To increase farmer productivity and profitability, products and services designed to serve smallholder farmers are badly needed. This session shares examples of corporate/social enterprises partnerships and direct engagement between social enterprises and farmers to deliver financing, data, market linkages, logistics and transparency. Though still in the early stages, many of these enterprises can help close the market gaps faced by farmers and set them on a path to realize sustained increases in income.

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To increase farmer productivity and profitability, products and services designed to serve smallholder farmers are badly needed. This session shares examples of corporate/social enterprises partnerships and direct engagement between social enterprises and farmers to deliver financing, data, market linkages, logistics and transparency. Though still in the early stages, many of these enterprises can help close the market gaps faced by farmers and set them on a path to realize sustained increases in income.

Otho Kerr joined Acumen in November 2019 and is Chief Investment Officer. Prior to joining Acumen, he was a founding partner with Encourage Capital, an asset management firm that leverages private capital to generate environmental and social impact as well as compelling investment returns.  Otho was the Chief Operating Officer and more recently led an effort to work with native communities to develop carbon offset projects that would positively impact both the environment and the economic condition of landing-owning indigenous communities.  Otho has worked in investment banking and asset management for over twenty years, having begun with Goldman Sachs & Co.  He began his professional career as an attorney with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

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About 10,000 years ago, humans began to farm. This agricultural revolution was a turning point in our history and enabled the existence of civilization. Today, nearly 40 percent of our planet is farmland. Spread all over the world, these lands are the pieces to a global puzzle we're all facing: in the future, how can we feed every member of a growing population a healthy diet? Brent Loken investigates. [Directed by Hype CG, narrated by Jack Cutmore-Scott, music by Gabriel Maia].

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Carlos Ignacio Velasco is an agripreneur with several years of experience in the coffee and cocoa sectors. Holds an MBA from INSEAD and was awarded INSEAD’s Scholarship for Emerging Country Leadership. While in the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (FNC) worked in the offices of Bogota, Tokyo, Amsterdam and New York playing an important role in the development of Colombia’s specialty coffee program. Currently, he manages Cacao de Colombia, working with cocoa farmers in different parts of the country improving the quality of Colombian cocoa beans and produces fine chocolates Cacao Hunters for domestic and export markets. The purpose of his company is to transform the cacao industry in Colombia.

"Business is screwed if we don't fix climate change," says economist Rebecca Henderson. In this bold talk, she describes how unchecked capitalism destabilizes the environment and harms human health -- and makes the case for companies to step up and help fix the climate crisis they're causing. Hear what a reimagined capitalism, in which companies pay for the climate damage they cause, could look like.

Why has there been so little mention of saving Black lives from the climate emergency? For too long, racial justice efforts have been distinguished from climate justice work, says David Lammy, Member of Parliament for Tottenham, England. In a stirring talk about building a new movement to care for the planet, Lammy calls for inclusion and support of Black and minority leadership on climate issues and a global recognition that we can't solve climate change without racial, social and intergenerational justice.

In a moment of musical beauty that calls for reflection, actor and performer Cynthia Erivo sings a moving rendition of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World," accompanied by pianist Gary Motley. With her words and voice, Erivo urges us all to do better for the Earth and the generations to come.