FAIRR’s top news picks
USDA to Spend $1B to Promote Climate-Friendly Agriculture
Reuters | 7 February 2022
The USDA will invest $1 billion in sustainable agricultural activities that cut greenhouse gas emissions or capture and store climate-warming carbon. The investment aims to help stabilise agricultural product prices and support farm income whilst tackling climate change. The hope is that investing in these practices will raise the value of U.S. farm products as food companies and exporters continuously push to decarbonise their supply chains.
Dutch Farm Finance Giant Is Pushing for a Green Energy Shift
Bloomberg | 9 February 2022
Rabobank, a major Dutch lender with about a €100b exposure to the food and agriculture sector, reveals plans to invest in the shift towards renewable energy. Agriculture produces about a quarter of global greenhouse gases and lags other sectors in developing accurate ways to measure pollution along the supply chain. With increasing pressure to account for the environmental impact of its loans, Rabobank pledges to decline working with clients who don’t commit to the Paris Agreement.
US Poultry Giant Uses Land ‘Twice the Size of New Jersey’ for Animal Feed
Guardian | 9 February 2022
New study explores the vast amount of land needed to produce feed in industrial animal farming. According to the calculations, Tyson Foods utilises almost 10m acres of farmland to produce feed for more than 2b animals that it processes annually in the U.S. alone. This area is almost twice the size of New Jersey. Such land use practices create environmental issues, such as changes to soil and natural flow of water, pollution from pesticides, the risks of contaminating drinking water, and make a significant contribution to climate change.
Graphic of the Week
Source: Guardian
More Food for Thought
Environmental Groups Alarmed Over Fires in Colombian Amazon | Manuel Rueda | Washington Post<br />Cut Meat and Dairy Output by a Third to Save Climate, British Farmers Told | Fiona Harvey | Guardian
FAIRR’s Protein Pulse is a weekly collection of news articles related to the food sector that may be of interest to our members. FAIRR does not necessarily endorse the views of these news articles and assumes no responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies found in third-party content.
