Addressing climate change

 

Cargill works with academic institutions to build understanding on climate change because, while climate science is a highly researched topic, fewer studies have focused specifically on agriculture’s effect on climate change and equally, climate changes effect on agriculture. 

• Columbia University. We recently awarded USD $3 million to the university and the Amazon Forest Carbon Partnership (AFCP), a project designed to help preserve the Amazon rainforest. Ultimately, the project will create a financial incentive for protecting the rainforest by allowing developed countries to buy forestry carbon credits from developing countries.
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Global Change Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Climate Change. We are a sponsor of the MIT joint program which uses sophisticated, integrative modeling tools to assess the potential impact of climate change on agricultural and food systems. 
• Stanford University’s Institute on Food Security and the Environment. Cargill supports the work of the Institute on Food Security and Environment which assesses the impact of climate change scenarios on our food systems. We have joined with the Institute and other partners – including the Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund to investigate opportunities to put degraded lands into production to reduce pressure on forests. 
• University of Arkansas’ Applied Sustainability Center. We are a founding partner of the Applied Sustainability Center and support its efforts to define standards for the development of lifecycle assessments and carbon footprints for food and agricultural commodities. This work is expected to identify opportunities in reducing the environmental footprint of products across the supply chain – from “farm to fork” in the case of food. It will also represent a significant step in bringing meaningful and reliable information on environmental and climate impact of purchased products to the consumer.