Innovation in the Anthropocene: when Innovation fails us, and how we can fix it

Has innovation failed us, or have we failed innovation?

This question haunts our era of intensifying planetary crisis. On a hotter, more volatile planet marked by growing inequality, we must confront a paradox: our ingenuity has never been greater, yet the systems meant to convert innovation into meaningful progress are falling short. Six of the nine planetary boundaries have already been breached. Climate change, biodiversity collapse, chemical pollution, and soil degradation are no longer distant threats, they are unfolding in real time.

And yet, behavioral change has been minimal. After the COVID-19 pandemic, many hoped for a collective awakening. Instead, familiar patterns; resumed travel, hyper consumption and waste, quickly returned. Traditional policy levers like incentives, regulations, and information campaigns have proven insufficient.

So, what are we missing?

Is innovation simply moving too slowly, or has it become too conventional to meet the pace and complexity of today’s exponential challenges? Have we grown complacent, relying on outdated models of innovation that no longer serve our needs? Too often, we confuse technology with transformation, focusing on high-end labs and digital breakthroughs while neglecting other forms of innovation: the kind that arises from necessity, constraint, and local wisdom. Innovations born from those living the problems we claim to solve are frequently overlooked. Rather than creating space for these alternative approaches, we’ve clung to a model shaped by the late 20th century, one rooted in top-down technology transfer and the Silicon Valley blueprint. This model prizes speed, scale, and replication, sometimes at the expense of sustainability, inclusion, and long-term impact.

But let’s be honest: two things can be true at once. First, technology remains a vital lever for transformation. Second, the innovation landscape is evolving, integrating new paradigms that challenge traditional assumptions.

On the technological front, renewable energy, energy storage, artificial intelligence, precision agriculture, and biotechnologies can and must play a central role. Today, there are few limits to our imagination or our capacity to invent. But to make this potential meaningful, we must channel our creative power toward shared goals. In the Anthropocene, innovation cannot be an end in itself, it must serve as a societal project, aligned with the common good, aware of its consequences, and guided by a long-term vision.

On the brighter side, innovation ecosystems are adapting. In today’s economy, built increasingly around knowledge and experimentation, with universities, research centers, private sector and startups as its backbone, the path from invention to application is shortening. The innovation funnel has widened: ideas now move more fluidly from early-stage discovery to real-world deployment, supported by more open collaboration, faster iteration cycles, and diversified funding sources. In principle, it's never been easier to bring an idea to life.

But progress is uneven—and the picture isn’t entirely bright.

• Time lag remains a critical barrier. Economist Robert Solow once estimated that 80% of U.S. post–WWII growth came from technological progress. Yet he famously observed a paradox (which became the Solow paradox): “You can see computers everywhere but in statistics department.” His point is still relevant. What he meant is that there is often a significant delay between invention and real economic or social impact. It took decades for computers to reshape business models. The same may prove true for artificial intelligence, already ubiquitous in conversation, but whose productivity benefits are only beginning to emerge.

• Not all innovation serves the public good. Some breakthroughs save lives; others cause lasting harm. PFAS, so-called “forever chemicals” offer a stark example: widely used in consumer goods, they turned out to be toxic and environmentally persistent. Despite clear signs of danger, their development went unchecked for years. This highlights a critical need: we must democratize innovation. Who decides what gets built? Who bears the risks? Too often, innovation is judged by market potential rather than its societal or ecological impact.

How We Can Fix It: Lessons Learned and New Paradigms

So where do we go from here?

If the old models of research and innovation no longer serve us, we must forge new ones, grounded in trust, inclusion, and systems thinking. Around the world, a different kind of innovation is already taking root: one that prioritizes people over products, and outcomes over outputs. Below are six levers that can help us shift from outdated models to a more inclusive, resilient future.

1. Shift the focus from technology to trust and adoption. Innovation only matters if people can understand, trust, and use it. That means designing with local realities, investing in behavior change, and co-creating with communities. Real innovation is not just about what we invent, it’s about what we adopt, adapt, and embed in culture. It’s about trust, access, context, and behavior. AI models that forecast droughts are irrelevant if farmers don’t have the tools, infrastructure, or trust to act on the information. New seeds mean little if policy environments restrict access or uptake. When innovation is not embedded in the social and ecological systems it seeks to serve, it becomes experimentation detached from impact. That’s why breakthrough ideas rooted in lived experience are transforming realities. Innovation today means black soldier flies turning food waste into protein-rich animal feed. It means drones tracking zoonotic threats before they trigger pandemics. It means community-led initiatives where women in Cabo Verde transform discarded fish skins into fashion leather goods and livelihoods. It also means rethinking technology itself, embracing low-tech alternatives that are more adaptable, less resource-intensive, and better aligned with community needs.

2. Scale deep, not just wide. Don’t just replicate projects; transform mindsets and norms. True scale means cultural and systemic adoption, not just expansion. Scaling is harder than innovating. Many promising technologies die in the pilot phase, not because they don’t work, but because they are not designed with end-users in mind, or because they lack the enabling infrastructure, policy support, or institutional backing to thrive. We need a shift not only in how we innovate, but in how we define success. The future of innovation lies not just in scaling up, but in scaling deep: changing the mindsets, behaviors, and cultural norms that determine whether a new idea takes root.

3. Close the public–private innovation gap. Public institutions must engage at the speed of change. That means investing in public-good innovation and building strong partnerships with the private sector, such as developing open-access digital models tailored to agrifood systems. This requires moving beyond the traditional public–private dichotomy and investing in the connective tissue between research, policy, markets, and communities. Public institutions may move more slowly, but they bring reach, legitimacy, and long-term responsibility. As Mariana Mazzucato reminds us, many iconic innovations would not have been possible without public investment. Apple’s iPhone, often cited as a model of private sector innovation, largely assembles technologies born from public research: touchscreen, GPS, voice recognition, internet. Innovation is never the product of lone geniuses, it depends on a rich ecosystem of public investment, basic science, and mission-driven policies.

4. Build policy that keeps up with possibility. Governance must evolve alongside innovation, not lag behind it. Regulatory frameworks need to match the speed and complexity of today’s breakthroughs. While excessive regulation can stifle creativity, the absence of thoughtful guardrails can allow serious harm to go unchecked. Striking the right balance is essential. As recent debates in Rome on biotechnology and artificial intelligence have shown, reactive regulation is no longer enough. We need anticipatory governance, inclusive standards, and ethical safeguards to ensure innovation serves the public good. Without them, innovation risks reinforcing exclusion and deepening inequality.

5. Connect the dots, don’t duplicate them. The challenge isn’t a lack of ideas, it’s a lack of coordination. Across the world, researchers, startups, NGOs, and governments are tackling similar problems in parallel, often with minimal alignment. The task now is not simply to do more, but to connect better. Innovation thrives in ecosystems that enable collaboration, transparency, and shared learning.

6. Push until the tipping point, then push further. Change feels impossible, until it isn’t. Systemic transformation often seems like an uphill battle, slowed by inertia, bureaucracy, or resistance to new ideas. And then suddenly, the momentum shifts. That moment doesn’t happen by accident. It comes from the accumulation of trust, persistence, collaboration, and belief. We’ve seen it in the evolution of our intrapreneurship programs called ELEVATE, where field-level experimentation now informs national policy. We’ve seen it in our Farmer Field Schools programme, which now integrate behavioral science, digital platforms, and local networks, with the ambition to reach 50 million people by 2040. When innovation is supported by systems that learn and adapt, its impact multiplies.

From the Margins to the Mainstream

These new paradigms are not theoretical, they are being tested, adapted, and scaled right now by organizations, governments, and communities that refuse to settle for incremental change. But they remain, in many cases, at the margins. To rise to the challenges of the Anthropocene, we must move from scattered success stories to mainstream transformation. That means embedding these principles into our institutions, systems, and metrics of success.

We invite you to continue this critical conversation at the FAO Science and Innovation Forum 2025, where these themes will be explored in depth, with the voices, tools, and partnerships needed to shape the future of innovation for people, planet, and prosperity.