John R. Tyson, chief sustainability officer of Tyson Foods, predicts that United States businesses will be leading the way in developing a more sustainable global food system.
Tyson made those comments while participating in a panel discussion during the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) webinar, “Addressing Food Insecurity and Poor Nutrition During COVID-19,” held on October 13. The forum was moderated by former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, who currently is a senior fellow for the BPC.
Tyson, a fourth-generation Tyson family member to take on a leadership role with Tyson Foods, defines a sustainable food system as “one that optimizes for both human resilience and healthy planetary resilience – one that allows nature to continue to exist and regenerate.”
He added since accepting the chief sustainability officer position in September 2019, the business community has been actively pursuing sustainability goals.
“It really does feel like, from my seat, that the business world has in the last few years kind of awoken to this challenge, and starting solving for it. I’m actually really optimistic when I think that the business community puts investment an d dollars behind innovation for whatever problem they’re trying to solve. We tend to reach those solutions,” said Tyson.
He further said he expects that commitment to sustainability to continue and grow.
“I do believe that American business, specifically is going to play a huge role in leading the world toward a sustainable food system,” Tyson said.
Efforts from U.S. companies to develop a more sustainable food system will not only have a domestic impact, but also one that is worldwide, he added.
“It’s important to recognize that our efficiencies and our production methods have impacts all over the world. The global food system is interconnected in ways that are sometimes too complex to conceive of, so the investments we make here in the U.S. can have an impact all around the world,” he said.
