Rajesh Gopalakrishnan Nair[1], November 2024
Australia and California share many similarities concerning the diversity of geographical landscapes, multicultural societies and sustainability challenges.
Agriculture is crucial in both locations, and both are exploring opportunities and options for better integrating agri-food innovation systems to tackle the broadening and increasingly complex goals of the agriculture and food sectors.
Yet, these regions differ in their political governance structures, cultural influences and unique histories. This, in turn, shapes different strategies and approaches for deploying innovation to address the challenges of the agriculture and food sectors and to create new opportunities and pathways for prosperous and sustainable societies.
As part of the Science Summit at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, a panel discussion took place on Innovation for Sustainability: Collaborative Solutions from Australian and Californian Agrifood Systems. The discussion centred on reimagining agricultural innovation in the context of the intertwined relationship between productivity, sustainability, and social inclusion.
Australian and Californian panel members were drawn from government, industry and research. This virtual event was held in September 2024 with a diverse audience of research, practice and policy stakeholders. The following is a synthesis of these discussions.
Redirecting innovation for sustainability.
Traditionally, agriculture, like all production-oriented sectors, has been driven by an agenda of mobilising innovation to improve productivity and international competitiveness. However, the sector's agenda is expanding. This is in response to global concerns related to climate change, environmental sustainability and the challenges of creating just and equitable societies.
Innovation capabilities and processes must adapt if these broader agendas are to be tackled. What will these new innovation capabilities and processes look like?
A focal point of the discussion was the Circular Economy, highlighting two recent initiatives. BEAM Circular, a circular bioeconomy hub in North San Joaquin Valley (NJSV) in California’s agricultural heartland, leads a portfolio of public-private projects for solutions that transform organic residues and byproducts into renewable energy, industrial chemicals and consumer goods.
The Regional Circularity Co-operative Ltd. (RCC), in the Bega Valley of NSW, Australia, is a regional development initiative aspiring to transform the Bega Valley into the most circular regional economy by 2030. Both BEAM and RCC demonstrate models for economic resilience, inclusion, and environmental stewardship. In partnership with the community, businesses, corporations, academia and government, they demonstrate CE transition pathways through pilots.
Six prompting propositions guided the panel discussion on this topic.
First, as productivity and sustainability are inseparable and deeply interwoven, the forward-looking agenda should couple these objectives.
Second, the values of environmental sustainability, fairness and social inclusion underlying this agenda must be embedded in innovative action, practice and policy.
Third, an expanding repertoire of innovation practices and approaches is going to be needed to deal with the expanding and increasingly complex sector goals.
Fourth, carefully choreographing a host of emerging partnerships with the community, industry, research, policy, and others is necessary for driving this agenda forward.
Fifth, it is important to recognise and build new innovation system functions that enable intermediation between actors in the innovation systems and help set the new direction for innovation-action and practice.
Sixth, there is a need to expand the set of policy options and policy levers beyond R&D and integrate policy responses across different cross-cutting sectors and portfolios.
Unique strategies and shared commitments
California, having taken proactive steps in climate change policy and agricultural sustainability, has embraced strategies such as supporting pre-competitive collaboration and nature-based solutions. This means public policy supporting cooperation in addressing common challenges before competition becomes a factor while also increasing reliance on nature-based solutions.
These approaches help to enhance inclusiveness and minimise environmental impacts through the participation of diverse communities, including First Nations people. Policies like the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and cap-and-trade mechanisms drive California's focus on inclusiveness. These policy innovations have prepared a strong ground for a sustainable transition that leaves no one behind.
In parallel, Australia’s agricultural sector faces its own set of challenges, primarily climate change and transitioning to a circular economy. Australian efforts have increasingly focused on inclusivity, particularly through the involvement of First Nations communities, women, and people with disabilities.
Significant R&D investments have led to technological advancements and economic growth. Collaborative action and sustainability have always been prioritised. The National Statement on First Nations Agriculture is a major move for improving inclusiveness. The national statement envisions the integration of grassroots knowledge and practices with the national agricultural policy.
The narratives from both Australia and California share a commitment to sustainability but also highlight unique strategies. For example, while California focuses on market-based solutions and strategic funding for de-risking green transition, Australia’s focal areas include biosecurity and environmental stewardship.
Both regions aim for net-zero emissions and have developed policies employing "Nature Positive" approaches and carbon markets as tools for meeting sustainability goals.
Key takeaways
The four key reflections emerged from the discussion
First, while technology is necessary, it is not sufficient for addressing the complex and expanding agenda of the agriculture and food sectors.
Second, innovation should be inclusive, deeply engaging and bringing together different communities, voices, perspectives, resources, ideas and knowledge. Further, the inclusiveness should also be in terms of its outcomes, making it relevant to different communities and stakeholders. This essentially requires building innovation ecosystems that embed knowledge and action, connecting communities and empowering people to operate within them.
Third, market-driven solutions alone will not resolve sustainability challenges. Proactive government intervention is necessary in convening pre-competitive collaboration. Public policy should foster intentionality and directionality in the pathways of development.
Finally, scaling sustainability efforts is not merely deploying more technology and diffusing it widely. On the contrary, scaling involves creating and diffusing new industries, economic models and socially and environmentally relevant value propositions. This will need far-reaching changes in society and in political arenas so that planning and action are driven by explicit values of sustainability, inclusion and circularity. Deep scaling of this sort is a key priority.
Together, these four ideas reinforce the importance of the ongoing dialogue between Australia and California in a collaborative learning process. The shared challenges and necessity-driven quest for solutions position them as potential leaders in addressing the global agri-food and environmental issues through sustainable and inclusive innovation.
Note: This article is based on a conversation held as part of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly organised by CSIRO (VSFSP)-DAFF (ABARES) Innovation Policy Project in collaboration with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) on 18 September 2024. A Memorandum of Understanding between the Australian Government and the Government of the State of California, signed in 2023, was the impetus for this event. The MoU provides a forum for cooperation and information sharing on issues including sustainability in agriculture.
The panel included Karen Ross (Secretary, CDFA, California), Jared Greenville (Acting Deputy Secretary, DAFF, Australia), Joshua Viers (Professor, School of Engineering, University of California, Merced), Cindy Cassidy (Executive Director, SNSW Innovation Hub, Australia), Karen Warner (CEO, BEAM Circular, California) and Andrew Taylor (CEO, Regional Circularity Co-operative in Bega, NSW). The panel was moderated by Josette Lewis (Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Almond Board of California) and Peat Leith (Director VSFSP, CSIRO) and was chaired by Andy Hall (Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO, Australia).
The author thanks Andy Hall for valuable insights in refining the report.
[1] Rajesh, an early-career researcher at CSIRO, Australia, was the rapporteur of the Australia-California joint panel at the Science Summit of the 79th UN-General Assembly.
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