14 food companies submit plans to contain global warming

Fourteen of the world’s largest food companies, including JBS, have submitted at COP27 a shared roadmap about how they will work to reduce the emissions arising from the change in land use in their operations. To address this crucial issue, the CEOs of the leading trade and agricultural processing companies had given a commitment one year ago at COP26 in Glasgow to developing a shared roadmap, concentrating on the palm oil, soybean and livestock farming sectors while also protecting global food systems and the means of subsistence of the producers. 

The following companies head up the Roadmap of the Farming Industry 1.5°C, published at COP27 in Egypt: ADM, Amaggi, Bunge, Cargill, COFCO International, Golden Agri-Resources, JBS, Louis Dreyfus Company, Marfrig, Musim Mas, Olam International, Olam Food Ingredients (OFI), Viterra and Wilmar International. 

By submitting an overarching plan for dealing with forest loss in the supply chains and to accelerate collaboration to achieve these objectives, the roadmap puts forward actions that concentrate on areas with the greatest impacts. It also describes how the signatories will engage with other key players, especially governments, components of the supply chain and financial institutions to expand the support for the plan’s commitments. This includes strengthening policies and regulations, while encouraging farmers and livestock producers to protect natural resources.

Over the last year, the Tropical Forest Alliance, with the support of World Business Council for Sustainable Development, has contributed so that the world’s major trading and agricultural processing companies could come up with the roadmap. Thereafter, the companies agreed to establish a plan with specific deadlines and to be publicly accountable on an annual basis for their progress in the direction of the targets. 

Gilberto Tomazoni, Global CEO of JBS, stressed that humanity is facing two simultaneous emergencies. “We have to tackle climate change and, at the same time, increase global food production to guarantee food safety. JBS recognizes its responsibility, as the world’s largest food company, to be part of the solution and, therefore, the need for partnership with our value chain to accelerate and scale up progress. To push ahead faster in Brazil, the industry must focus its attention on the key areas and drivers of deforestation: the Amazon and illegal deforestation. In line with our commitment to containing global warming by up to 1.5^oC, 2023 will be a year of action for us to push ahead – jointly with our partners in the public and private sectors – in developing incentives and technical support for producers who are the key to eliminating all deforestation ”. 

JBS announced in March of last year the commitment to becoming Net Zero by 2040, in other words, to zero the net balance of its greenhouse gas emissions. Also as a part of this target, the company reiterated its commitment to eliminating illegal deforestation from its (supply) chain by 2025 in every Brazilian biome where it operates. To that end, the company monitors its 80,000-plus direct suppliers of beef cattle using a satellite imaging system and the leading public information databases. Moreover, the Company has made strides in the same controls for the suppliers of its suppliers by creating the Transparent Livestock Farming Platform, a tool that uses blockchain technology to achieve this objective while respecting the confidentiality contemplated in the Brazilian legislation. 

Notes to the editors

The roadmap will be published on the site of the TFA, please go to:

https://www.tropicalforestalliance.org/en/collective-action-agenda/cop27-roadmap/ 

• NetZero
• Sustainability