The clean plate strategy: creating sustainable food systems in the US

Decarbonising the food and beverage sector will require collaborative, cross-sector action – from rethinking supplier relationships to scaling regenerative practices. At the recent future of food and beverage forum in Minneapolis, roundtable discussions brought together business leaders, sustainability experts and supply chain practitioners to unpack key strategies for meaningful climate impact. Here are the main takeaways from across the sessions.

Conversations around producer engagement returned to a familiar tension: sustainability measures often add cost – so who pays? Participants agreed that the most promising solutions deliver productivity and sustainability in tandem. These “win-wins” are essential to scale adoption among farmers and ranchers. Rather than treating sustainability as an added burden, participants emphasised the need for systems that reward environmental gains with economic returns.

Confusion around regenerative agriculture continues to hamper mainstream consumer engagement. Few consumers understand what “regenerative” means, making brand storytelling particularly challenging. The consensus was to keep messaging simple and grounded – focusing on personal health and general environmental benefit without overwhelming detail or fear-based appeals. 

Brands must also tread carefully in an environment of increasing litigation risk, where greenwashing claims are common. Internally, clearer communication throughout the value chain is equally important, ensuring producers and suppliers understand the value proposition. The debate around whether regenerative products require premium pricing – and whether scale is achievable without it – remains unresolved.

Supply chain resilience is evolving from risk mitigation to strategic differentiation. Companies are beginning to evaluate which suppliers are best equipped to deliver on future sustainability goals – not just based on compliance, but on ability and motivation to adapt. A recurring insight was the importance of segmenting suppliers by these criteria to focus engagement and investment where it matters most. Education and alignment remain central, with companies increasingly working to bring suppliers along rather than leaving them behind. Global goal alignment and risk analysis tools are emerging as essential enablers of this process.

The data burden on farmers remains a major sticking point in land-use transformation. Discussions focused on the scale at which data is collected – field, farm, supply shed, national – and the purposes behind it. Participants cautioned against creating systems that demand granular information without clear benefits to producers. 

Building trust, reducing friction and clarifying data use are critical to ensuring participation. Ultimately, data should support decision-making, not serve as an extractive reporting exercise.

No single renewable electricity solution meets all needs for food and beverage companies. Instead, many are building diverse portfolios that balance additionality, cost efficiency and contractual flexibility. As scope 2 emissions become better managed, attention is shifting toward scope 1, with companies weighing the trade-offs of renewable natural gas, thermals and biofuels. Cross-functional collaboration between procurement, finance and sustainability teams is essential to unlocking investment and driving emissions reductions.

Ammonia – though largely invisible to consumers – is a foundational input for modern food systems. The emergence of green ammonia offers a distributed, lower-emission alternative to conventional production. With local wind, solar and hydro as feedstocks, food and beverage companies have an opportunity to integrate green ammonia into renewable energy strategies – potentially as a complement to or substitute for battery storage. 

A call emerged for the creation of Clean Ammonia Certificates (CAMs), modelled on renewable energy certificates, to track and validate low-carbon ammonia across supply chains.

As biodiversity and nature reporting gains ground, climate action is increasingly seen as nested within broader environmental goals. Participants noted that nature is becoming the umbrella under which climate fits – particularly in cases where carbon is difficult to measure or verify. Supply-shed approaches continue to show promise for addressing both climate and biodiversity, though clarity across certification and measurement schemes remains a priority. 

Water stewardship emerged as a leading opportunity, with watershed restoration seen as a tangible area where nature goals can be made real – often unlocking benefits that carbon-focused strategies alone cannot deliver.

Farmers were widely acknowledged as the essential protagonists in this transition – the “true value creators” in the system. A strong call emerged for more localised, context-specific approaches, recognising that agriculture is inherently place-based. Regenerative agriculture continues to scale and with it comes growing emphasis on transparency, water management and trust-building.

A shift in tone was also evident. Delegates spoke of moving from “aspirational to operational”, underscoring a broader maturity in sustainability discourse. Impact, not intent, is becoming the metric of credibility. One final phrase that resonated throughout the event: “purchase flywheel” – a reminder that procurement choices can be powerful levers for change when aligned with long-term sustainability goals.