Global wealth and asset manager Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM) announced today the launch of its New Food Systems strategy, a high conviction equity strategy targeting sustainable food systems transformation opportunities.

The strategy focuses on the agriculture, forestry and other land uses system (AFOLU), one of the most significant drivers of planetary environmental impact, accounting for 24% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 90% of forest degradation, and 25% of biodiversity loss.

Significant transformations are necessary to address this impact, with LOIM estimating that 1 billion hectares of land will need to be returned to nature by 2030, and agricultural land, which now makes up for 50% of all habitable land will have to shrink by 20%.

Jean-Pascal Porcherot, Co-Head of LOIM and Managing Partner at Lombard Odier said: 

“Returning 20% of land to nature and improving the quality of the earth’s remaining agricultural land will be a critical part of realigning our economy with the earth systems that support it. This will leapfrog the sustainability-driven transformation of our food systems and unlock a market worth at least $1.5 trillion in annual revenues by 2030.”

Key sub-themes targeted by the fund will include sustainable food production, including companies which produce biological and synthetic inputs, sustainable aquaculture products, and green fertilizers; enabling solutions, such as electrified farming equipment, and new forms of food packaging and solutions, and; sustainable food consumption, such as consumer-facing companies, manufacturing, retailing and serving food.

The new strategy is managed by Conor Walsh, who joined LOIM in May 2022 as Lead Portfolio Manager and it is the latest addition to Lombard Odier’s CLIC thematic strategies, including Climate Transition, Natural Capital, and the TargetNetZero range.

Porcherot added:

“At Lombard Odier, sustainability is fundamentally an investment conviction. Our New Food Systems strategy seeks to capture these market opportunities, targeting companies with attractive business models and robust valuations with the objective to generate compelling sustainability-linked alpha returns for investors.”

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