Latin America Sustainable Agriculture Initiative

The Wilson Center’s Latin America Sustainable Agriculture Initiative promotes sustainable food production in the Americas to improve global food security while promoting hemispheric cooperation and minimizing environmental impacts, including deforestation and carbon and methane emissions. Brazil and the United States together produce one-quarter of the world’s food, and countries such as Argentina are also among the world’s top exporters of corn, wheat, soybeans, chicken, and beef. 

This initiative supports the development and deployment of advanced agricultural technologies and helps develop public policies that incentivize investment and sustainable practices to increase productivity and resilience to climate challenges. This is a pivotal moment for Latin America to expand agricultural production amid global concerns over food availability and affordability. However, the region’s farmers face significant challenges. As one of the most biologically diverse areas, Latin America is severely affected by biodiversity loss and climate change, experiencing frequent and intense extreme weather events that disrupt agriculture, fishing, and forestry. This is especially true in vulnerable regions such as the Caribbean and the so-called dry corridor of Central America, but no region is unaffected. In Brazil, for example, recent flooding in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul led to billions of dollars in losses in livestock and crops such as rice. 

The Latin America Sustainable Agriculture Initiative is in partnership with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and involves research and public and private policy dialogues that convene top experts, policymakers, and private sector leaders.