A food-secure world starts with sustainable productivity
By Anna Nelson, Tanner Roark // 24 February 2026
To achieve a food-secure world, we must establish sustainable productivity growth as a unifying, overarching objective that drives policies influencing the food system. And if sustainable productivity is our North Star, innovation is the path to get there.
Productivity growth is about doing more with less. Innovation is about doing it better.
Productivity can bring connotations of ruthless industrial efficiency, indifferent to the fallout for people and the planet. And for every person who believes that innovation will be our saving grace, there is another who believes it is a euphemism for products that corporations develop for the purpose of entrenching new dependencies for private gain.
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About the authors
Anna Nelson
Anna Nelson is the executive director of the Food Security Leadership Council, former deputy special envoy for global food security at the U.S. Department of State, and a former career civil servant at the U.S. departments of state and defense.
Tanner Roark
Tanner Roark is an associate fellow at the Food Security Leadership Council and a seasoned development professional working at the intersection of food security, agroecology, and resilience.
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