root