Ahold Delhaize USA and General Mills have announced a strategy to address Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions within their shared value chain. With this collaborative approach, the two companies will support farmers as they adopt regenerative farming practices, utilizing expertise from Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC).
“This relationship emphasizes how strategic collaboration is essential for addressing climate impacts and creating positive environmental outcomes,” said Marc Stolzman, Chief Sustainability Officer, Ahold Delhaize USA. “Ahold Delhaize USA looks forward to the learnings from this supply shed collaboration and using the findings to drive progress across the supply chain.”
Using ESMC, a nonprofit member-based consortium, farmers will receive technical and financial support to implement techniques like cover cropping and nutrient management, and a combination of field sampling and modeling will estimate net greenhouse gas emissions, explained a release.
“In 2019, General Mills became one of the first companies to commit to helping advance regenerative agriculture,” said Mary Jane Melendez, Chief Sustainability and Global Impact Officer, General Mills. “We champion a farmer-centered approach across key regions where the ingredients we source are grown, aiming to produce positive environmental, social, and economic outcomes. Ahold Delhaize USA is a natural fit for collaboration with shared goals of creating a more healthy and resilient food system.”
ESMC aims to help advance regenerative agriculture management on over 70,000 acres of farmland in the state of Kansas and in Saskatchewan, Canada, by the end of 2025.
The scale of this effort represents the approximate number of acres General Mills engages to source key ingredients for its products sold at grocery stores operated by Ahold Delhaize USA’s brands, such as Food Lion, Giant Food, The GIANT Company, Hannaford, and Stop & Shop.
“ESMC’s ongoing partnerships with General Mills and Ahold Delhaize USA continue to leverage our collective investments and generate shared outcomes. By creating opportunities for co-investing in regenerative agricultural solutions, producers win, corporations win, and consumers win,” said Debbie Reed, Executive Director, ESMC. “These verified improvements in agricultural production systems increase on-farm resilience for producers and build resilience throughout the supply chain.”
This collaboration is a continuation of General Mills and ESMC’s multi-year partnership, which began in 2020, rewarding farmers for beneficial environmental outcomes from regenerative agriculture.
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