A planetary baseline and financial mechanism to make food trade resilient

For 30 years we have seen hundreds of voluntary food production standards that push for the adoption of specific practices rather than measurable results. The top performing producers have already embraced such practices and have the results to prove it. They’re not the problem. The problem is the poorer performers: the least efficient 10-20% of producers who only grow 5% of any food commodity but are responsible for 60–80% of the negative impacts. If we want large-scale transformative change, we must move these producers—the bottom—by setting clear metrics for global food trade and put them on the hook to reduce key impacts or lose market access.

The idea of a shared rulebook to govern the food trade isn’t new. Sixty years ago, countries began adopting Codex Alimentarius, a global baseline for food health and safety that set a minimum performance for food traded across borders to protect consumers. We can apply that logic to the planet, with a Codex Planetarius designed to maintain the natural resource base we depend on to ensure globally traded food for this and future generations.

Governments have limited funds to help producers meet new baselines, so how will we finance this transformation? I propose a 1% Fund—a 1% insurance premium on key food commodity exports to help the least efficient producers obtain clear land titles and legal permits, reforest areas, meet traceability requirements, adopt better practices and technologies, and retire marginal lands.

The 1% Fund would flip the standard trade tariff model on its head: instead of collecting revenue in importing countries to protect their producers, it would be used by exporting governments to reduce impacts and make the agriculture more resilient. A 1% increase in raw material exports would have no real impact on consumer food prices. Yet for a country like Brazil, a 1% levy on the export of just five commodities — beef, hides, soy, maize, and cotton — would generate some $750 million per year, based on 2022 and 2023 exports. And 100% of the funding could be used to help the poorest performing producers address the environmental impacts of the targeted commodities.

These funds will help producers reduce key impacts while ensuring food security globally, yield improvements, stable prices, and a more resilient global food supply — all critical for the future of producers and consumers. This is a long-term, intergenerational opportunity to help producers change what they produce and how they produce it—so that the renewable natural resource base is not just maintained but improved over time.

The growth of the global economy has outpaced our capacity to protect the very resources that undergird human progress and prosperity. Pairing a planetary baseline—Codex Planetarius—with a dedicated finance mechanism—the 1% Fund—is a practical way to secure food supplies while reducing the damage we do to the living systems that feed us.