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Agriculture & Commodities

Featured Cases:

  • Shaping Consumer Demand for Healthier Eating

  • Guiding Chile’s Salmon Farmers toward More Sustainable Community Relations

  • Bolstering Palm Oil Value Chain Sustainability

The Challenge

Agriculture has experienced dramatic shifts over the past half century. As production and efficiency have increased, so have changes to land, soil, and water. Hundreds of millions across the globe remain malnourished yet rates of obesity and related diseases are escalating in the developed world. The complex challenge of feeding a growing global population nutritious, safe, and affordable food while doing minimal harm to the environment often leads to disputes among parties with different perspectives. Climate change threatens agriculture systems while also posing the opportunity to reduce emissions and sequester carbon.

Our Approach

Our mediators help build agreements on agriculture, resilience, commodity supply chains, and nutrition at the local, state, federal, and international levels. CBI has successfully:

  • Worked with farmers and ranchers, major agricultural companies, and advocates
  • Helped parties build new networks and programs with our assessments, strategic planning, and deep knowledge of this field
  • Coordinated across sectors to reform, refine, or even rebuild supply chains

Whether addressing dysfunction in the palm oil supply chain in Latin America or helping U.S. farmers and ranchers engage in climate-smart solutions, CBI brings the process tools and substantive expertise to support negotiation and engagement. 

Areas of Expertise
  • Agriculture and water quality
  • Agriculture and climate
  • Local, regional, and global supply chains
  • Nutrition, obesity, and public health
  • U.S. national farm and food policy
  • Global sustainable standard-setting
View cases & related resources
  • Patrick went above and beyond to get our conservation coalition to consensus—helping us navigate through some very sticky negotiations for many months. This isn’t my first time working with folks from CBI, and I have always found them to be knowledgeable, passionate consensus builders, always seeking to listen to, include, and respect those with whom they work. It’s not only helpful work, it's vital in our polarized times!

    Samantha Levy

    Conservation and Climate Policy Manager

    American Farmland Trust

Get In Touch

CBI Experts:

  • Patrick Field Senior Mediator
  • Merrick Hoben Director, Washington Office / Corporate-Community Engagement Practice
  • Linkedin

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