Few bumper stickers have made as large of an impression as “Think Globally, Act Locally.” Plastered on the back of fuel-efficient cars all over the English-speaking world, the phrase was inseparable from the broader environmentalist movement of the 1990s. But, as the environmental movement has shifted from a concern with things like pollution and industrial waste, to the inherently more global “climate,” the phrase has lost some luster.But when it comes to agriculture, the ’90s-era environmentalists were onto something. The food system relies on both the local and the global. Crop production and ruminant grazing depends on local soils, weather, and practices, but profits, consumers, and ultimately decarbonization rely on global forces, like trade in commodity crops, availability of agricultural inputs, and adoption of technologies. Farmers must act locally. But policymakers, corporations, and advocates must think globally.Making agriculture and, more broadly, the food system sustainable will require understanding and acting within local contexts but with emphasis on global impacts.But sustainable agricultural programs – particularly those aimed at conservation – often focus entirely on local pollution, landscapes, and problems, without concern for the global outcomes that local policies can enact. Funded by environmental NGOs, the USDA, venture capital, and other investors focused on conservation, these conservation agricultural practices often prioritize local problems at the expense of one of the most important agricultural principles: yield.