3 reasons global food security is within reach – and how farmers are leading the way 

By Brian Sikes, Cargill Board Chair and CEO
Brian is the 10th CEO in Cargill’s 160-year history, leading the company’s efforts to nourish the world in a safe, responsible, and sustainable way.

 

If farmers can’t win, people won’t eat. 

That simple truth motivates everything we do at Cargill as we work to nourish the world. Farmers and the frontline workers who power global supply chains are our most critical partners in growing, making and moving the food we all depend on.  

Today, these heroes of agriculture face an onslaught of complex challenges, including market access, resource constraints, economic pressures and a changing climate. How we empower them to meet these and other challenges will shape the future of food security. 

Solutions are within our industry’s reach. As Dr. Wendy Wintersteen, President of Iowa State University, discussed at the World Food Prize Foundation's annual Borlaug Dialogue, a global conference focused on food security, there are three things that give us hope we can bend the curve on hunger. 

1. The grit and foresight of farmers and frontline workers. 
2. The problem-solving power of innovation. 
3. And the transformative impact of cross-sector partnership. 

 

Farmers are leading the way to a food secure future 

Every day, 600 million farmers rise early to raise the crops and animals that feed our world. Their expertise and heroic effort should inspire us all. Because everywhere I look, across Cargill’s supply chains, I see producers courageously meeting the challenges in front of them, while making long-term decisions that will leave their farms and the world’s food system better than they found them. 

Take Alan Horak and his daughter Emily. For five generations, their Iowa family farm has grown crops that have fed and fueled the world. Determined to make it six, the Horaks worked with Cargill to adopt regenerative practices on 100% of their acreage. The results: stronger roots, better water retention and healthier yields. 

The Horaks aren’t alone. Farmers around the world are taking the future into their own hands, adopting new approaches to improve their operations. 

• In places like France, Australia, and Brazil, we’ve seen regenerative agriculture and nature-based solutions strengthen farm productivity, water efficiency and more. 
• In Africa, we’ve worked with Harvest Plus to connect smallholder farmers with biofortified seeds that grow more climate-resilient, nutrient-rich crops – improving incomes and nutrition. 
• And in Central America, we've worked alongside CARE on a project with tilapia farmers that has dramatically reduced fish mortality for participating farmers – improving animal welfare while boosting farmer livelihoods. 

These stories, and countless others, prove farmers will always be a force to reckon with – so long as we all do our part to help enable their success. 

 

Innovation is transforming how we feed the world 

As farmers and frontline food workers race to feed 8.6 billion people by 2030, business as usual won’t cut it. Like Dr. Norman Borlaug and other pioneering thinkers who shaped food and agriculture before us, we must invest in the problem-solving power of innovation.

A new University of Minnesota study previewed at the Borlaug Dialogue noted that investment in agricultural R&D has tripled over the last four decades. Despite the progress that increased investment has unlocked, we have to do more to advance innovation in our industry. And no emerging technology packs more potential to transform food and agriculture than artificial intelligence (AI). That’s why Cargill is leaning into it. 

• Our CattleView® technology is using drone imagery to give ranchers real-time insights on the health of their herds, so they can make informed decisions about how to feed and care for them. 
• We’re using AI-enabled computer vision technology in our beef plants to measure how much meat is left on the bone — helping our frontline teams cut more accurately and minimize waste. 
• And AI is making our ports more efficient — helping us predict grain volumes, decrease drying costs, simulate the flow of barges and trucks, and even determine the best times to unload. 

We’ve only scratched the surface of the value AI can unlock. Though these are early days, it’s clear AI can be a game changer – enabling farmers and frontline workers to connect a food secure world. 

 

Partnership is essential to ending hunger 

Agriculture is a team sport. Because the challenges facing the food system are too big for any single organization to solve alone. We must work together — across sectors, geographies, and disciplines. 

I left Des Moines, Iowa, inspired by our industry’s best and brightest. Not because of the work any one company, organization, or university is leading. But because of our shared awareness that bending the curve on hunger will take the work of many hands, all pulling in the same direction. 

The progress we’ve made to-date is encouraging. It’s also fragile and incomplete. Because 730 million people will go to bed hungry tonight, and that’s something none of us are content to accept. 

Now, as we pull together to fill every empty plate, our ambition is anchored in more than hope. It’s rooted in the faith we share in farmers and frontline food workers, our collective commitment to innovation, and the conviction that together we can end hunger as we know it. 

I’ve never been more optimistic that we will.