Over the course of three working decades I have never heard such a statement from a Ministry of Agriculture: “My job is to really listen and to deliver public support that stimulates producers and business to thrive sustainably”.

We are quite proud to partner with Mexico’s visionary young leaders like Jorge Narvaez, Santiago Arguello, and Vera Espindola in the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA). They are working day and night (one of our meetings ended at 10:00PM!) to establish science-based metrics that allow a faster and better understanding of their diverse sustainability efforts. They know that they need to measure the actual impacts of their efforts and together we are establishing the initial stages of simple systems that offer clear perspectives of the real-time performance of hundreds of millions of dollars of public investments across crops as diverse as maize, palm oil, and coffee.

Mexico is just one of the important places where such results-oriented development is blooming. Below are some perspectives from the Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR), from Peru and the UNDP, Switzerland’s move toward Sustainable Cocoa, new developments for our work on Resilience, and a perspective on the recent World Coffee Producers Forum.

With regards,

Daniele Giovannucci
President

 

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Global Agricultural Forum spotlights COSA innovations in impact measurement

COSA is honored to be highlighted by The Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR) in a week-long spotlight featuring diverse COSA contributions to measuring impact and the performance of sustainability initiatives and investments. The spotlight week will offer deeper insights into… More…

 

 

COSA unveils practical approach to measuring resilience

The resilience of a household or community is a key factor to address poverty and inequality. And yet, work on this topic is hindered by complexity and the requirement for substantial expertise which both lead to high costs and limited accessibility. With the support of the Ford Foundation, COSA undertook to build on the best global practices but in a fundamentally new way… More…

 

 

COSA signs with Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa

COSA joined leading members of the chocolate industry as a founding member of the new Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa. The initiative, which includes Lindt & Sprüngli, Mondelēz, and Chocosuisse, envisions a more sustainable cocoa-based industry. We expect that… More…

 

 

World Coffee Producer Forum and its challenge to the coffee industry

“The conversation is now out in the open about the disparate economics in the coffee value chain,” writes Chad Trewick, Board member of the Specialty Coffee Association.

At the World Coffee Producers Forum held in Medellín, Colombia this year with high profile attendance by luminaries such as former US president Bill Clinton, and current presidents Juan Manuel Santos (Colombia) and Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera (Costa Rica), the supply end of the coffee value chain articulated the increasingly onerous… More…

 

 

COSA’s science-based approach attracts interest from public and private sectors

Speaking on how the Government of Peru could work with the mounting and widespread corporate push toward “deforestation-free commodities”, COSA President Daniele Giovannucci and the honorable Peruvian Minister of Environment Elsa Patricia Galarza Contreras made very aligned comments onstage about the importance of clear science-based approaches… More…

 

 

 

Mark Halle, Senior Fellow at IISD, joins COSA Board

Mark Halle, whose career spans decades of contributions to  sustainable development thinking and institutions, has joined COSA’s Board of Directors. A Senior Fellow at the International Institute of Sustainable Development, he has worked with the United Nations Environment Programme, The World Wildlife Federation and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. He was previously IISD’s European Representative and its Director for Trade and Investment. Mark is based in Switzerland. Mark writes:

“From the early days, I have admired the patient work of COSA to provide a solid foundation for sustainability claims.  It was painstaking work undertaken down to the farm level but it was absolutely necessary to assess the value and cost-effectiveness of sustainability standards. COSA has grown and become a very sophisticated player in this space, always out ahead of the curve and always innovating. I am proud and honoured to serve on the Board and to support COSA in its dedication to advancing science-based sustainable forms of production and consumption.”  More…