Rice farming produces 1.5% of the Earth’s greenhouse fuel emissions, in line with the World Wildlife Fund, however Kellogg sees a path towards diminishing the crop’s destructive affect by working straight with farmers.
The cereal big mentioned its InGrained rice partnership with farmers within the Decrease Mississippi River Basin area — which goals to develop the crop with decreased methane emissions — yielded constructive early outcomes after the pilot yr of this system.
Kellogg invested $2 million in implementing irrigation practices over the previous yr. The corporate mentioned that in a five-year interval, it’s paying producers $20 per ton of greenhouse fuel they abate via introducing climate-friendly practices to their farming operations.
Over the primary yr, Kellogg mentioned, these practices garnered a discount of over 1,600 metric tons of greenhouse gases, equal to eradicating 345 gasoline-fueled automobiles from the street.
Janelle Meyers, chief sustainability officer at Kellogg, advised Meals Dive working with farmers on establishing the brand new agricultural practices has led to success with the undertaking to date. The farmers, she mentioned, shared with Kellogg that the standard of their rice was not impacted by the brand new strategies.
“What we’re attempting to know is, what are the practices that may ship greenhouse fuel discount or water conservation as a collective between these totally different companions?” Meyers mentioned. “Practices had been recognized based mostly off of each technical suggestions and the options from the totally different suppliers and growers as properly.”
One apply, she mentioned, is alternate moist and dry irrigation, through which rice fields usually are not stored repeatedly irrigated however are allowed to dry at particular intervals in the course of the rice rising stage, in line with analysis revealed by the Journal of Agricultural Science, which has been proven to mitigate emissions.
Kellogg sources rice, a key ingredient for its Rice Krispies and Rice Krispies Treats manufacturers, from growers in Northeast Louisiana. The corporate collaborated with emissions monitoring group Regrow Ag for its calculation.
The cereal big believes the rice endeavor, which is a part of Kellogg’s Origins sustainability program, will additional its 2030 sustainability targets. These embrace decreasing its Scope 3 emissions — which derive from meals commodity manufacturing and transportation — by 15%, and fascinating over a million growers in its environmental initiatives by 2030. As of 2021, the corporate had invested in 445,000 farmers.
Meyers mentioned the corporate has a selected curiosity in investing in women-owned farmers. A 2019 research from AgFunder experiences that solely 3% of agri-food tech funding {dollars} go to girls.
Kellogg recognized 15 precedence elements that want specific environmental, social or animal welfare wants, which it’s rolling out and planning sustainabile agriculture initiatives for, Meyers mentioned. “We’re engaged on corn in Mexico, wheat in Australia, potatoes in Europe, and there’s a number of others.”
Rice manufacturing ends in emissions of a number of greenhouse gases, together with methane, which is greater than 25 occasions as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping warmth within the ambiance in line with the Environmental Safety Company.
The Environmental Protection Fund experiences that international manufacturing of the crop is doing as a lot hurt to the atmosphere as 1,200 coal energy stations.
Rice manufacturing within the U.S. declined in 2022 due to persistent rainfall final spring that prevented the crop from being planted in elements of the South, in line with USDA information. Yields for the 2022-2023 are projected to be decrease in all rising states, the federal government division mentioned, due to droughts within the Southwest area.
With its rice undertaking, Kellogg goals to use a number of the ideas it learns to different areas, however Meyers famous that methods will differ based mostly on the situation and local weather of the undertaking.
“We take these learnings and attempt to apply them as we attempt to construct out comparable commodity initiatives in several areas,” she mentioned.
