The Future of Food and Beverage Forum USA

27th - 28th May 2026

Minneapolis, USA

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Joel Lisonbee

Senior Associate Scientist

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) , University of Colorado–Boulder

Joel Lisonbee is a senior associate scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado–Boulder where he supports NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (drought.gov) mission as the coordinator for the Southern Plains Drought Early Warning System. He has an MS in atmospheric sciences from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, USA, and a PhD in applied climatology from the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, Australia. Joel has 16 years of experience providing weather and climate information, first with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and for the last 6 years for NOAA. His goal is to build resilience and create value for people impacted by drought.  

Joel Lisonbee's sessionsView full agenda

Day 0

Tuesday 26th May 2026

Time
Session title
Session type
14:00 - 17:00
Pre-event UMN Forever Green Research Field Tour 
Workshop
17:00 - 18:00
Pre-conference Networking Drinks
14:00 - 17:45
Visit to TerraCycle's sorting facility and operations center 
17:45 - 18:45
Networking drinks
Day 1

Wednesday 27th May 2026

Time
Session title
Session type
08:30 - 08:55
Risk, resilience and return: How can we place farmer priorities at the heart of the food system? 
CMB Farms | Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Plenary
08:55 - 09:25
From ambition to scale: How is collaboration accelerating regenerative impact? 
PepsiCo North America | Walmart
Plenary
09:25 - 10:10
Food security at 2+ degrees: How can leading brands make their supply chains more resilient through adaptation? 
Sam's Club, Walmart | Mars | Ceres
Plenary
10:10 - 10:50
Speed Networking and Break
10:50 - 11:40
Opportunity in crisis: How to reframe sustainability as resilience, risk mitigation and commercial advantage 
The Hershey Company | Rabobank | McDonald's | SLR Consulting
Plenary
11:40 - 12:00
The future of US food policy: What does it all mean for food production? 
USDA-NRCS
Plenary
12:00 - 13:00
Lunch break
13:00 - 13:50
Breakout track 1 
13:50 - 14:40
Breakout track 2 
14:40 - 15:10
Networking Break
15:10 - 15:40
From ambition to ROI with Sustainability Fusion: Measuring the enterprise value of sustainability investments 
Breakout
15:40 - 16:10
The ‘’wild west” of supply sheds: Upstream vs downstream, where should you invest? 
3Degrees | Therm
Plenary
16:10 - 16:50
A market for regen: Who’s actually going to buy it? 
Meijer | SIMPLi | PepsiCo
Plenary
17:00 - 18:00
Networking drinks 
Networking
Day 2

Thursday 28th May 2026

Time
Session title
Session type
09:00 - 09:30
The say-do gap: Are young consumers buying more 'sustainable' ? 
Dole Food Company | The Center for Food Integrity | Fairtrade America
Plenary
09:30 - 10:15
Unlocking the commercial opportunity in innovation: How to align R&D, agriculture and nutrition 
Post Holdings, Inc. | The J.M. Smucker Co. | Plug and Play Tech Center
Plenary
10:15 - 10:45
Networking Break
10:45 - 11:35
Investing in resilience: How blended capital, venture funding and partnerships can work together to scale resilience 
Transformational Investing in Food Systems | ING | Danone | Sand County Foundation | The Rockefeller Foundation
Plenary
10:45 - 11:35
The Other Room: The truth about biodiversity: Everyone talks about it, but no one knows how to deliver it at scale 
The other room
11:35 - 12:25
From talk to traction: We keep talking about collaboration, what do we actually need to see this in action? 
Lamb Weston | ADM | General Mills | Future500 | JBS
Plenary
12:25 - 13:25
Lunch break
11:35 - 12:25
The Other Room: Not all processed food is bad: How do we have a better conversation about health outcomes? 
The other room
13:25 - 14:55
Roundtable sessions 
13:25 - 14:55
Roundtable C: Are we facing a mounting water crisis and what can we do about it? 
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) , University of Colorado–Boulder | Irrigation Innovation Consortium, Colorado State University
Roundtable
15:00 - 15:15
Wrap-up and closing remarks 
Plenary

Previous speaker:

Kelly Leighton

The Center for Food Integrity

Next speaker:

Michaelyn Baur

Heifer International USA

Contact

For any questions on this event, please contact:

Hannah Oborne

Senior Project Manager

Contact Hannah 

Anita Thomson

Chief Partnerships Officer

Contact Anita 

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