 Let me tell you why I'm here for one thing. I'm here because Thomas Hartung said I must be here And when Thomas tells me something like that I'm here, but I'm here because of who you are and What you can do you are the voices of good food You are the voice of good food and We need that voice now more than ever before You're also chefs and writers your chemists your artists your engineers your entrepreneurs and your prophets your prophets of this age and This is an age of radical transparency So speaking of influence This community here today has tremendous influence in the world in which I live and so I'm going to tell you two stories one story Where chefs and those of you who speak for good food made a big difference in my life and another story where that influence was missing and That story has taken much longer to come to fruition. I Was trained as a vegetable breeder actually I headed into science at an early age because I was interested in health And I was interested in the environment I Launched off in a in a very elite graduate program and Saw the light and went into agriculture at a time when that was not fashionable. I'm a geneticist I picked vegetables for many of the reasons that you all pick vegetables as your media Vegetables gave me a chance to combine my science with arts to recognize the aesthetic and the complexities of taste and appearance in a food in a food of Great importance in your cuisines and in a food that is incredibly important in the developing world and underused and Undernvested all over this earth so as a vegetable breeder I went to my and a university and had the good fortune of among other things inheriting an incredible legacy From others who've worked over decades before me now one thing that man taught me as a vegetable breeder is It's good to eat What it is you're turning over to the likes of you most breeders in those days and still today Didn't eat what they bred Kind of shows doesn't it we ate vegetables we bred and they tasted better We selected for taste and as a consequence by about 10 years in I had something every plant breeder At least in the US, but it's a global award wanted. I had an all America variety I also had one little brown packet of a hundred seeds and It was at that moment that I realized I worked in partnership I worked in partnership with the people that were going to take that little brown packet of seed and turn it into a Variety with the story connected to that variety. It was a squash variety a winter squash variety a bush delicata delicious Weaving together the best flavors from an heirloom with modern characteristics such as disease resistance And it was through that variety two important things happen number one I realized as a public sector plant breeder I needed the seed industry because that's who took that variety out to impact and number two This variety was especially suited for production in organic environments And so I did something that was unfashionable or actually quite Impossible at the time and that was to begin to recognize the importance of breeding in and for Organically managed agriculture at the time our university had no organically managed Production fields so guess what I had to do. I had to work with organic farmers I thought we just wouldn't spray be fine Actually, what I learned from those years working on those farms was how incredibly important Systems thinking is it's important in every field of science It's critically important in this century as we find our way forward So through those breeding efforts. Yes, we had some new varieties We're especially proud of one that came out last year called peace work after the farm and and the farmer who Brought us into this community Chefs caught sight of the work we were doing was in upstate New York near some big markets Chefs are the ones that called for those varieties Farmers grew them they had characteristics that were desirable for farmers like disease resistance and compact plant habits But they also tasted delicious and were beautiful and that system set up a cycle That eventually allowed me to recognize that even though the commercial seed sector was not extremely well developed for organic agriculture We could put together a partnership a partnership We called the organic seed partnership to ensure that not only these varieties were available But that organically grown seed was available We did it as a network and it's been a very successful Adventure in the United States chefs played a critically important part in creating the demand That made that healthy food system Good food comes from healthy food systems Well, the question then was what would this look like its scale and interestingly a University in the heartland not necessarily famous for its innovation in agriculture At least in in your community, but actually a place where a great deal of 20th century agriculture was invented looked around and Spotted our work and invited me to come and be dean of a large Midwestern College of Agriculture That was unusual behavior and it allowed us to do some critically important experiments of scale at scale What if we took what I learned from organic agriculture? That is that here affects there and now affects later and we applied those principles at scale in agriculture By this time we were understanding some things about agriculture that are critically important in this century Agriculture globally is estimated to emit about one third of the greenhouse gas emissions on the planet Agriculture is potentially a very important tool or process in the mitigation of climate change But it's also the choices we make in agriculture have profound consequences on the air on the water on the condition of our planet So when I got to Wisconsin there was another experiment underway It had been underway for quite some time and it was led by some of the people who understood both the limitations of agriculture and The vulnerabilities they faced as agricultural producers the central part of Wisconsin is a sandy beautiful soil In fact, every Wisconsin school child knows the Wisconsin State soil is an ago loam In that beautiful soil they grow potatoes 20 years ago they realized we were having pesticide issues We were having groundwater quality and quantity issues There's a signature crane species in this part of the country called the sandhill crane whose numbers had plummeted Dramatically in the mid part of the 20th century and so it was the potato farmers who took the initiative To tackle these environmental problems. These are large-scale potato farmers. They grow for McDonald's. They grow for for McCain's they grow for big industrial food purveyors They didn't have what they needed so they called on the science community to guide them forward in these commitments and through that Community another network was Wisconsin potato and vegetable growers Association World Wildlife Fund came in international crane foundation came in and the University of Wisconsin came in and set a series of practices Including crane corridors habitat restoration very stringent IPM and monitoring in fact They created a standard to which World Wildlife Fund Certified potato production that was so stringent with respect to characteristics like toxicity that even organic agriculture Left in its ordinary state couldn't meet those standards and so this was a pioneering effort driven by producers Because who cares more about their long-term viability as a business than them Well, this story didn't have chefs and so when I entered the state people said, you know We have this fabulous project and it's a failure. Why? Because those producers expected that this behavior would be rewarded in the marketplace with a premium and they were Disappointed there was no premium there When I said, um, so That's too bad. What are we gonna do about it? We went to various large food companies and retailers. Nope. Sorry We're all for better produce, but we're not gonna pay anymore Turns out a couple years later. Guess what those producers are still following those standards even though they cost money and That was the signal that there was value in that effort Not value recognized at that time with a premium in terms of product price, but value for the producers themselves Pride and and a knowledge that they were doing the right thing Earlier this year we checked up again and actually turns out there was an economic value as well And that was in increased market share So over the five or seven years and meanwhile the certification standard is lapsed But the producers are still following those practices When there's a choice those who buy potatoes are buying these potatoes healthy grown potatoes today that healthy grown example is Serving as a template for other national level producer driven sustainability initiatives and we expect this November Supported by a sort of a network of academic scientists To convene as many as nine or ten or eleven or twelve major commodity groups in the u.s Who have stepped outside of the supply chain accounting that is the is the standard in this area and they're moving to? Science-based producer driven producer led sustainability initiatives You as chefs make purchase decisions that aggregate Together to make choice to make important incentives, but more than that you as people who care and know about good food can Tell the story About where you find your food and who grows it you can talk as you've just seen in dialogue With those who produce the beautiful things you put on tables and those to whom you serve the food So that healthy grown story is a very significant story because it shows us about value The producers have brought us into an age I call the age of dissonance where the best behavior with respect to an agricultural operation Can in fact lead a business? to To places that cost that literally cost and what this means is that it is time for an economic revolution an Economic revolution we've discussed already in this meeting that puts a complete balance sheet for agriculture on the planet Monetized outcomes monetized inputs monetized outputs and The resources we use the benefits that a healthy agricultural economy creates in a community an Integration of those three features that's so intimate you really can hardly separate them That is really an economic transformation of a very profound type In fact as I've looked at this in the various roles. I've played in government and in academia I find only one economic transformation as profound as the one we need to undertake That will incentivize care of this earth and that is the recognition in 1785 of the of the need to abolish human bondage in our economy The recognition the concept was first put forward in 1785. We didn't get around to even fighting the US Civil War For 70 years, that's how radical an idea. It was to have an economy without human bondage It's estimated at the time that idea came forward three quarters of the earth's population We're in some type of bondage and Adam Smith was alive That's how long ago it was and Adam Smith said you can't have an economy without human bondage Well, it was and there were economic arguments But there were moral arguments as to why we needed to make a profound transition To a different way of valuing our species as you've heard Plants as a kingdom have values and and biological attributes. We're just beginning to understand The earth and the way the earth systems work. We are just beginning to understand But we now understand that holistic framing that I first learned standing in Liz Henderson's Pepperfield on Peacework Farm That holistic framing is is complicated But it's within reach in an age of radical transparency and my world the science world has a very important obligation to step in and work to establish a Concept of what a safe operating space for this planet and our species looks like that work is well underway You heard a beautiful illustration of it in Jackie's talk yesterday There are many of us globally committed to bringing the best science forward in new Relationships where agriculture and earth observations where food health and diet choices are connected to your environment and economy That's the revolution. We are part of that's the revolution in which you are prophets because you talk about good food you talk about Healthy food systems because that's where good food comes from Now I do sit in rooms with very With people who command a lot of power and have great Influence in the 20th century food system in which we live that is true And in fact one thing as I have progressed into these conversations at scale That I've found is it's difficult for us in a 20th century economy to value the commons we now Understand something very obvious and very important, which is our earth is a commons That's what sustainability means Our current economy is notoriously bad at dealing with commons. We devalue or deeply discount commons and What we need to look forward to is a system that does a better job The good news is there are wonderful examples of successes embedded in lots of failures And in fact 2009 Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to someone who has studied exactly how It has studied systems that do deliver benefits individually and collectively As some economists friends of mine point out she was not an economist But maybe that's how these dialogues will go partnerships She's become an important teacher to me Her name is Lynn Ostrom and she studies decision-making and the role of communities like mine in decision-making the role of communities like yours in decision-making because it turns out Information is the currency of this century and you are the voices of good food so I want to conclude by pointing out that while While we have Placed our planet in some very significant forms of jeopardy There's hope in my world and it's not hope because we're all going to just magically sit down and do the right thing It's hope because we are finally Developing the tools and sophistication to understand the risk that we have created In fact, my new best friends are actuaries You may not even know who actuaries are and as they said to me on a conference call on Friday We actuaries are a reserved lot What they do is they value risk they value risk they're conversant and monetized risk, but they also Understand risk that is not yet monetized and that is where I see the hope That is the conversation we can have with any of us because we live on one earth It's all of our earth and our local decisions aggregates and we understand that now in this age of radical transparency and so We're learning You're learning as you walk your Ingredients to the field you're learning as you talk to those who sit at your tables We're learning we're learning about systems and as one of my tribal colleagues said to me He said, you know Molly in this century you Western white people or or Western culture need to understand what my culture has never He said in our culture our ethos is to live within our means It's about enough not more Those instructions are incredibly profound. They involve a reorienting of the entire sort of agricultural science establishment and To take the messages you learn as you pioneer your craft your art your business in this century In some ways, this is all very obvious We have learned blindness in the 20th century. We took the world apart We did very well in segments and now it's time to put that world back together again And that's why I emphasize partnerships Through the medium of good food your medium You will bring messages of critical importance in this century While you're doing that, please don't forget those who are not privileged to be able to come to your tables and Please remember the magnitude of the task before us and and resist the temptation to endowed in in Villification or dismissal of people who are also learning with you We share a planet that recognition is accessible to all of us Including some who are deeply committed in at least financially to the system as to the end to that to the way We produce food as it is now Please remember we need all hands-on deck in this century and you are the prophets as we move towards a New age which I hope will exemplify a commitment to balance to justice and to harmony Thank you