I agree with Dan. The phrase is not ungrammatical but I can’t make sense of it. The whole thing is awkwardly(!) phrased, especially “put them together before us.” It sounds like an imperfect translation.

Should say, “…light a path towards a more sustainable…”. The word “a” needs to be inserted there. The second part of the sentence is just all messed up. The word “awkwardly” is out of place. Without reading the full article/knowing the context it’s hard for me to make a suggestion for replacement. But you could easily just remove the words “awkwardly” and “before us” altogether and I would understand the sentence better.

Hi Viola, "Awkwardness" implies mental uneasiness, often in a social setting, which does not fit the context. As alternatives, "simply" or "crudely" could replace "awkwardly," or the sentence could be reworded as: "…but farmers cannot be expected to…"

I think the Author added this filler word "awkwardly" to mean that its a contradiction between what the farmers are doing at the moment and what they could be doing. Such as, it is to the benefit of the farmer to come up with solutions to sustainable farming but its "awkward" they have not done this. The author could have easily said," but the farmers cant put them together". I think the word "awkwardly" is also hinting at a core problem the farmers have coming up with solutions.

I am also confused by that phrase. It's not grammatically incorrect, but it doesn't make logical sense. i.e. I can't figure out what the writer is trying to say.