McDonald’s Commits $5 Million to Accelerate Climate-Smart Farming Solutions
McDonald’s USA is committing $5 million and partnering with AgMission, a global collaboration to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in agriculture and to develop and implement climate-smart farming solutions over the next five years.
The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR), the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), and the World Farmers’ Organization (WFO) established AgMission to unlock agriculture’s potential to reduce GHG emissions, a release said.
Their goal? To make the agriculture sector net-negative for GHG emissions by bringing farmers, ranchers and scientists together to co-create science-based solutions that can be rapidly deployed, increasing on-farm resiliency while mitigating the impacts of climate change.
A Threat to Food Security
“Climate change threatens our environment, food security as well as farmer and ranchers’ livelihoods. We are elated that McDonald’s sees the value of AgMission’s approach and is partnering with us on this unprecedented initiative,” FFAR’s Executive Director Sally Rockey said in a release.
Research and data are fundamental to reaching this goal. Integrated, interoperable data is critical to coordinating this research and accelerating adaptation and adoption of climate-smart solutions that reduce GHG emissions, AgMission said.
“AgMission’s expansive, coordinated effort builds on existing research to coordinate agriculture’s climate-change response, connecting data from one part of the world that could benefit another,” Rockey said.
Although agriculture accounts for 9.9% of GHG emissions in the U.S. and roughly 24% globally, it is the only sector with the natural potential to be net negative for GHG emissions, AgMission said.
“Soil and farmlands already sequester 100 more times carbon than is emitted in a year,” Erin Fitzgerald, CEO of USFRA said in a release. “But farmers and ranchers cannot do it alone. This effort requires a response that rivals the magnitude of the challenge we are overcoming.”
A Thriving Planet
McDonald’s commitment exemplifies the progressive actions the business is taking to help deliver net zero emissions across its global operations by 2050, AgMission said in a release. McDonald’s joins Pepsico as a Founding Partner of AgMission.
“We’re striving to feed more people in increasingly sustainable ways by creating a food system in which communities, animals and the planet thrive,” Marion Gross, McDonald’s senior vice president and chief supply chain officer, North America, said in a release. “It’s been proven time and again that real action comes through convening of partners around steady science-based strategies.”
A Stronger Supply Chain
Companies are understandably concerned when they see less resilience in the food supply chain. Jason Rowntree serves as the C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Michigan State University, and he works with everyone from farmers to major fast food chains like McDonald's. He says the decision to invest in climate initiatives in agriculture isn't something just coming from consumers, as extreme weather is having a direct impact on the food products they source.
“The threats are real. I think we would be naïve to just continue to think that this is a normal," Rowntree says. "With that said, I think we need to more aptly consider, 'How does our farm look by the year 2040? And what are the things we have to have in place to add resilience to be able to hand off our farm to the next generation?' I think it [reducing carbon footprint] needs to be definitely higher up in our priorities. But, I think that should come from policy that is supporting agriculture, and I think it should come from industries that depend on agriculture.”
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