It was one of the main mantras in the life of the late Dr Pearse Lyons, ‘Don’t get it right. Keep it up’. And the latest edition of the Alltech One Ideas conference continues in this spirit.
Mark Lyons: “My father was right! It’s not about perfectionism; it’s about progress. If we change the lens and the way we look at things, we can change the way we think.”
In exchanging their ideas, the conference speakers certainly offered a new perspective on sustainability and the steps forward. Former Unilever CEO, Paul Polman, shared his point of view on the direction in which the world should move. “’I have to be sustainable,’ that’s ‘net zero’. But what does sustainable mean? No damage. This is a very noble thing to do. But ‘sustainable’ means, ‘I maintain the state of what is happening now. I support it’. And that’s not good enough. Not so bad is still bad. The only way to think is to think that is curative, reparative, regenerative, and that is what we call ‘net positive’.
He goes on to say that net positivity is not about doing less harm but about doing more good. According to Polman, a change must take place beyond the scale of the Industrial Revolution. Increasingly, CEOs are required to be broader leaders in society and partner within and beyond the industry. Many CEOs struggle to make changes – and that’s normal. The good news, however, is that the biggest challenges also present the biggest business opportunities.
“We are really at the interface of 2 big ideas: nurturing the present and preserving the future.”
“It’s really about creating a business model where you can show you’re making money from solving the world’s problems, not creating them,” advises Polman. “And if you can honestly answer the question, ‘Is the world a better place because your business is in it?’ We are at the point, confirmed by study after study, where the cost of not acting can be higher than the cost of acting,” he said, “which actually makes it a great economic opportunity to do this greener, more inclusive, more sustainable future. and will not return to the past from which we came, which, in truth, has run out of steam.”
Two big ideas
Lyons concluded: “We are really at the interface of 2 big ideas: nurturing the present and preserving the future. Reduction is not enough; we have to do something different. Our belief is that agriculture has the greatest positive potential to influence the future of our planet because it can provide nutrition for all while helping rural communities thrive and replenish our planet’s resources.
One of the ways that agriculture has a significant impact on restoring and conserving the environment is through carbon sequestration, a concept explained by Vaughn Holder, Alltech ruminant research group director. He introduced the audience to an Alltech research alliance called Archbold Expeditions. Based at the 4,050-acre Buck Island Ranch station in Florida, this research monitors soil, nutrient and pollution inputs and outputs to evaluate experimental methods and modeling approaches for carbon estimation. and nutrient fluxes in cattle operations.
Vaughn revealed that the data shows us that by implementing pasture management practices, agriculture is in a unique position where it can provide the food resources needed by the world’s population while at the same time producing step that helps to conserve and restore the planet. In fact, he stated that by focusing on feed and growth efficiency strategies and carbon sequestration management strategies on pasture lands, we can reduce greenhouse gases by more than 50%.
“Our ability to manipulate it is going to be very important,” Vaughn explained. “No one else is positioned the way we are going to do it.”
There are endless possibilities
Echoing Vaughn’s message of the importance of conserving the world we live in, Nikki Putnam Badding, managing director and chief dietitian of Acutia, focuses on expanding this theme to the world’s population. “Sustainability doesn’t begin and end with environmental impact,” Nikki explains. “It really means we care about the health of the planet and the people who share it.”
This is of increasing importance as population growth puts more pressure on our resources. Creating a table for 10 billion people in 2060 will require 70% more food. An impossible challenge? Heather White, author of ‘A Green Thing‘ know that it is individual actions that lead to cultural shifts towards solutions.
“Each generation stands on the shoulders of the past, and it’s safe to say that we are the wildest dreams of our ancestors. We have the technology and knowledge to make change happen, we just have to ask ourselves, where do we want to stand, 30 years from now? What is our legacy? With that mindset, instead of continuing with past principles, the possibilities are endless.”
