Independent Dialogue
Geographical focus:
United States of America
Discussion topic outcome
The fourth session was Nutrient Density from Farm to Body and What We Still Don't Know. The session was led by Danone North America on the regenerative agriculture programs with their family farms. Panelists included Peak Origin, Bionutrient Food Association, Brightseed, and TeakOrigin. Ideas covered included: 1. The bad history and current state of nutrition and agriculture. Nutritional guidelines in the US have not been updated in decades. 70% of US healthcare goes to chronic diseases that can mostly be attributed to poor nutrition. Only 12% of Americans are without high blood pressure, high
... Read more cholesterol, or pre-diabetes and diabetes. Obesity is the most common medical disqualifier for military service. A study comparing diets of the same foods but grown differently showed significant inflammation differences between those eating the same foods from responsibly grown practices than those eating conventionally grown foods. 2. Bionutrient Food Association has been working on figuring out the variation of nutrient density within food items to define the spectrum variation and averages, correlating that with growing practices, and building the instruments needed to figure out nutritional information in real time. We have the ability now to develop the data at scale around plant compounds, growing practices, and human health outcomes. 3. A common way to understand the connection between regenerative growing practices and nutrition needs to be established in order to avoid confusion and further barriers to scaling. There is no way to certify or market food that is nutritious and grown regeneratively. All existing ones are binary modes of assessing, but it is a continuum where personal spectrometry products or more targeted nutrition science can allow people to have a holistic understanding of the food in front of them and how it connects to the idea of food as medicine. 4. There are opportunities to educate consumers around food and nutrition, and the existing food in low cost grocery stores that can serve nutrition needs and access to better tasting foods. Investors should be aware that food fits impact categories that investors are trending towards as one of the literal greenest investment categories. 5. There is a huge opportunity to come together on these topics to ensure that there is global nutritional density and equity, but it will require a level of collaboration and framing that doesn’t exist. Better collaboration is needed across both spaces and the spaces together as there are many existing organisations tackling regenerative agriculture, nutrition wisdom, food equity and access, and other overlapping categories. This will also be important in elevating local knowledge and issues that need to be addressed for food equity and access. Read less
Action Track(s): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Keywords: Data & Evidence, Environment and Climate, Finance, Governance, Innovation, Policy, Trade-offs