Companies’ Climate Promises Face a Wild Card: Farmers
Some of the largest companies in the U.S. have pledged to adopt climate-friendly agricultural techniques. But some farmers say they haven’t provided enough incentive.
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Julie Creswell, who covers the food industry, reported this article from Corning, Aurelia and Onawa, Iowa.
Driving rain pelted the windows of “the Tower,” a second-story glass enclosure in Ray Gaesser’s home that provides a view for miles of the gentle, rolling fields around Corning, Iowa. Inside, away from the elements, Mr. Gaesser pondered what the coming year might bring for farmers.
As tractors and planters throughout the Midwest rolled into fields like the ones near his house earlier this year, Mr. Gaesser, 69, was hopeful that soaring grain prices and heightened global demand for food would translate into robust revenues. But he also expected that sharply higher costs for fuel, fertilizer and other necessities would cut deeply into profits.
And then there is Big Food.
Companies like PepsiCo, Cargill, Walmart, and General Mills are trying to convince farmers like Mr. Gaesser to adopt new climate-friendly agricultural techniques through a variety of financial incentives and programs. They have good reason. Together, these companies have pledged that at least 70 million acres, or roughly 18 percent of the nation’s total cropland, an area about the size of Nevada, will be operated using regenerative agriculture techniques by 2030.
Through photosynthesis, plants — whether corn or trees — convert carbon dioxide from the air into energy that is stored in the soil. Regenerative farming techniques, such as planting a cover crop during the fall, allows that process to continue throughout the winter months when the soil would normally be bare.
But there are several complicating factors. The programs sponsored by the companies, which run from cost-sharing agreements with farmers to guarantees to cover any declines in yields to complex, multiyear contracts to pay for carbon dioxide that is captured and held in the soil, are largely still in pilot stages and amount to only a fraction of the companies’ overall goals. And many farmers remain skeptical of the initiatives, arguing that the incentives being offered simply aren’t enough to cover the additional costs these new techniques will incur.
“What is it worth to them for us to farm differently?” Mr. Gaesser asked.
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