COP30: the world has held nearly three decades of COPs, but only recently has agriculture entered the conversation.

When Climate Hits Home

Last week, just before COP30, southern Brazil offered a brutal reminder that climate disruption is no longer a future scenario — it’s here. A hurricane ripped through Rio Bonito do Iguaçu, in Paraná state, destroying entire houses and rural communities. The year before, historic floods in Rio Grande do Sul submerged cities, wiped out harvests, and displaced thousands of families.

These events exposed the growing vulnerability of rural Brazil. They paralyzed communities, disrupted logistics, and reminded everyone how extreme weather can ripple through the economy. Meanwhile, other producing regions also faced growing climate pressure: in the Cerrado and Midwest, a significant share of soybean and corn areas are now operating outside their ideal climate range, threatening yields; in Minas Gerais, irregular rainfall and drought episodes are forcing coffee growers to adopt costly irrigation and adaptation measures. For global food and ingredient companies, this isn’t a distant tragedy, it’s a preview of what unchecked climate volatility means for security of supply and supply chain resilience.

Today, the world is gathering in Belém for COP30, the first climate conference to take place in the heart of the Amazon. The symbolism is undeniable: the planet’s largest carbon sink hosting the event that could finally connect climate action to the land itself.

If the climate crisis is hitting our fields, perhaps the answer must start there too.

Agriculture Still Seen as Part of the Problem

For decades, agriculture has been portrayed as one of the world’s climate villains. It contributes roughly 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions, through deforestation, soil degradation, livestock, and fertilizer use.

Regulators and investors demand deforestation-free sourcing and Scope 3 emissions disclosure, while consumers want proof of sustainability behind every product. But despite progress, agriculture remains framed as a liability, not a lever.

This view is dangerously outdated. Yes, the sector emits, but it also stores, restores, and regenerates. Agriculture is the only large-scale system capable of pulling carbon from the atmosphere and locking it into the soil.

Yet the global narrative hasn’t caught up. Policymakers still treat agriculture as a sector to monitor, not to empower. And food companies, often under pressure, focus more on compliance than transformation.

30 Years of Climate Talks, Little Impact on Land

The world has held nearly three decades of COPs, but only recently has agriculture entered the conversation. A quick look back explains why:

• Rio 92 (Brazil): The UNFCCC was born. Agriculture wasn’t on the radar.
• Kyoto (1997): Industrial emissions dominated; land use barely appeared.
• Copenhagen (2009): REDD+ emerged, linking climate and forests, a first step toward land-based action.
• Paris (2015): The landmark Paris Agreement opened space for countries to include agriculture in their NDCs, but few did.
• Koronivia (2017): The first UNFCCC workstream formally dedicated to agriculture.
• Glasgow (2021): Global declaration to end deforestation by 2030.
• Dubai (2023): The “Food Systems Declaration” recognized that no climate strategy can succeed without transforming how we produce food.

Thirty years, countless commitments, but limited change on the ground. While global leaders negotiated emissions curves, agriculture received little tangible support, financial or political. Yet the sector kept moving, innovating, and adjusting on its own, striving to stay productive and sustainable amid climate shocks and policy gaps. The gap between conference rooms and farmlands grew wider.

For food and ingredient companies sourcing from Latin America, this gap is more than political. It defines business continuity, brand credibility, and long-term access to sustainable raw materials.

Agriculture as the Solution: The Reverte Case

The tide is turning. The climate conversation is moving from reduction to regeneration and agriculture sits at its center.

Brazil, often targeted for deforestation, now offers proof that large-scale regenerative transformation is possible. The Reverte Program, led by Syngenta in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and local producers, is one of the most concrete examples.

Reverte focuses on restoring degraded pastures in the Cerrado, one of the world’s most critical biomes. By combining soil recovery, crop rotation, integrated crop-livestock-forest systems (ILPF), and precision agronomy, it transforms low-productivity areas into fertile, sustainable farmland.

The program goes beyond agronomy: it monitors carbon, soil health, and biodiversity with satellite data and field metrics. Farmers gain productivity; companies gain traceable, low-carbon supply; ecosystems recover.

I am proud to have led this program from its inception, from the early “Moonshot” concept through its design around 2019/20. This is not philanthropy; it’s business-driven regeneration. It shows how agriculture can deliver measurable climate impact while improving yields and rural incomes.

As I highlighted in previous articles, initiatives like Reverte redefine competitiveness: they turn sustainability from a cost into a capability.·

Projects like this prove that the climate agenda won’t be solved in policy documents, but in hectares.

The Missing Link: The Role of Private Sector and Food Supply Chains

If agriculture holds the key to climate balance, the private sector is the hand that turns it.

Governments can set frameworks, but it’s food value chain companies that translate ambition into supply-chain reality. They define sourcing standards, design incentives, and invest where policy often can’t.

The new competitive edge will belong to those who integrate sustainability into operations, not as ESG compliance, but as a core supply resilience strategy.

The concept of “field to market” captures this shift. It means every link in the chain, from the farmer’s field to the end consumer, is connected by traceability, data, and shared accountability.

When sourcing models reward regenerative practices instead of just output, they unlock climate-positive value chains. This is where traceability, deforestation-free verification, and carbon accounting become tools of performance, not punishment.

In the end, supply chain resilience and security of supply depend on the same thing: the health of the ecosystems that sustain production.

The Unseen Opportunity: COP30 as a Stage for a New Narrative

The fact that COP30 will take place in the Amazon is more than symbolic. It’s a reminder that the future of the climate, food, and business systems are intertwined.

Belém could become the turning point where global leaders finally connect commitments to hectares, investments to farmers, and emissions targets to regenerative outcomes.

For Latin American agribusiness, it’s an opportunity to show the world that sustainability and productivity are not opposites, they are interdependent.

For global food and ingredient companies, it’s a call to engage locally, invest in traceable systems, and co-create the regenerative transition.

COP30 shouldn’t be about new declarations. It should be about proof of transformation in the field.

Takeaway

The world has spent three decades debating emissions. The next decade must focus on the soil, where climate, food, and business intersect.

Agriculture isn’t the enemy of the planet. It’s the system that can save it.

As COP30 occurs in Brazil, food and ingredient companies have a responsibility to act.

• Map climate and deforestation hotspots across sourcing regions.
• Partner with local producers to scale regenerative practices.
• Shift from neutral to climate-positive sourcing models.

Through the Field2Trust Sprint, I help companies explore these dimensions in practice, from mapping risks, traceability and regenerative sourcing to climate-positive supply strategies, translating ambition into real progress.

Do you know that regenerative agriculture isn’t an expense — it’s a capital reallocation. Average payback happens between 5–8 years, depending on crop and reinvestment pace. Click here!

Fabrício Peres also discuss about the invisible cost of a wek reputation in agribusiness. Access to read it and regarding predictability in food supply chains. Predictability at Risk: food supply has become unpredictable! Click here!

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About the Author

Fabricio is a strategic advisor for food and agri-input companies sourcing from Latin America. With over 20 years of experience in agribusiness, sustainability, and international trade, he helps companies transform supply chain risk into trust, compliance and market advantage. Based in Switzerland and deeply connected to the agricultural realities of Brazil, he offers a pragmatic, forward-thinking view of sustainable sourcing. 👉 To stay ahead with insights on resilient sourcing, sustainable food systems and agribusiness strategy, subscribe to Fabricio’s newsletter: *Beyond Harvest*.