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Strip tilling has an advantage over no-till farming Shelby Shelton, a EDF project manager for
by allowing the soil to dry out better in the spring. working lands.
The animal agriculture industry that supplies
Walmart and other retailers is counting on such Sustainability fixes vary by sector,
improvements in the way that corn and soy- company
beans are grown.
Other companies and sectors are taking or may
“When we look at any indicator, whether the take different approaches to reducing their envi-
indicator is greenhouse gas emissions, energy ronmental footprint.
use, water use, land use, take your pick, they A few companies, including Campbell Soup
always come back to corn and soybeans when Co., are tying pledges to individual commodities
talking about animal ag,” said Marty Matlock, that they buy.
executive director of the University of Arkan-
sas Resiliency Center and a professor of ecologi- Campbell has pledged to source five key ingre-
cal engineering. dients — jalapeños, potatoes, soy, tomatoes and
wheat — from farmers participating in sustain-
Smithfield’s plan for making its farms carbon able agriculture programs by 2025. So far, 90%
neutral illustrates the complexity of meeting
corporate climate goals: Soil health practices of its tomatoes meet that commitment, but the
and more efficient use of fertilizer will reduce same can be said for only 8% of its wheat and
feed emissions. none of its jalapeños, potatoes and soy.
Simultaneously, Smithfield plans to capture the Campbell sources tomatoes from a limited num-
methane from its farms’ hog manure and turn ber of producers, 50 growers in northern Cal-
it into renewable natural gas. Finally, Smithfield ifornia within 40 miles of the processing plant.
will also use more wind and solar power genera- The company has worked with the growers to
tion to power its operations. select seeds with genetics that have high solid
contents while resisting drought, said Andrea
The Environmental Defense Fund has been Chu, Campbell’s manager for responsible sourc-
working with Smithfield on projects to improve ing and risk management.
the sustainability of corn and soybeans, one in
North Carolina, and another in the Midwest, Del Monte has a goal of increasing the use of
the latter of which involves sourcing of small cover crops by its farmers by 5% a year, with a
grains to help farmers break up their corn-soy- special emphasis in its Midwest growing areas
bean rotation and reduce fertilizer usage. of Wisconsin and Illinois. In 2019, cover crops
on Del Monte vegetable fields increased nearly
One of the goals of the North Carolina proj- 12% in Wisconsin, the company says.
ect is to ensure Smithfield farms have access to
local grain sources, reducing the distance the To meet its pledge, General Mills is emphasiz-
feed has to be transported, which in turn limits ing regenerative agriculture practices, pledging
its carbon footprint. to support their use on a million acres of U.S.
farmland by 2030, while also tailoring sustain-
“That has a really big impact when a company ability projects to its key ingredients.
like Smithfield … steps up and says this is really
important to our supply chain and we want to The company has three pilot projects underway,
work with you, EDF, and you, the farmers, to one on oats in North Dakota and the neighbor-
figure out to do this in way that’s scientifically ing Canadian provinces, a wheat pilot in Kansas
robust and also good for the farmers,” said and a dairy project in Michigan.

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