2020 left us with many uncertainties, but one certainty is that sustainable investment is expanding. Sustainable investment includes environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, and by early 2020 in the United States alone it had grown by 40% over the previous two years, representing one out of every three US dollars managed by investment funds, according to the U.S. Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment.

The cellphone revolution has changed our lives, but especially the lives of those who never had a landline: the poorest and those living in isolated communities. The solar energy revolution is having a similar effect.

Tropical race 4 (TR4), a disease that has no effect on humans but is deadly for banana plantations, has become a byword for worst-case scenario management in the agribusiness world. It is also one from which many valuable lessons can be extracted.

Since Roman times, leap years have had a bad reputation. I don't know whether this “leap year, sinister year” stuff is true, but it is perfectly applicable to 2020. We all want to see it off as soon as possible because of the human, social and economic misfortunes that the coronavirus pandemic has brought about.

Soon after the pandemic was declared, it was clear that it would bring winners and losers among the different sectors of the region's economies. The food industry, generally speaking, came out in good shape, but some distribution channels benefited more than others.