BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
In recent years it’s become common knowledge that companies using palm oil in their snack foods or publishers sourcing paper fiber from Indonesian pulp mills may be at risk of contributing to deforestation and labor rights abuses.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Today, Yum! Brands, the second-largest fast-food giant in America thanks to its KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands, became the latest food company to commit to sourcing deforestation- and peat-free palm oil. NGOs including the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Greenpeace are applauding Yum! for being the biggest global fast food company to commit to sourcing better palm oil, but note that the commitment falls short of perfect.According to Yum!'s new palm oil policy:
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
This week, stakeholders continued to take action to pressure companies into turning over a new leaf when it comes to their sourcing practices — around what has become known as Conflict Palm Oil.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
As the effects of climate change on our global ecosystems continue to reveal themselves, fears are growing that it could threaten food security, particularly a vital source of protein that has sustained humans for centuries. Luckily, bean breeders at the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a global food research consortium, have announced the discovery of 30 new lines of “heat-beater” beans that could keep production from crashing in large swaths of bean-dependent Latin America and Africa.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Major seafood-selling brands such as Safeway, Walmart and Sysco are potentially benefiting from slave labor, a new AP investigation has unveiled.
WASTE NOT -
With two billion pounds of waste generated by the seafood industry in Alaska alone, finding creative ways to repurpose this waste represents an economic opportunity as well as an environmental imperative. We’ve seen shrimp shells turned into everything from bioplastic to solar cells … but upcycling seafood byproducts into clothing likely wouldn’t be a top-of-mind solution for most people.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Aquaculture has quickly grown from a minor, niche industry into an industrialized and modern one, and sustainability is at the center of many innovations on how to make this arena a long-term and thriving success. Output for food production from aquaculture has surpassed that of wild capture fisheries and today, more than 50 percent of seafood imported into the US is farm-raised. When you couple that with the fact that 90 percent of our seafood is imported from all corners of the world, you begin to realize the enormous role that aquaculture plays in feeding the world.
CLEANTECH -
The United States agriculture industry faces a changing climate, diminishing water supply, and a rapidly growing population. To address these issues, farmers are having to move into the 21st century, one tech advancement at a time."We live in a complicated world and there's been a lot of talks these days about getting to 2050 and feeding over 9 billion people," said A.G. Kawamura, the former California Secretary of Agriculture, co-chair of Solutions from the Land, and a third-generation farmer. "We have the capacity but we don't have the will to do it. Logistics haven't been put into place."
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Clif Bar has released the second installment in its Farmers Speak series. Where the first centered on organic oats; the second installment “gives voice” to organic almonds — a key ingredient in 17 products across the company’s CLIF®, CLIF® Organic Trail Mix, LUNA® and CLIF® Kit’s Organic Fruit + Nut Bar brand bars.The video tells the story of Burroughs Family Farm — which grows nearly 1,000 acres of organic almonds in Merced County, in California’s Central Valley — and the family’s decision to make the bold transition from conventional to organic farming practices.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
On top of the fact that palm oil production — the biggest driver of deforestation in Southeast Asia and parts of Africa and South America — is responsible for the rampant release of carbon emissions, the destruction of vital habitats for endangered species such as orangutans and the Sumatran tiger, and the production of methane-rich wastewater, a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) links unsustainable palm oil production practices with significant air pollution in Southeast Asia in the form of devastating haze.
PRESS RELEASE -
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – March 2, 2015 – Across fresh food supply chains, businesses are advancing environmental, social and economic values. Balancing production with continually improving conservation stewardship demands an aligned approach to measure and communicate on-farm sustainability in specialty crops (all fruits, nuts, and vegetables). The Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops (SISC) and The Sustainability Consortium® (TSC) are proud to announce a partnership that creates significant progress toward these goals. TSC and SISC have agreed to work toward harmonization of on-farm performance metrics and collaborate together on implementation and innovation projects to encourage stewardship across specialty crop supply chains.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Mars Chocolate UK and Fairtrade Foundation have extended their partnership to source Fairtrade-certified cocoa for MARS® Bars in the United Kingdom and Ireland by October 2015.Mars is the first UK company to announce a commitment under the new Fairtrade Cocoa Sourcing Programme, which aims to deliver more opportunities for cocoa farmers to sell on Fairtrade terms and connect them with businesses that actively support efforts to improve farmer livelihoods.In 2009, Mars committed to certifying its entire cocoa supply as being produced in a sustainable manner by 2020.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Thick clouds of smoke, a suffocating heat. Forests, lush and green and bustling with all types of life, reduced to burned land and ashes. In Indonesia, in the 1997-98 fires, approximately 10 million hectares of rainforest, an area the size of Switzerland, were affected. The regional economic costs of the fires were estimated at $9 billion. These fires were set deliberately, by palm oil estates, to clear land for rapid and cheap expansion of their plantations, and to hide timber poaching and land theft.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Last week, Safeway and Fair Trade USA announced a partnership to launch Fair Trade Certified™ seafood into the North American market. The program addresses both social and environmental responsibility in fishing communities across the globe. In March, Safeway will debut the world’s first Fair Trade fish – wild-capture tuna from small-scale fishermen in Indonesia – in its Northern California, Portland and Seattle Division stores.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
The term “super food” has become trite in today’s health-crazed dietary marketplace — used to describe everything from kale to blueberries. The word is rarely used by dietitians or nutrition scientists because few foods pack enough of a nutritional punch to merit “super” status.But there still are a few deserving of the title — and a plant called moringa is one of them. The moringa tree is a plant native to parts of Africa and Asia renowned for its nutritional value — each leaf contains seven times the vitamin C of oranges, four times the vitamin A of carrots, four times the calcium of milk, three times the potassium of bananas and twice the protein of yogurt.
CLEANTECH -
Scientists from IBM Research and Mars have established a new collaborative food safety platform aimed at leveraging advances in genomics to further the understanding of what makes food safe.The Consortium for Sequencing the Food Supply Chain will conduct the largest-ever metagenomics study to categorize and understand microorganisms and the factors that influence their activity in a normal, safe factory environment. IBM and Mars say this work could be extended into the larger context of the food supply chain — from farm to fork — and lead to new insights into how microorganisms interact within a factory ecology and be better-controlled by new data and science-driven practices.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Last week saw the launch of a new initiative that will offer 15 post-graduate scientists from nations across Africa the opportunity to work with UK academic institutions in subject areas such as water management, sustainable farming, energy and waste.The ‘SABMiller Royal Society Exchange Programme’ is a seemingly unlikely collaboration between one of the UK’s leading science establishments and a multinational brewer. I went along to Wednesday night’s launch event at the Royal Society in London to find out how beer is helping to fund new sustainable technologies.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
San Diego company Net Zero Aqualife says it has beat its crowdfunding deadline and now has the funds to begin production of high-quality organic shrimp at low cost. The farm is expected to produce 100 percent organic, non-GMO, self-sustained shrimp, without emitting any waste or pollution, or consuming any water or energy, through a closed-loop system.The company hopes to provide a sustainable method of producing the popular shellfish domestically; currently, the US imports a whopping 91 percent of its shrimp.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
US nationwide floral directory Slow Flowers is encouraging its customers to show their love in a more thoughtful way this Valentine’s day by sourcing local American-grown bouquets.The US cut flower retail market is flourishing, with sales topping US$7-8 billion annually. However, apparently only 2 percent of the 224 million roses sold in 2012 were American-grown. The US flower market has been dominated for decades by 1-800 teleflorists who import their bouquets from overseas. In an attempt to change this trend and support local farmers, Slow Flowers now has a directory of roughly 500 florists committed to sourcing their flowers from the US for Valentine’s Day this year.
COLLABORATION -
Dock to Dish, a New York-based community and restaurant supported fishery, has announced plans to open Florida’s first community supported fishery in Key West next month in conjunction with Key West restaurateur Chris Holland and the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association.The goal of the new enterprise is to bring the health benefits of locally harvested fish and seafood back to local consumers while helping to strengthen the in-state commercial fishing industry, Dock to Dish says.