The world relies on sustainable agriculture, resilient supply chains, and the availability of healthy food. BCG works with businesses, foundations, and governments to make the world’s food supply flourish—even in the face of climate-related threats.
Sonya Hoo
The challenges related to food systems and security are complex and urgent.Climate changecan and does threaten the food supply—along with the incomes of those who grow crops or raise livestock. Catastrophes such as COVID-19 can throw just-in-time supply chains off balance in a flash. At the same time, workers, customers, and shareholders are exerting pressure on companies to reduce their carbon footprint and their use of plastics in packaging.
BCG helps organizations manage these complexities. We bring deep expertise on issues ranging fromsupply chain managementto advanced data and analytics. And we take a holistic, systems-mapping approach to help our clients address challenges.
大型食品系统企业管理的增刊ly chains that crisscross the globe. And yet many of their challenges are local. Our holistic approach to food systems consulting helps keep these dynamics in balance and includes support in the following areas:
A global leader in plant nutrition and phosphate fertilizers transformed its core business to provide agricultural solutions to ensure global food security and combat climate change.
How to build resilience in Egyptian food systems in a post-COVID world.
Digital Agriculture
Digital has the potential to transform agriculture in ways that can improve food security as well as the livelihoods and resiliency of farmers who are feeling the effects of climate change. But digital transformation doesn’t come easily, especially in a such a complex, fragmented space. We worked with the Gates Foundation to take a systems approach to understand what a strong digital agriculture ecosystem looks like, and how best to facilitate the development of both public and private sector digital solutions.
Smallholder Farmers
These small, often single-family-owned farms face particular challenges to thrive or even to subsist. We create custom solutions based on our careful study of each situation. For instance, a thorough review of successful smallholder support systems in China yielded a plan for applying best practices to parts of Africa.我们也与主要基础紧密合作take a systems-change approach to supporting smallholder livestock development and digital farmer services.
Agricultural Trade Policies
Trade policies are key to unlocking food self-sufficiency possibilities, building an agricultural sector, meeting worldwide food demand, and more. In one engagement, we helped an African country and a regional free trade union understand the mutual benefits, negotiation strategies, and legal risks involved in entering a free trade agreement.
Agricultural Markets and Development
The agricultural value chain is subject to many new trends and disruptions. We help clients understand emerging trends and incorporate them into long-term plans. For instance, we helped a ministry of agriculture in Latin America create a development plan for the country’s agriculture frontier region.
Food Systems Transformation Journey
Transforming a country’s food system begins with a thorough analysis of that system. BCG, in collaboration with the Food System Transformative Integrated Policy Initiative, developed atoolkitthat offers a step-by-step process guide as well as practical tools that, using a collaborative design approach, help to identify the key challenges and opportunities in a country’s food system.
Stunting
Stunting, one of the effects of malnutrition, has long-term impacts on brain development and cognitive function.BCG’s food security consultants partnered with the World Food Programme (WFP) in Tanzania toaddress chronic hunger and the stunting it causes. This work illustrates how our approach calledSmart Simplicitycan be used by any organization to address complex problems, such as food security and malnutrition, using current resources and funding.
Nutrition
Encouraging better nutrition begins with understanding where the problems are. In our work with the Atlanta Community Food Bank, we mapped supply and demand of nutrition assistance. In other projects, we have developed training and communication tools and strategies for improving the production of, and access to, nutritious foods.
For more than a decade, BCG has supported WFP to enhance its effectiveness on a wide range of strategic, operational, and organizational issues.
BCG is the knowledge partner ofOP2B, a business coalition dedicated to driving transformational change to protect and restore biodiversity, with a specific focus on regenerative agricultural practices.
波士顿咨询集团的领导人将在COP28代表团,UN Climate Change Conference, where they will work alongside public, private, and social sector leaders to accelerate climate action and advance adaptation and resilience. Learn more about our in-person and virtual programming.
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It’s time for a radical rethinking of food policies in Africa. Here, BCG’s Chris Mitchell joins Federico Bellone of High-Level Climate Champions at COP27 to discuss what it will take, amid rising temperatures, to transform food systems across the continent.
Climate change is pushing natural systems to the brink. Companies that integrate sustainability into their core can change the game.
With global food systems facing significant sustainability challenges, we need a change in global agricultural practices. That’s why BCG—together with the COP28 Presidency, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions—is chairing a flagship initiative to accelerate the transition to regenerative agriculture. Discover the critical role soil health plays in capturing carbon, maintaining biodiversity, retaining water, and supporting local economies, and learn about the barriers and benefits farmers are experiencing in changing their practices—as well as the role the private and public sector can play in supporting this initiative.
Managing Director & Partner
Washington, DC
