Feed Systems Sustainability Summit

With the shared vision of developing more sustainable feed systems, in 2022 the Institute for Feed Education and Research partnered with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF-US) to bring together organizations from the full feed value chain, including upstream and downstream entities, to advance the discussion around four critical components of sustainable feed systems:

Sustainable Feed Systems

The partnership resulted in the two-day, Feed Systems Sustainability Summit, held in September 2022, where roughly 40 diverse members across the animal food industry addressed barriers and opportunities to catalyze actions in support of animal supply chain sustainability needs.

The Process

IFEEDER and WWF selected case studies around the four summit themes (i.e. circularity, innovation, regenerative agriculture and responsible sourcing) from a diverse selection of organizations involved in the feed supply chain to inform a sustainable feed system vision. Company representatives discussed the case studies with summit participants, providing an opportunity to understand lessons learned and how industry could work better together to advance action on sustainability across the value chain. Breakout discussions and group feedback sessions were catalyzed by case study content. An overview of the Summit and the case studies are available.

Leading up to the summit, IFEEDER hosted webinars with guest participants from industry, academia or stakeholder groups to discuss challenges influencing today’s animal food operating environment. Watch the webinars here>>

Outcomes

Takeaways from the Summit are available in a summary and were used as an input source for IFEEDER’s phase 2 sustainability efforts.

Following the summit, WWF published a white paper, “Solutions to Meet the Need for Feed,” which highlighted how solutions that address the four summit themes can support efforts to meet corporate and national climate commitments, while building climate resilience for feed systems.