No one wins the Olympics alone, much less the new “Agri Olympics”
Publicado em 13/08/2024
TCAI
Guilherme Costa - Big Dog
*José Luiz Tejon
Brasilian swimmer Guilherme Costa (nicknamed Big Dog) missed the podium in the 400 metres by just a quarter of a second. With that mark, he would have won the podium in all previous Olympic Games.
We have arrived in 2024 heading into the 24/25 athletic season. The first quarter of the 21st century is coming to an end which leads me to a question: What is the relationship between a quarter of a second of the Olympic marks and a quarter of a century of Agribusiness? And what is the relationship between the mentioned Brasilian athlete Guilherme Costa and a rural producer today?
At the opening of the International Forum for Sustainable Agri-Environmental Development – Rio + Agri, in the last week of July, we made this analogy, which pushes and obliges us to evolve at a very high speed consciously.
I learned, at the age of 23, when I was starting my career in Agribusiness, from the late Agronomist Dr. José Maria Jorge Sebastião, who had been president of the Brasilian Coffee Institute (IBC), and at the time also the marketing director of Jacto S/A, that nothing was more similar to the activity of agriculture than the Olympics, and that the farmer would be compared to an Olympic athlete.
He explained me the obligation to continuously improve practices to overcome production targets every year. He also addressed the application of Olympic ethical values to the quality of production and quoted Dr. Ana Primavesi, a heroine of Conservationist Agriculture, nowadays renamed as Regenerative Agriculture, exclaiming: “We are an Agri Olympics, with Dr. Primavesi as our coach”. Since the 1976 Montreal Olympics, when I heard this enchanting point of view, until 2024 in Paris, only one thing has changed: The speed alongside in-depth science.
Modern science, with its emphasis on biotechnology, bio-inputs, machines, robots, Artificial Intelligence, satellites, carbon measurements, and LCA practices (Low-Carbon Agriculture), ICLF (Integration of Crops, Livestock, and Forests), has transformed what was already a strong pressure to learn and apply technologies in the fields, water, and seas, into a contemporary, fast-paced Agri-Olympics that creates challenges and milestones to be overcome.
It is no longer about farming as a whole, or a herd of cattle, or reforestation, but rather moving towards a total focus on precision, plant by plant, animal by animal, tree by tree, inch by inch of soil. All this is to combat waste, food and energy insecurity, and climate change.
We could no longer call farmers as being just farmers but rather include them in the mission as Health Agents in every sense.
During the aforementioned Mega-Event Rio + Agri, many world-renowned personalities attended, such as Dr. Ratan Lal, Nobel Peace Prize winner, who said: “Soil is Health”. And, also, Minister Roberto Rodrigues, said “Agriculture is Peace”, in a show of agri-leaders over 5 days.
The change of changes: speed!
That insignificant quarter of a second that would have taken our athlete to the podium in Paris Olympics has now left him out.
A quarter of a century has already passed and, from now on, no more time to deny and no excuses not to transform our country into the greatest sustainable tropical Agri Olympic power on Earth.
We can no longer lose our position on the podium.
We´ll go together, hand in hand and at high speed, integrating strategic and tactical planning alongside effective communication.
´Cause no one wins the Olympics alone, much less the new Agri Olympics.
*José Luiz Tejon - PhD in Education-Universidad de La Empresa/Uruguay. Master's degree in Art Education and History of Culture - Mackenzie University. Journalist and Publicist - Harvard, MIT and PACE/USA / Insead in France. Specialisation Academic Coordinator of Master Science Food & Agribusiness Management at Audencia in Nantes/France and FECAP/ Brazil. Managing Partner at Biomarketing and TCA International. Professional Head at Agro Anefac. Writer author and Co-author of 35 books. Agro Personality Award 2023. ABAG.
Former director of Grupo Estadão, Agroceres and Jacto S/A.
