best possible harvest, and ideally offer a lever to improve farm economics structurally through product branding and traceability. It requires however an extension of the skillsets of all participants, and this may create participation barriers to small scale companies and organizations. The big data trend in agriculture may also lead to formation of multiple parallel closed value chains, where players start cooperating based on pre-agreed working principles.
Smooth adoption of innovation interlinks with pricing and fair economics. It is a “must have” for all parties involved. Any new sustainability attribute should therefore either (1) reduce cost, (2) be cost neutral and have a convincing use benefit, or (3) trigger a surplus cost that is paid for because of benefits or broader policy requirements. In the field of sustainability, that introduces a long-term benefit dimension, one may expect that the innovation in scope will often increase costs in today’s balance sheet. Tailored policies, risk funding and a further activation of informed consumer choice are amongst the most promising enablers of the desirable market development underlying the Green Deal, and they need to complement seamlessly the EU innovation goals and resources with the proper time order in mind.
ES: But it is not just the seed sector that needs to make changes. Which actors are also involved?
MC: I think it is all of us collectively. We are the ones that slow down the migration to a sustainable world, and we do that at three levels: with our job in the economic system, as a consumer when shopping, and as a small shareholder looking for financial returns. To put it in other words: an abrupt migration to a sustainable world is unthinkable because the majority of society derives their welfare and income from the existing business environment.
Society as a whole is locked into a complex socio-economic equilibrium, and migration to a sustainable future needs to deal with business continuity at macro-level. This implies a gradual shift is the best that can happen. Society also delivers the consumer groups, and their buying behavior is often based on a price-quality-volume decision, thereby sustaining the market space for today’s type of products. And lastly, society also provides the subgroup that invests in stocks and futures based on the highest growth perspective of the market cap, or the highest pay-out of dividend. Recent examples show that traditional manufacturers announcing to redirect earnings into e.g., R&D to develop EVs (Electrical Vehicles) and thereby reduce dividend, tend to get punished in the stock market.
An aligned, understandable communication on sustainability from academia to value chain to society will be critical to drive change as it enables societal expectations and consumer demand to connect with agricultural production and output. Preferably, an aligned communication reaches us in each of the three roles we have, and is combined with associable benefits at work, when shopping, or when selecting stocks. Collective, small shifts in personal behavior are necessary to create the inflection point where suddenly the socio-economic system starts moving into the right direction. The Green Deal and sadly enough also the economic recession following COVID19, offer a proper frame to shape a future EU market in which agricultural sustainability delivers consumer value, but I think it is really up to society to make it work.