Food sustainability leaders are facing new and evolving challenges in the U.S., from shifting policy priorities to regulatory and trade uncertainty. On the morning of Wednesday, September 24, Food Tank hosted “The Sustainability Leadership Summit: Strategies for Founders, CSOs, and Changemakers” during Climate Week NYC, in partnership with Nature’s Fynd, Applegate, King Arthur Baking, Certified Origins, and ButcherBox. The session brought sustainability leaders together for an open dialogue around climate solutions across retail, food service, and hospitality.
“The private sector, with the help of advocates and other changemakers, can help us envision the kind of food future we want to see,” says Food Tank President Danielle Nierenberg. “We need to make the business case for sustainability.”
However, big food companies like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have retreated from climate commitments within the last year. According to a 2024 Accenture analysis, only 16% of the world’s largest companies are on track to meet their 2050 net-zero goals, with close to half continuing to increase carbon emissions.
“CSOs are facing so many challenges, and often are alone in doing this work. Now is not the time to lower our ambitions. Now is the time to up our game,” says Nierenberg.
Helena Bottemiller Evich, Founder and Editor‑in‑Chief of Food Fix, sat down with Nierenberg to discuss the rapidly increasing consumer interest in food and agricultural issues.
“All of a sudden, everyone’s talking about food, agriculture, health, and wellness,” says Bottemiller Evich. “In some ways, the folks who are in food maybe shouldn’t be surprised; we’ve seen more and more people asking about food…it’s entered the zeitgeist in a way that’s been slowly growing over time.”
While food is increasingly a part of mainstream headlines, Bottemiller Evich notes that agricultural lobbying has not slowed down: “What I’ve seen in the last six months is just an astonishing recognition of how powerful the agriculture industry is in Washington, and how less powerful the food industry is.”
Bottemiller Evich underscored the need to look at not just what the U.S. administration is saying but also what it is doing. For example, a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission report raised concerns about pesticides in May 2025, yet its September 2025 strategy report notably omitted new regulations on pesticides.
“There is a big gap right now between the rhetoric of MAHA and the actual priorities of this administration,” says Bottemiller Evich.
Marion Nestle, Professor Emerita at New York University, sees four challenges facing the food industry right now: U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “because you have no idea what he’s going to do”; ultra-processed foods, “because they’re the big profit center of food companies”; GLP-1 drugs, “because we’ve already seen people buying less as a result of people taking these drugs”; and food prices, “which are staggering right now.”
In recent months, major food companies have agreed to remove artificial dyes from their products by 2027. The HHS is also taking steps to close the “generally recognized as safe” loophole, which currently allows food and chemical companies to declare their own ingredients safe for consumption without approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Nestle says these are big wins for food and health, but she wants to see much larger changes made.
“If you take the color additives out of Froot Loops, they’re still Froot Loops. If you replace the high fructose corn syrup in Coca-Cola with cane sugar, it’s still Coca-Cola. I don’t see the MAHA movement focusing on what I think are issues that will make a real difference,” says Nestle. “In terms of the 20 to 30 percent of American kids who are overweight or obese, it’s trivial. It doesn’t do anything. I’m happy about it, but I want something bigger,” such as restrictions on marketing junk foods to kids.
The Sustainability Leadership Summit also included an open conversation with food brands about their challenges and how to navigate rapidly evolving current events. Attendees discussed issues ranging from the responsible use of artificial intelligence to reducing food waste in supply chains, uncertainty around global trade and tariffs, and rebuilding trust between brands and consumers.
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