Page 58 - Farm and Food Policy Strategies for 2040 Series

Lane expects new technology to transform farming and the agricultural supply chain through
extensive automation because “People don’t want to do the backbreaking work anymore.

Automation is cheaper, it reduces waste, and can work 24/7. It also reduces risks across the
board and increases quality and reliability, making true growing-to-order very efficient.”

Focusing on consumer demand

The recent Cargill and Tyson Foods investments in alternative meats signal a dramatic shift with

significant impacts not only for meat and dairy. Throughout the food chain, major food
companies increasingly focus on satisfying consumer and retailer preferences — and farmers
increasingly follow guidance from food companies and major retailers on what today’s

consumers want.

Walmart has been a leader in analyzing consumer preferences and advising its suppliers about
what consumers want. This major retailer is using its massive buying power to enforce its
stringent standards for reducing climate-change impacts, deforestation, water use, and waste by
urging its suppliers to comply.

The nonprofit Carbon Disclosure Project recognized Walmart along with 115 other companies
with a total $3.3 trillion in procurement spending for collectively reducing their suppliers’ carbon
emissions by 633 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2018, saving $19.3 billion for the companies.

Kathleen McLaughlin, Walmart’s chief sustainability officer and Walmart Foundation president,
explained that since the company’s own carbon footprint is small, Walmart can only achieve
major environmental gains by helping its suppliers reduce their climate impacts.

One example of this strategy is Walmart’s Gigaton Project aimed at creating a deforestation-free
supply chain for the products it sells. Walmart’s goal is to have its suppliers, such as Unilever,
reduce their carbon emissions by a gigaton (one billion metric tons) by 2030.

Unilever, a major supplier of food and personal care

products, sees bottom-line benefits from its own goal
of “Halving the environmental impact of our products
by 2030.” It notes that “The company’s sustainable-

living brands are growing 46% faster than the rest of
the business and delivered 70% of the company’s
growth in 2017.”

Ken Dallmier, Clarkson Grain Company In another example of how the supply chain is
responding to consumer preferences, Ken Dallmier,
president and COO of Illinois-based Clarkson Grain
Company, isn’t surprised that the farmers he buys from
are paying increasing attention to what retailers and
consumer research say consumers want: sustainability,
traceability, and transparency based on knowing who is
providing their food, from where, and with what
practices and which chemical inputs.

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