Sustainable Agriculture

General Mills: Environmental Sustainability
Sustainable Agriculture
Overview
General Mills has a long-standing commitment to minimize its impact on the environment by
working closely with the agricultural community. Through its Green Giant brand, General Mills has
practiced sustainable agriculture for more than a century, and research continues in earnest as the
company develops and improves crop breeding and agronomic practices that benefit farmers and
the environment. Higher yielding crops, reduced pesticide use and disease resistance are among
the best practices that General Mills has shared with farmers around the world.
Minimizing our impact
Green Giant published a report in
1940 about the benefits of crop
rotation in producing greater
yields and increasing income for
pea farmers. Another report in
1945 helped farmers reduce the
number of insecticide applications
by determining the most effective
time to apply insecticide to control
infestations from pea aphids.
General Mills has a proud history of working closely with
farmers to produce high-quality foods while minimizing its
environmental footprint. The company’s Green Giant brand was
an early adopter of crop rotation practices in the 1930s, and was
among the earliest to use best-in-class pesticide management
six decades ago.
General Mills’ research facility in Le Sueur, Minn. – the valley
where Green Giant was created – develops and improves
sustainable agricultural practices that are used globally. The
facility’s library houses thousands of varieties of sweet corn,
peas and green beans from the past 80 years. Company
scientists are continually selecting and breeding desirable traits
through natural methods to create the next generation of seed
for farmers. Thousands of seeds are tested annually to find just
one or two varieties to be introduced the following year.
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General Mills: Agriculture
Green Giant agronomists also have developed best
practices that minimize pesticide use through integrated
pest management processes, reduced water consumption
with more efficient irrigation systems, and yielded bigger
crops without tilling more land. Green Giant has taken these
best practices and improved varieties to many parts of the
world, specifically sharing them with vegetable farmers in
Mexico, asparagus growers in Peru, and sweet corn farmers
in France and Canada.
During the past 35 years, improved
hybrids through conventional
breeding have more than doubled
the yield of sweet corn on an acre
of land and reduced pesticide use
by 80 percent.
Green Giant is the only sweet corn manufacturer in Europe
to have earned ARVALIS – Institut du végétal certification
for its efforts in reducing insecticide use and developing
awareness and education concerning nitrogen fertilizer, water,
and pesticide use in agriculture. Additionally, the Green Giant
Seretram plant in Labatut, France, has been recognized for its
outstanding agricultural practices.
Developing standards for
sustainable dairy
General Mills is a member of the Sustainable Agriculture
Initiative (SAI) Platform, an organization founded by
companies in the food industry to support the development of
sustainable agriculture practices throughout the food chain.
Representatives from General Mills actively participate in SAI’s
Dairy working group, which collaborated with the International
Dairy Federation to develop a common global carbon footprint
approach for dairy. The methodology is now being incorporated
into individual measurement systems globally by SAI members
and the dairy sector. This work represents a significant step
forward in the calculation of carbon footprint for the dairy
sector. The group also is defining a list of key performance
indicators to measure sustainability from an environmental,
social and economic perspective at the dairy farm level.
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General Mills: Agriculture
Protecting our future
Building on its strong legacy of developing and improving
best practices in sustainable agriculture, General Mills has
committed to advancing its commitment even further.
General Mills is helping the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) promote research on oats, an important crop that
has been overlooked by researchers for decades. Research on
oats has not kept pace with other food crops such as corn,
soybeans, wheat and canola. A grant by General Mills to the
USDA is funding the collaborative research of more than
30 scientists who are mapping specific genes in oats to help
develop varieties with improved nutrition and resistance to
drought and pests. General Mills’ investment triggered other
groups to invest, bringing the total research funding to more
than $1.8 million.
management and other farming practices that will lead to a
more environmentally sustainable and economical production
of wheat.
A similar effort is under way in western Canada. General
Mills is working with grower groups to study two decades of
sustainability indicators - land use, soil loss, energy use and
climate change - on eight different crops including wheat,
oats, lentils, canola, peas and flax.
As a demonstrated leader in sustainable agriculture,
General Mills is working closely with the Keystone Center’s
Field to Market Initiative to develop best-in-class agricultural
practices. The center uses science-based approaches to reach
public policy recommendations and is focused on defining
and measuring the sustainability of food production.
General Mills is also collaborating with the University of
Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment to map agricultural
production and management practices worldwide. Known as
the Global Landscapes Initiative, the project aims to provide
agribusinesses, environmental groups, and others with
information they can use to increase food production while
reducing adverse environmental impacts of agriculture.
General Mills has launched a three-year pilot with 25 wheat
growers in eastern Idaho to study the environmental impact
of wheat production. Ultimately, the program will allow
growers to share best practices in nutrient management, pest
Case studies
Ensuring a sustainable
supply of vanilla
The vanilla plant is a labor-intensive crop that is grown only in a
few, select corners of the world, by an increasingly smaller number
of growers. At present, many of those growers are abandoning
vanilla farming in favor of other crops that are less vulnerable
to disease, severe weather and price fluctuations. General Mills
is funding a $200,000 research project at the University of
California-Davis to help steward the environmental and social
sustainability of this fragile crop, and build a stable future for
those who grow it. An international research team is mapping the
genetic structure of the vanilla plant and laying the foundation
for natural improvements – like disease-resistance and enhanced
flavor – that will enable vanilla farmers to generate more income
from a larger, more consistent and higher-quality crop.
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General Mills: Agriculture
Case studies
Reducing water usage
Sustaining economic growth for
farmers in China
General Mills’ agricultural team has been working with local
broccoli and cauliflower growers in Irapuato, Mexico, to
encourage them to adopt a technology called drip irrigation that
significantly reduces water usage. By directing water to drip
slowly to the roots of the plants, drip irrigation uses 50 percent
less water than the more conventional furrow irrigation. Drip
irrigation is now being used in about 43 percent of the acreage.
General Mills estimates that 1.1 billion gallons of water are
saved annually. Drip irrigation also reduces the use of pesticides
and improves yields, making it an effective, efficient and more
environmentally friendly way to nourish crops. To encourage
farmers to adopt drip irrigation, General Mills has provided
farmers with interest-free loans to purchase equipment.
Small farmers in the northeastern Chinese village of Yongqing
have increased their household income two to four times since
2003 by growing corn for General Mills’ Bugles corn snacks.
By contracting directly with General Mills, more than
750 farmer households receive seeds, other inputs, agronomic
guidance, and two unique guarantees: a price that’s higher
than the market price and a promise to buy their entire crop.
Signs of the farmers’ higher standard of living are prominent,
ranging from new housing to farm equipment to improved
diets. During the past seven growing seasons, the amount of
cultivated acreage has increased, and farmers speak of plans
to cultivate more to sustain their income growth.
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