I hope you were all able to enjoy a nice summer break. For today, I had initially planned a simple summary of the deals and FoodTech news that had accumulated over the summer. But I also want to share some thoughts on the weeks of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires that spread across Europe. This summer, the hottest on record in Europe, should also be looked at in relation to a strengthening El Niño, which now has a 69% chance of being of historic proportions in the coming months.

What this summer exposed is a double failure: we are still not preparing the food system for a hotter climate, and we are still reluctant to confront how much it contributes to that climate.

What surprises me most, honestly, is how little serious discussion there is about the lack of adaptation of our agriculture and food systems. There are hundreds of articles about the lack of preparedness for wildfire risk, about crumbling infrastructure, or cities unprepared for 40°C days. But when it comes to food and agriculture, the coverage stays strangely superficial. Even more striking: when food and agriculture are part of the conversation, it’s almost always as a victim, rarely as a source of problems serious enough to deserve the same policy urgency as transportation, energy production, or construction.

For years, the climate debate around food has focused mainly on reducing emissions. This remains essential, but adaptation now deserves the same urgency.

The consequences of extreme heat, droughts, or floods are no longer limited to charts showing potential yield losses several decades from now. They are already affecting which types of food can be grown and where. Beyond plants, this affects livestock as well. In France alone, up to three million broiler chickens may have died during the late-June heatwave. Dairy farmers across Europe reported falling milk production as cows struggled with heat stress.

Livestock is a great example of the limits of simplistic answers. Controlled indoor systems can protect animals from some extreme weather conditions, but when cooling systems fail, the outcome is catastrophic. On the other hand, extensive farming may offer animals more space, but they are often more directly exposed to extreme heat and water scarcity (as in Switzerland, where water was airlifted with military helicopters for cows). In this case, as in others, we now need to put aside ideology to determine which systems can remain viable in a hotter climate while improving animal welfare and reducing emissions.

Adaptation is not a lost cause, far from it. There are plenty of solutions; I like to think of them as three buckets:

• Low-tech improvements, from ventilation to better water management.
• AgTech and FoodTech solutions, including heat-tolerant breeds and more resilient crops, water management leveraging AI, robotics, and protein alternatives.
• Structural and cultural changes, from switching to new crops to facing the debate of reducing animal product consumption.

The problem is therefore not a lack of solutions. It is our preference for those that leave the current system largely untouched, and especially our refusal to move forward on those that would require changes in production and consumption.

As climate targets become harder to reach, companies and governments may be tempted to redirect attention and resources away from reducing emissions and towards protecting existing production systems. Adaptation could become the latest justification for postponing difficult decisions. That would be a mistake.

The food system is on the frontline of climate change, but it is not only a victim. According to the latest FAO data, agrifood systems generated 32% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2023. Livestock was the largest single component.

Agriculture and food players, from farmers to industry leaders, must accept two realities: they are among the first victims of climate change… but they are also one of its main contributors. They cannot wait for other sectors to decarbonise while treating changes to agricultural production and diets as politically untouchable.

Mitigation without adaptation leaves the food system exposed. Adaptation without mitigation only buys time. Doing one without the other is not a strategy; it is simply postponing the problem.