Danone leading by example and looking to the future

The new AgriFoodTech coalition ‘Farming for Generations’

A group of leading AgriFoodTech companies, led by Danone, has formed a coalition dubbed ‘Farming for Generations’.

Farming for Generations is a global collaboration designed to teach and support dairy farmers by transitioning farmers to regenerative agricultural practices. The thought behind it being to preserve and renew our planet’s resources along with respecting animal welfare and ensuring the long-term economic viability of farms for future generations.

The companies involved in this coalition include: animal health and welfare companies MSD Animal Health, Neogen and FutureCow; animal nutrition and health company DSM; crop nutrition leader Yara; crop science company Corteva Agriscience; and artificial intelligence agri-food start-up Connecterra (one of our top 5 StartUps to watch this week). Netherlands-based Wageningen University and Research, renowned for its food and food production research, will be a research and advisory partner. WWF France, national organisation of WWF Network, one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation organisations, will also provide guidance to help the project reach its goals

Armed with the recognised necessity that food system needs to change to address a range of environmental and health challenges, the alliance is convinced that agriculture is a solution, and that dairy farming specifically has a key role to play in building the sustainable food systems of tomorrow.

Farming for Generations will start by researching and working with 25 farms across Europe, the US and Russia to identify best practice solutions and innovations across different farming models, farm sizes and geographies. the coalition then intends to identify and scale up solutions across the farming system: growing animal feed, choosing the best animals for breeding programs, nurturing and rearing animals, and producing milk. It will explore regenerative agricultural practices that seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect soil and biodiversity while providing the best quality feed for dairy cows; support animal health and wellbeing, ensuring cows have a healthy, stress-free life; and empower farmers with workable solutions to economic, social and environmental challenges.

The future of the food industry has become one of the most widely discussed topics in the past 2 years, sustainability being at the core of it. Questions surrounding the core issue of whether the current industry will be sustain our growing population by 2050. Although predicting the future is an impossible task, once can infer that at the current rate we are producing and consuming food, there will be serious issues. Hence why the FoodTech industry has exponentially boomed over the past few years, with well over 2000 startups in the space alone. Here at Forward Fooding, sustainability is one of the key pillars in our definition of FoodTech or AgriFoodTech.

With the ecosystem growing so rapidly it is important that large multinational corporations, such as Danone, join this revolution. With collaboration between large corporations and innovate startups, something valued very highly here at Forward Fooding, the future of the food industry has hope.

Following a joint press release, Yann Gael Rio, VP Milk and Farming at Danone, commented on the coalition, stating that: “Regenerative agriculture is a solution to many of the environmental and health challenges we face today. Farming for Generations brings together expertise along the whole agricultural value chain with the collective know-how of farmers. This will ensure any solutions and innovations are tried and tested on the ground, capable of delivering real impact at scale, and helping to build the sustainable food systems of tomorrow.”

Over the next three years, the alliance will gather cross-sector insights, refine best practices and develop new approaches, which will be shared in a practical toolbox. Farmers will be involved each step of the way, ensuring that practices are viable and suited to local customs and geographic specificities.

In order to learn more about the vast range of companies in the FoodTech ecosystem, check out Forward Fooding’s Global FoodTech Map, or alternatively, for a more in depth analytics surrounding the industry be sure to look at our FoodTech Data Navigator — The world’s first Agri-FoodTech collective data intelligence platform.

Written by Armaan Dobberstein — Marketing associate at Forward Fooding