The Future of Food and Beverage USA

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This two-day business conference will bring together leading brands, farmers, retailers, traders, investors and key stakeholders to identify the main areas of opportunity and innovation within the food and beverage industry. We’ll assess how we can collectively drive resilience in next generation farming.

Supply chain resilience

How to align and engage actors across the value chain to drive climate and nature resilient food systems
 

Regenerative agriculture

The latest research, innovation and solutions that can deliver a high ROI regenerative agriculture program across shared landscapes

Climate and nature

The leading practices to integrate biodiversity and nature into climate transition planning and on-farm transformation

Focus on farmers

How to support and incentivize young farmers to keep farming in a sustainable, profitable and future-proofed food system 
 

2025 Speakers

Pilar Cruz

Cargill

Corporate Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer

Mary Jane Melendez

General Mills

Chief Sustainability and Global Impact Officer

Christine Daugherty

Conagra Brands

VP/Chief Sustainability Officer

Michelle Zackin

Walmart

Director, Strategic Initiatives- Sustainable Food

Kimberley Sundy

Kellanova

Senior Director, Sustainability

Kellie Adesina

The Kraft Heinz Company

Director, Global Government Affairs

Maia Reed

Mars Petcare

Global Climate Data Lead

Ryan Smith

Danone, North America

Director, Agriculture Impact & Partnerships

View all speakers

Agenda highlights

  • Resilience in action: Beyond buzzwords, how does true resilience drive meaningful climate action?
  • Regenerative is good, but not good enough: What do next-generation farmers need?
  • Nature-positive progress: How leading brands are performing on climate, biodiversity and nature
  • C-Suite leadership: Strategies to align teams to embed sustainability across the business for impactful change
  • Policy in practice: How to ensure agricultural policies deliver real benefits to farmers and drive sustainable outcomes at scale
  • AgTech venture and R&D partnerships: How are innovative collaborations reshaping food sustainability and scaling regenerative practices?
  • Scope 3 data challenges: Is supplier data reliable enough to base climate mitigation strategies on?
  • From dust to living soil: How do we take farms to optimal soil carbon content?
  • Water resilience and drought: What are the best practice water management strategies in agriculture?
  • Balancing profit, regeneration and nature: How can large-scale agriculture support farmers?
  • Tech for resiliency: How can we ensure technology actually creates farmer resilience instead of creating dependency?
  • Accounting for insetting: How to integrate reductions and removals in an effective climate strategy
View full agenda

Why attend?

Discover best practices from industry leaders and get in-depth guidance on how to effectively implement policies

Meet & network with an influential audience of key stakeholders, including NGOs, business, government and supply chain actors

Benchmark company performance amongst a room of your peers and discover where you should be focusing efforts

What's new this year:

Practical problem solving
We’ve transformed the conference format to include an increased number of focused case-studies, scenario discussions, and roundtables where industry leaders and attendees can collaborate to craft practical solutions.

On the farm learning 
Only farmers can change farming. To ensure conversations are grounded in the realities of the field and farmers, we're introducing an interactive regenerative farm visit and live soil demonstration. Experience the impact of regenerative practices firsthand, explore innovative techniques, and engage in real-time discussions with farmers and experts solving practical challenges on the field. 

Increased audience engagement and interaction 
We're boosting opportunities for attendees to actively participate and shape the conversation. From open mics and Q&A sessions to audience-driven word clouds and on-the-spot feedback, we’re making sure you lead the conversation.  

More networking, more connections
With increased schmoosing time, more breakouts and better networking options, we’re ensuring there’s the opportunity to make the connections that matter and build the partnerships that can really make a difference. 

Enjoyed the content, great speakers, and good conversations in between. Big thanks to Innovation Forum for hosting such a great event.
Susanne Mathis-Alig / Senior director sustainability, head impact investment - Mondelēz International
I thought it was one of the best events I have ever been in terms of the discussions held and the opportunities for making meaningful connections. 
Eduardo Garay / Co-Founder & Investment Committee Member
We've been attending numerous conferences so far this year (2022), and this has been the most insightful so far, not to mention the connections we made were top-notch. 
Trevor Jones / Market Insights & Business Development Manager
Congratulations to Innovation Forum for organizing such a productive and informative event! I learned a great deal from all the sustainability experts present and made great contacts.
Carlos Saviani / Global sustainability lead

What’s different about this forum?

Innovation Forum is:
  • Candid: Entirely off-the-record discussion that enables open and honest disclosure from speakers and genuine participation from the audience.
  • Practical: A clear focus on the practical and actionable guidance that can drive change throughout industries and supply chains.
  • Focused: We provide enough time, resources and expertise to the issues that really matter. We don’t skate the surface, but get to the crux of the issues to provide in-depth, constructive discussion.
Innovation Forum is NOT:
  • A PR platform: Enthusiastic speakers are NOT given free rein to fill a session presenting their companies, allowing no time to actually get to the crux of the issues.
  • A talking shop: This is NOT an opportunity for a group people in a room to simply agree with everything said, regardless of outcomes.
  • All promise, no delivery: We will NOT promise what we can’t deliver. The issues covered are complex. They won’t be solved at a two-day conference. But we will help deliver progress through in-depth, constructive and practical advice around specific issues.

Who attends

General Mills
The Nature Conservancy
Neste
Bunge
McDonald’s
Olam
Mars
Unilever
The Coca-Cola Company
Danone
Barry Callebaut
WWF
Nestlé
British American Tobacco
Solidaridad
PepsiCo
Pernod Ricard
ING
J.P. Morgan
SAI Platform
Kellogg Company
Pizza Hut UK & Europe, Yum! Brands
Tyson Foods
John Deere
Ferrero
OSI Group
Carlsberg Group
Rainforest Action Network
Mondelēz International
Conservation International
Landesa
Anheuser-Busch InBev
Wells Fargo
Impossible Foods
JUST
Campbell's
Walgreens Boots Alliance
JBS
Sodexo
Field to Market
Novozymes
Land O'Lakes
Olam Spices
National Pork Board
Save the Children
ALDI
Maple Leaf Foods
MillerCoors
Cargill - sponsor page only
Danone
Dole Food Company
McCain Foods
Amy's Kitchen
Tate & Lyle Sugars
Oatly
Conagra Brands
The Kraft Heinz Company
US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
Fairtrade Foundation
Simple Mills
Kellanova
HelloFresh
Minerva Foods

The venue


Graduate Minneapolis

615 Washington Ave SE

Minneapolis, Minnesota
55414
United States of America

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Supported by

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Get in touch

For any questions on the conference, please contact:
Oliver Bamford
Managing Director
oliver.bamford@innovationforum.co.uk


Sponsorship

For more information and to inquire, please contact:
Tanya Richard
Chief Operating Officer 
tanya.richard@innovationforum.co.uk 

Join Us For 

  • In-depth guidance from industry leaders on how to effectively implement policies.
  • Networking with key stakeholders, including NGOs, business, government and supply chain actors.
  • An entirely off-the-record discussion that encourages open and honest disclosure from speakers and genuine participation from the audience.


Sign up 

Registration for the regenerative agriculture and sustainable food conference is currently open. To sign up, you can do so online here, or get in touch directly for details of group discounts. 



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