Connecting to the Farm to Help Build Regenerative and Thriving Agriculture Supply Chains
by Cheryl Baldwin, PH.D.
19 June 2018
Pure Strategies released the report, Connecting to the Farm, to outline best practices for engaging at the farm level to help accelerate corporate efforts that encourage and support progress to more sustainable agricultural production of products and raw materials.
The Pure Strategies’ report includes market research insight and detailed case studies on how Danone North America, Dr. Bronner’s, Sun World, The North Face, and Wrangler are taking efforts to help shape the future of sustainable agriculture to more regenerative and thriving systems. Along with working with producers in their supply chain, these companies are seeing business value from connecting to the farm including cost savings, risk reduction, and growth opportunities.
Tim Greiner, Managing Director for Pure Strategies points out, “With significant impacts coming from the agricultural stage of product value chains, it isn’t surprising that our past survey of heads of sustainability identified engaging in sustainable agriculture as a top priority. However, reaching through the complex combination of supply chain partners and effectively engaging at the farm can be challenging. Our report lays out the best practices that have emerged from companies at the forefront of getting closer to the farm, including employing communication, collaboration, and capacity building. I am optimistic that organizations that utilize these approaches will gain business benefits while facilitating the shift to agricultural systems that build soil and ecosystem health, support animal welfare, and improve communities and economies.”
Wrangler, the iconic jeans brand, was included in the report with their efforts to advance soil health best practice adoption in U.S. cotton production – such as no-till, crop rotation, and cover cropping. The brand not only encourages these approaches but is purchasing cotton from leading land stewardship farms to produce a new line of jeans available later in 2018. Roian Atwood, Sustainability Director at Wrangler, notes, “We started our journey in a discovery phase, where we met one-on-one with farmers to get to know their needs and opportunities and share ours. This two-way communication was the foundation to building stronger relationships with our growers, which has been invaluable to our soil health program and business overall.”
Leading natural and organic personal care company, Dr. Bronner’s, has long been sourcing organic and fair-trade ingredients. When the company looked to incorporate more holistic approaches such as mixed forests with coconut, cocoa, and other tree and field crops into its supply chain, it used a demonstration farm to test and prove best practices. When it found that coconut yields were boosted from this approach, they supported training and replanting of farms and purchased the product at a premium. Gero Leson, Vice President of Special Operations at Dr. Bronner’s, notes, “We build the capacity of farmers to not just provide our company with responsibly produced ingredients, but to also invest in the health of the soil, the farmers, their families, and communities for a resilient system.”
Sun World is a vertically integrated produce company that planted its first grape vines in California 40 years ago. Sun World began searching for innovative options to address California’s farm labor shortage, while improving the working conditions and support systems for farmworkers. Early in 2018, the company helped launch California Harvesters Inc. as an independent cooperative with local managers and service providers and Sun World as its anchor client. Sun World CEO Merrill Dibble notes, “Our goal in being part of California Harvesters is to increase farm worker opportunities - with better pay and benefits, more consistent and predictable work schedules, and more training to improve job mobility. We want to invest in workers so that they in turn, trust us and want to work for us.”
The Pure Strategies report - Connecting to the Farm - outlines best practices that companies across industries can leverage to help realize cost savings, reduced risk, and new growth opportunities while building more regenerative and thriving agricultural systems with their supply chain partners. To view the full report, go to: https://purestrategies.com/downloads/connecting-to-the-farm
Written by Cheryl Baldwin, PH.D.
Cheryl Baldwin, Ph.D., is a Vice President of Sustainability Consulting for Pure Strategies where she partners with corporate clients to develop and execute sustainability strategies to improve performance across retail, food and agriculture, home and personal care, and cosmetics industries. She also leads the firms’ global market research to generate new insights to accelerate business transformation.
Cheryl’s recent projects include helping develop sustainability goals for TAZO, create a sustainable packaging strategy and implementation tools for Walmart, and facilitate the development and implementation of a sustainable chemistry program for Ahold Delhaize USA.
Cheryl authored Pure Strategies’ market research reports: Planet-Forward Strategies, Connecting to the Farm, Reaching the New Corporate Frontier, Advancing on the Path to Product Sustainability, and other reports. She wrote the book, The 10 Principles of Food Industry Sustainability and is the lead author/editor for two additional books on sustainability, Greening Food and Beverage Services and Sustainability in the Food Industry and holds U.S. and international patents.
Prior to Pure Strategies, Cheryl led the life cycle research and sustainability standard program for the non-profit ecolabel organization Green Seal. Cheryl also worked in Research and Development for Kraft Foods, Inc. where she was involved in all phases of R&D from novel ingredient development to global product commercialization. Cheryl holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from Cornell University and a B.S. from the University of Illinois, all in Food Science.
Cheryl has been named one of the Top 50 Women Leaders of DC for the second consecutive year, based on a methodical review of women executives and leaders across the area. She was identified for her career track record, including her leadership position at Pure Strategies. The recognition came from Women We Admire (WWA), a membership organization of over 1,200 of the most accomplished women leaders in business, law, consulting, education, non-profit and other sectors. based on a methodical review of women executives and leaders across the area. She was identified for her career track record, including her leadership position at Pure Strategies. The recognition came from Women We Admire (WWA), a membership organization of over 1,200 of the most accomplished women leaders in business, law, consulting, education, non-profit and other sectors.
