The Global Sustainable Food Laboratory: an example of

the U process in use

Hal Hamilton

Director,

The Sustainability Institute

Presented to

SoL Sustainability Consortium

Context

– Agriculture is the largest industry on the planet and employs an estimated 1.3 billion people and produces 1.3 trillion at the farm gate.

– About half of the habitable land on Earth is used for agriculture and livestock production.

– Food production has more than kept pace with global population growth, on average food supplies are 24% higher per person than in 1961 and prices are 40% lower. Over same period global population has doubled from 3 to 6 billion.

The Unintended Consequences

• Since 1945 moderate, severe or extreme soil degradation has affected an area the size of China and India combined.

• More than 70% of the world’s fishery resources (for which there is information) are now fully fished or overfished.

• 10,400 people die per year in the U.S. from cancer related to pesticides.

Despite Productivity Gains, Food Systems Don’t Feed People Well

• FAO estimates that 800 million people in the world are seriously underfed.

• About 80% of world’s hungry live in rural areas and 50% of them, or 400 million, - live in low income households who depend primarily on farming.

We see this pattern of falling prices across commodities

Soybean Price ('00 $/Bu)

0

10

20

30

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000Data: USDA- NASS

Corn Price ('00 $/Bu)

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5

10

15

20

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000Data: USDA- NASS

Wheat Price ('00 $/Bu)

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5

10

15

20

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Data: USDA- NASS

Cotton Price ('00 $/lb)

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1

2

3

4

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Data: USDA- NASS

Edible Dry Beans Price ('00 $/Bu)

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5

10

15

20

25

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000Data: USDA- NASS

Potato Price ('00$/cwt)

0

10

20

30

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Data: USDA- NASS

And increasing production

Potato (000,000 CWT)

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2

4

6

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Soybean Production (Billion Bu)

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1

2

3

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000Data: USDA- NASS

Corn Production (Billion Bu)

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2

4

6

8

10

12

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000Data: USDA- NASS

Wheat Production- All (Billion Bu)

0

1

2

3

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000Data: USDA- NASS

Cotton (000,000 Bales)

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10

20

30

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000Data: USDA- NASS

Northern Forest Lumber (Billion BF)

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1

2

3

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000Data: USFS -- Steer, U.S. Census

(ME, NH, VT, NY)Atlantic CodĞNew England

(000 Metric Tons)

0

20

40

60

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

The Vision: Bringing Sustainable Agriculture into the Mainstream

• There are many small, marginal, niche, and philanthropic examples of more sustainable food systems.

• The efforts of most players, however, are fragmented and polarized.

• The players lack a “safe space” and a process for working together.

Change Can Occur at Different Levels

Re-acting

Re-structuring

Re-designing

Re-framing

Re-generating

Challenge

Old structure

Old processes

Old thinking

Purpose

Response

New structure

Newprocesses

Newthinking

Uncovering existing reality

Enacting new reality

Source: Scharmer

The U-Process is a Three-PhaseMethodology for Addressing Complex Challenges

Source: Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski and Flowers

I:Co-Sensing: transforming perception

II: Co-Presencing:transforming self and

will

III: Co-Realizing:

transforming action

The Food Lab Team is From Three Sectors and Three Continents

Europe North America Latin America

Govern-ment

European CommissionDutch Ministry of AGUK National Health Ser

Canadian ParliamentInternational Finance

Corporation

Brazilian Ministry of Agrarian Development

World Bank

Business CarrefourFjord SeafoodNutrecoRabobankShell FoundationRoyal GreenlandUnilever

CargillCostcoGeneral MillsHeinzJasper WymanLaura’s Lean BeefOrganic Valley CooperativeStarbucksSYSCOUS Foodservice

Brazilian Speciality Coffee AssociationSadia

Civil society

AlimenterraCenter for Food PolicyCharles Leopold Mayer

FoundationConsumers InternationalInternational Institute for

Environment and Development

King Baudouin Foundation

Institute for Agricultural and Trade Policy

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Rainforest AllianceSociety for Organizational

LearningSynergos InstituteW.K. Kellogg FoundationWorld Wildlife Fund

Caribbean InstituteBrazilian Confederation of Agricultural

Workers (CONTAG)International Center for Tropical

AgricultureOxfamThe Nature ConservancyWorld Agriculture ForumWorld Forum of Fish Harvesters and

Fish WorkersWorking List

Executive Champions• Lawrence Benjamin, CEO, US Foodservice, United States• Antony Burgmans (alternates: Jeroen Bordewijk, Andre van Heemstra), Chairman, Unilever, Netherlands• Pierre Calame, President, Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation, France• Wout Dekker, CEO and Chairman, Nutreco, the Netherlands• Richard Foster, Vice-President, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, United States• Luiz Gonzago Murat, Chief Financial Officer, and Gilberto Tomazoni, CEO, Sadia, Brazil• Kurt Hoffman, President, Shell Foundation, United Kingdom• Bart Jan Krouwel, Managing Director, Sustainability and Social Innovation, Rabobank, the Netherlands• John Machuzick, Senior Vice President, General Mills, United States• Joost Martens, Regional Director, Mexico and Caribbean, Oxfam GB• Steven McCormick, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Nature Conservancy, United States• Eugenio Peixoto, Secretary of Agrarian Reorganization, Ministry of Agrarian Development, Brazil• Gerrit Rauws, Director, King Baudouin Foundation, Belgium• Mark Ritchie, President, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, United States• Bruce Schearer, President, The Synergos Institute, United States• Richard Schnieders, CEO, SYSCO, United States• Paul Trân Van Thinh, Former Ambassador of the European Union to the World Trade Organization• Roland Vaxelaire (alternate: Thierry Legault), Director of Quality and Sustainable Development,

Carrefour, France

Some of the Lab Team Members• Johan Alleman, Program Officer, King Baudouin Foundation, Belgium• Pedro Alfredo Avendaño Garcés, Executive Director, World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fishworkers,

Canada• Arthur Bogason, Chairman, National Association of Small Boat Owners, Iceland• Arie van den Brand, Director, In Natura, former Member of Parliament, the Netherlands• Pedro de Camargo Neto, Sociedade Rural Brasileira, Brazil• João S. Campari, Director, The Nature Conservancy, Brazil• Anthony Cavalieri, The Nature Conservancy, United States• Juan Cheaz Paleaz, Regional Policy Coordinator for Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, Oxfam GB,

the Dominican Republic• Jason Clay, Vice President, Center for Conservation Innovation, World Wildlife Fund, United States• Meire de Fatima Ferreira, Coordinator for Sustainability, Sadia, Brazil • Osler Desouzart, Consultant, formerly with Sadia, Perdigão and Doux Frangosul, Brazil• Mark Eckstein, (former) Environment and Social Development Department, International Finance

Corporation, United States• Alberto Ercilio Broch, National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (Contag), Brazil• Sheri Flies, Corporate Counsel, Costco Wholesale Corporation, United States• Laura Freeman, President and CEO, Laura’s Lean Beef, United States• Gilles Gaebel, Fresh Food Development, Carrefour, France• John Goldstein, Senior Managing Director, Medley Global Advisors, United States• Rosalinda Guillen, former farm worker and leader in the farm worker movement, United States• Oran Hesterman, Program Director, W. K. Kellogg Foundation, United States• Eugene Kahn, Vice-President for Sustainability, General Mills, United States• Panayotis Lebessis, Economic Analysis and Evaluation, DG Agriculture of the European Commission

Some Lab Team Members (cont.)• Mark Lundy, Senior Research Fellow, Rural Agroenterprise Development Project, International Center for Tropical

Agriculture (CIAT), Colombia• Theresa Marquez, Marketing Director, Organic Valley Cooperative, United States• Alberto Monterroso Morales, President, Commercializadora Aj Ticonel, Guatemala• Neyde Nóbrega Nery, Executive Director, Assocene - Associação de Orientação das Cooperativas do Nordeste, Brazil• Frederick Payton, Executive Director, AgroFrontera, Dominican Republic• Clive Peckham, Director, AlimenTerra, United Kingdom• Bjarne Pedersen, Principal Policy Officer, Consumers International, United Kingdom• Larry Pulliam, Senior Vice President, SYSCO, United States• Elena Saraceno, Policy Advisor to the President, European Commission, Belgium• Peggy Sechrist, Texas farmer, President, Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, United States• Bruce Tozer, Former Managing Director, Structured Trade and Commodity Finance, Rabobank International, United

Kingdom• Frank van Ooijen, Public Affairs and Corporate Communications Director, Nutreco, the Netherlands• Henk van Oosten, Staff Member, Innovation Network, Ministry of Agriculture, the Netherlands• Marcelo Vieira, farmer and board member, Brazil Specialty Coffee Association and Brazilian Rural Society, Brazil• Jan Kees Vis, Sustainable Agriculture Manager, Unilever, the Netherlands• Pierre Vuarin, Program Director, Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation, France• Craig Watson, Vice President, Quality Assurance and Agricultural Sustainability, SYSCO, United States• Tensi Whelan, Executive Director, Rainforest Alliance, United States• Paul Winter, Trust Catering Manager, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, United Kingdom• Casper van Zijl, Sustainability Officer, Royal Ahold, the Netherlands

The Food Lab Team is Applying the U-Process to Address the Sustainable Food Challenge

June 2004 Foundation Workshop in Netherlands

August-October 2004 Learning Journeys in Brazil

June 2006 Launch of Sustainable Food Network or Partnership (in design)

November 2005 Review Workshop in Costa Rica

April 2005 Design Studio in Salzburg

November 2004 Innovation Retreat in Arizona

Six

Initi

ativ

e A

reas

of W

ork

Launc

hed

Convening Interviews in US, Europe and Latin America

Lab Team

Latin America

Livelihoods

Business Coalition

Food for Health

Responsible Commodities

Sustainable Fisheries

Framing sustainability

to public

Secretariat ExecutiveChampions

New York City : improve

school food health and

sustainability

Paris, London : pilot

projects in schools and health care

Public Policy in EU

Share, harmonize, and

improve standards and

audits

Meta Standard Development: for buyers and

investors

Research: commodities certification &

standards

US Research

EU Research

Iceland: quota fund

arrangement

Chili: Wild fisheries

DR small farmer

capacity development

Guatemala : prototype a supply chain

that increases value upstream

Latin America Learning Alliance

messaging

The Lab Team Has Spawned Six Initiative Areas of Work

Packaging innovations

Replicable model of

supply chain innovation:

Green beans in Guatemala

Lessons Mid-Stream

• Convening– The diversity of Lab Team members to “see” the whole system,

and their collective capacity to take action is essential.

• Sensing– Learning Journeys are powerful when facilitated with lots of

opportunities for reflection (not study trips).

– In our next Lab, we are adding a much greater use of systems thinking tools along with scenario building.

Lessons Mid-Stream (continued)

• Presencing– The capacity to quiet the mind and sense emerging realities is

necessary for transformative change. We’re still learning how to facilitate group presencing, and in future labs we will encourage presencing practices from the beginning, and rely less on the solo event.

– Although the Food Lab solo didn’t result in breakthroughs, it created a wonderful sense of shared commitment and common purpose.

Lessons Mid-Stream (continued)

• Realizing– What had been designed as a 2-year project has become

a long-term evolving network.– The Lab Team choose six areas of work where they

saw high leverage, and we were initially quite concerned about the separation of these initiatives in silos. Over time, however, as initiative leaders identified partners they needed for success, the initiatives have become more and more multi-sector and linked with one another.

– Integration of systems thinking into the U process

The Productivity Dilemma

Pressure to expand markets

Demand forcommodity

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Commodity supply

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Average price

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R2

os

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R4

R1Total profit

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Reinvestment

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s

Capacity

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R3

Profits per producer

Size and tech level per producer

B1

o

Pressure toboost production

per unit cost

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s

s

Total production

Efficiency& Scale

PriceCapacity

TotalProduction

Profits

Demand

Reinvestment

PRODUCTION GROWTH DRIVERSR1

Risks of the Overproduction Treadmill

Here’s What We’re Still Trying Working to Figure Out

• Government involvement

• Creating environments for NGOs and businesses to engage together in practical projects that stretch everyone’s visions and capacities

• Anti-trust issues

This application of the U process in multi-stakeholder settings is a work in progress!