Meeting the food needs of a constantly growing global population requires sustainable food production for both the planet and society. To do this, the industry needs to address multiple complex issues: greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation; employee safety and fair wages; consumer nutrition and health. Recent shocks to our interconnected global food system remind us just how small our safety net is. These include climate change and, Covid-19, among others.

Faster innovation and cross-value-chain collaboration are key to change. Bain & Company and the World Economic Forum (WEF), while building on earlier research into the impact of digital on food sustainability in nine different industries, researched areas of innovation capable of increasing the pace of change and jump-starting collaboration.

Four “investible themes” emerged. Each addresses important environmental, social and governance (ESG) externalities the food industry faces while also having the potential to earn an attractive return on time, energy, and money invested. All require collective action and a collaborative approach in order to scale.

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