Reuters Events Sustainable Business’ Post

Bridging the divide between food companies’ wants and farmers’ needs Driven by the urgency to be more environmentally responsible, businesses sometimes fail to fully grasp the multi-faceted challenges faced by suppliers. Here’s how to get everyone on the same page. A significant shift towards sustainable farming practices is underway in food and beverage production, spurred by the imperative to address climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 6th assessment report, the global agriculture sector sequesters about 12.5 gigatons of Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) per year. After accounting for agriculture and food manufacturing emissions, that leaves a negative carbon balance of about 5.9 gigatons of CO₂ per year. Yet that is just the tip of the iceberg. The potential for carbon sequestration overall is much greater. https://lnkd.in/gnvtAh3e

🌍 New Blog Post: The Global Land Squeeze – A Deep Dive into Its Impact 🌾 The global "land squeeze" is reshaping our agricultural landscape, affecting smallholder farmers and sustainable food systems. This phenomenon, driven by land grabbing, green grabbing, and urbanization, demands our attention. I've explored findings from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems. Land consolidation is pushing smallholder farmers to the margins, with 1% of the largest farms now controlling 70% of all farmland. This isn’t just about numbers; it’s about real experiences from my travels to coffee farms and social enterprises around the globe. Insights: Land Grabbing and Green Grabbing: Financial actors and carbon offsetting schemes taking over farmland. Encroachment and Expansion: Agricultural land repurposed for mining and urban projects. Corporate Value Chains: Limiting farmers' autonomy and pushing unsustainable practices. These issues critically undermine small-scale food producers and pose significant threats to global food security. We need policies and practices that support smallholder farmers and protect our environment. Join the conversation on creating a more equitable and sustainable food system. Your thoughts and comments are welcome! #SustainableAgriculture #LandRights #FoodSecurity #SmallholderFarmers #SustainableFoodSystems #Agroecology https://lnkd.in/gpdn4zYk

The Environmental Impact of Foods via Visual Capitalist https://lnkd.in/dwEQGJV9 #environmental #oceans #foods #retail #consumergoods #impact #sustainability #agriculture #water #climatechange #carbonemissions #farmers #futureishere #co2

🐞 🌱 "I wouldn’t advocate nature markets until we’ve got a much better framework in place." - I spoke to Lee Reeves from Lloyds Banking Group about Lloyds' partnership with Soil Association Exchange, and about how to fund the transition to sustainable agriculture. 🐝 🌿 🌊 Lee told me: Farmers need to understand their own baseline positions. Soil Association Exchange shares our own values and vision - they were able to provide holistic baselining, so that wasn’t just carbon emissions, it was things like water, biodiversity, animal health and safety, the social aspects of the farm. By understanding their holistic baseline farmers can take action. 👨🌾 A lot of people associate Soil Association with organic, but there has been a drive to make sure that the Soil Association Exchange can look at any farm and provide advice and guidance.  🐂 🐄 🌽 🌱 I don’t know whether we need to call it 'sustainable', 'regenerative', or 'nature-friendly' farming - they’re all interlinked. What we’re trying to do is to understand how we can improve soil, biodiversity and nature. That all starts with baselining. 'Sustainable' isn’t a word that farmers use - they tend to use words around resilience, productivity, profitability - those are the things that really interest them. 📲 Farmers are facing many challenges. Baselining will help farmers to understand where their farm is now and help them to create an action plan. 💻 What would really help is if we had a standardised methodology of collecting data. At the moment there are too many carbon calculators. We need to find a way to standardise that. 🪙 💵 The gap between the old incentives and the new incentives is causing a problem for farmers. There are a few things that need to happen. 🧀 🍞 Number one: Supply chains need to come together to think about how it can get money into the hands of farmers. 🌱 Two: Government needs to play part. We need a long-term vision. 🌿 🕸️ Three: In terms of nature markets there is some noise around some lucrative opportunities for farmers but I think we really need some guardrails and guidance to help with that. I think it’s coming but I wouldn’t be advocating people to be trading carbon or thinking about by diversity credits until we’ve got a much better framework in place to offer the risk mitigation and guidance. We’d love to work with the government and others to put these framework in place. 👩🌾 I don’t think banks are holding back the transition. A lot of the actions and recommendations from Soil Association Exchange do not require significant investments. It’s practice change. 😎 Watch the full interview: https://lnkd.in/e2e7HYWx

Food security and sustainable agriculture are critical issues facing our world today. With a growing global population and the impacts of climate change, there is a pressing need to address these concerns to ensure that everyone has access to healthy, nutritious food. Read more:

🤯Big news!🤯Big meat/dairy companies spending more on advertising than cutting their huge emissions - e.g. JBS, the world’s largest meat company, invested just 0.03% of annual revenues into climate measures - equivalent to around 6% of its total advertising spend. Dairy giants Fonterra, Nestlé and Arla all spent more on advertising than on research and development of low-carbon solutions. On average, the meat/dairy companies examined spent just 1% of their revenue on research and development - including for improving sustainability. Global livestock emissions need to peak by 2025 and be reduced by 61% by 2036, with faster and deeper reductions in higher-income countries, in order to limit global warming in line with the Paris agreement – according to a recent survey of over two hundred climate scientists and food and agriculture experts, over half of whom have authored IPCC reports. #food #meat #plantbased #lessandbettermeat #climatechange #climatecrisis #biglivestock #defundbiglivestock

In the innovative partnership between Fonterra and Nestlé, a significant focus is placed on working closely with the value chain and providing robust support to farmers. 🌿 This collaboration exemplifies a forward-thinking approach where sustainability goals are not just set but are actively encouraged with tangible incentives. By offering additional payments for achieving specific sustainability benchmarks, Nestlé is driving a shift towards more sustainable dairy farming practices among Fonterra's suppliers. 🐄 This initiative underscores the power of collaborative efforts in enhancing environmental stewardship within the agricultural sector, demonstrating a commitment to both the planet and the prosperity of farmers. Through such partnerships, the pathway to a more sustainable and resilient food system becomes clearer, showcasing the crucial role of supporting farmers in our collective climate action efforts.🌏 https://lnkd.in/dYjUgX6T #Sustainability #Agriculture #ClimateAction #Partnership

ITC, as part of the Champions 12.3 coalition of executives, joins forces at the NYC Climate Week 2024 to help address on-farm food losses. With initiatives like ITCMAARS, ITC is committed to empowering farmers with innovative solutions, offering climate-smart practices to improve productivity and reduce food wastage. Speaking on the global issue, Sanjiv Puri, Chairman and Managing Director of ITC Limited, remarks, “Our Agri team will continue to intensify its efforts to support farmer producer organisations in the efficient handling of farm produce, improve productivity and progressively take site-specific action in climate hotspots – thereby ensuring that agri-food loss is addressed at critical points.” Read the article in its entirety here: https://lnkd.in/gjNknVtS #TheITCWay #Sustainability #PlanetPositive

A decade ago, the palm oil industry faced a dire environmental crisis, with vast swathes of destruction to Southeast Asia's forests. Mighty Earth, Greenpeace, Regnskogfondet, Earthworm Foundation and AidEnvironment have been forces of change in the region. Advocacy campaigns, strategic use of satellite data and supply chain information, plus corporate action, have reduced forest loss by 90% in the last 10 years, showing that change is possible. “This success story offers valuable lessons for other commodities. Above all, it shows that companies can play an outsized role in effecting change when the right incentives are present, even in regions with weak governance. Protecting forests is a question of corporate will, not ability.” However, the fight continues in the agriculture sector with getting Cargill and other conglomerates on board, where they consistently fall short of recommendations to halt agriculture-driven deforestation in South America. In November 2023, Cargill announced their commitment to eliminate destruction linked to key commodities across Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay by 2025 – leaving out Bolivia, Paraguay, and Colombia, therefore this announcement was an important but incomplete step for nature, climate, and communities. Read more about the pressure we put on companies’ supply chains https://lnkd.in/gGfwZA-i In 2019 Mighty Earth named Cargill, “The Worst Company in the World” for its appalling track record on deforestation, environmental and human rights issues. Learn more about our report: https://lnkd.in/gSm7Tug

Interesting to read this morning about how the Co-op is piloting a system where beef farmers are financially incentivised to reduce their #carbonimpact 🐄 Thank you to The Grumpy Optimist for putting it in my inbox.* It's wonderful to see that supermarkets are beginning to integrate some #climate concerns into their stocking choices and it's not just the Co-op - I was impressed with the organic range at my local Lidl this weekend. 🌍 However, it raises questions too... 📈 How do we make this approach scaleable? Farmers need to understand their climate impact in order to report on it, and they need to have the support to implement changes too. It must be financially and practically viable. Retailers need processes and policies in place that make it easy for their procurement teams and their customers to make the right choice. 🐝 What about Nature? Carbon reductions are one (important) element of environmental impact. How we measure and weight other factors, such as water pollution, biodiversity loss and social impact, is still relatively undefined. 🤔 Why this, why now? We need to pinpoint exactly what motivates these schemes and other climate initiatives so we can nurture further change by presenting the right data and reasoning in the most persuasive way. Retailers may be motivated by regulations, profit, risk mitigation, consumer demand, or their own ESG commitments. 👉👉👉 Most importantly, how can we accelerate the transition? The Soil Association works with everyone from policymakers and retailers to farmers and consumers to build momentum in the transition to a net-zero, nature-positive and fair food system for all. We do this by building understanding and support - it's hard to change your impact before you understand exactly what it is. We advocate for farmers to get fairly rewarded for protecting our natural environment. And we bring different stakeholders together (including the retailers) to build cohesion and work towards common goals and goods. I love working for the Soil Association because we take such a multifaceted approach in terms of both the 'who' and the 'what'. We work across and beyond the supply chain, and the purpose and form of our projects vary widely according to who we're working with. It's exciting to fundraise for these projects and it's inspiring to be confident that they are designed to have maximum, long-term impact. *I would really recommend the Grumpy Optimist - great coverage of news stories, always written clearly and concisely with a good dose of humour. They've recently surpassed 1000 email subscribers and I reckon the only way on is up!