"Value chains are the glue that connects disparate businesses, whether they are local, regional or global. Working together to comprehensively assess the health of value chains creates a place where ecological and business reality actually meet."
Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline and other works.
February 2013 Food Lab Newsletter
Read the latest news about our upcoming SFL/SAI Summit, landscape initiatives for sustainable sourcing, sustainability measurement and recording tools, and the Progress Out of Poverty Index for smallholder supply chains.
Agriculture’s Role in a Food Secure Future for the Developing World
The State of Food Insecurity in the World, a report out recently from the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Food and Agriculture Organization and The World Food Programme confirmed that because poverty remains overwhelmingly rural, investments in agricultural growth have strong poverty reduction effects. And small farmers play a key role in this agricultural growth. A key message of the report states that “Agricultural growth is particularly effective in reducing hunger and malnutrition.”
September 2012 SFL Newsletter
New Cocoa Business Model Catching On
Read this new post on the Guardian's Sustainable Business blog covering the Food Lab's work in cocoa certification as part of our involvement in the New Business Models for Sustainable Trading Relationships project.
Frogblog features SFL 2012 Summit
The Annual Leadership Summit Report
The Summit was held this year in the Dominican Republic, May 1-3, 2012 preceded by Learning Journeys.Read Report
Cool Farm Institute
Press Release from the University of Aberdeen: New venture to improve farming and retail carbon footprint
Food Lab News
March 2012 Newsletter
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and supply agreements in the agricultural sector have a significant role to play to promote agricultural climate change mitigation and decrease pressure on the earth’s land and climate. Private sector engagement can also promote food security and positively affect the livelihoods of smallholder agricultural producers in developing countries. Based on a comprehensive literature survey and 15 interviews with key organizations, companies and financiers or lenders, this report investigates: current private sector climate change mitigation activities in agriculture and food production, highlighting current innovations affecting production and supply chains of key commodities; explores how CSR and supply chain commitments can improve their contribution to reductions in agricultural GHG emissions; and surveys the role of governments, finance and investment in promoting sustainability in the agricultural sector. Key findings identify a strong need for harmonization among product standards, certification and by commodity roundtables, and the need to mainstream sustainability criteria in agricultural finance and lending activities.
Food Lab News
Linking Worlds website launches
The Sustainable Food Lab -- on behalf of the New Business Models for Sustainable Trading Relationships Project, and with support from the Unilever Oxfam partnership on smallholder sourcing-- is pleased to announce the launch of a new web based learning platform to support companies and non-profits working on supply chains that are inclusive of small scale producers in developing countries. Oxfam, the Sustainable Food Lab, IIED, CIAT, Rainforest Alliance, Catholic Relief Services and others have been working in partnership with companies over the last four years to create sourcing arrangements that meet stringent supply chain criteria and deliver development benefits such as more stable trading relationships, income and improved food security.
Unilever Commits to 100% by 2020
Global firm announces plans to:halve the environmental footprint of its products
help 1 billion people improve their health and wellbeing
source 100% of its agricultural raw materials sustainably
Pepsi publishes report with bold goals
PepsiCo is one of the Food Lab's sponsoring partners in the Global Agriculture Climate Assessment. They are piloting the use of the Cool Farm Tool with their growers as one of the vehicles to help reach PepsiCo’s ambitious goal to reduce GHG emissions from their core crops in the UK by 50% by 2015.
PDF Report here
Heinz Releases Sustainable Tomato Report
Sustainable Food Lab launches global climate project to help farmers grow greener. Global food corporations collaborate toward practical, cost effective solutions to reduce climate impact.
ASDA Announces: "We're stepping up our scheme to help small Kenyan flower growers" See announcement here
Carbon and Agriculture: Getting Measurable Results, providing an overview of the state of knowledge regarding achievement of measurable results in reducing agricultural greenhouse gases.
SFL May 2011 Newsletter
SFL Spring 2010 Newsletter
SFL Mid-Winter Newsletter 2010
SFL featured in Leadership in International Management
Unilever and Rainforest Alliance roll out partnership programs
Frederick Payton’s AgroFrontera honored at Clinton Global Initiative Annual Conference
Sustainable Food Lab Summer 2009 Newsletter
New Business Models for Sustainable Trading Relationships in Africa
April 2009
Our colleagues at CIAT won one of the Changing Climate Change projects awarded by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) will use the grant to map forecasts of the impacts of climate change in coffee-growing communities and help smallholder coffee farmers identify, evaluate and implement adaptation strategies. read more
April 2009
Starbucks Launches Farmer Loan Program. Starbucks is expanding its three-year-old Small Farmer Sustainability Initiative (SFSI) by partnering with the Fairtrade Labeling Organization (FLO) and TransFair USA to create a small-scale coffee farmer–loan program. read more
March 2009
Fine Flavor Summit, Ghana. Don Seville facilitated a fine flavor summit with key players in Ghana and set up a process for field piloting with farmers. About 28 people attended including SFL member John Scharffenberger shown here with cocoa farmer. Read more...
March 2009
SFL and Carbon Markets SFL member Jason Clay, WWF and SFL staffer Daniella Malin attend meeting co-hosted by Packard, Eko Asset Management Partners and Environmental Defense Fund, in California designed to coordinate efforts to get agricultural carbon into the carbon markets beyond the CCX. Outputs include protocol and methodology development for generating quality carbon credits and requirements to gain approval by the Voluntary Carbon Standard, the California Climate Action Reserve. Jason emphasized, "I feel a bit like a salmon swimming up stream in a flood but I'll say it one more time. We're talking about practices. Performance based would mean defining very explicitly methods for quantifying carbon and other GHGs (greenhouse gasses)."
January 1, 2009
SFL joins AIN The Secretariat of the Sustainable Food Lab spun off from Sustainability Institute and joined Ag Innovations Network, based in California. This adds Joseph McIntyre to our expanded team and links Food Lab work to exciting multi-stakeholder projects in California.
Unilever Commits to 100% by 2020
