How Brands Can Engage in Policy - Aria McLauchlan Speaks at Expo West

Aria McLauchlan speaks at Natural Products Expo West, March 8, 2022.

On March 8, our Executive Director, Aria McLauchlan, spoke on a panel entitled “Policy - A Powerful Tool for Scaling-up Climate Solutions in This Decisive Decade” at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA. Aria was joined by moderator, Nancy Hirshberg, co-founder of Climate Collaborative, along with Peg Willingham, Executive Director of Fairtrade America, and Anne Kelly, VP of Government Affairs at Ceres.

In her talk, Aria gave a few action steps for how businesses and brands can engage in policy. “Even with the incredible commitments and actions that businesses are taking across the supply chain, it’s not enough unless we also back it up with policy action,” she shared.

Aria also spoke to why businesses should be paying attention to the 2023 Farm Bill, and how we can all work to elevate the voices of American farmers.

The panel discussion covered a range of topics including the broad array of incentives that will be required, in addition to those coming from emerging carbon and ecosystem services markets, to support producers in their transition to soil health practices.

We were thrilled to (re)connect with colleagues, and to see that momentum is growing rapidly among brands and consumers, not only for soil health, but around the policy changes needed to advance soil health and regenerative ag.

We're grateful for this willingness to get involved in policy and will be sharing more opportunities to do so in the coming weeks and months.

Registered attendees can rewatch the full panel event, hosted by the Climate Collaborative, here (or registered for the Natural Products Expo Virtual here).