Food Security

Access to food is a basic human right

Cargill is committed to promoting food security – it’s what we work at every day around the world.

Food security - Cargill's work to create a food supply in a responsible manner. Watch the video to learn more about Cargill’s food security actions »

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient amounts of safe, nutritious and affordable food that meets their daily caloric and nutritional needs and provides the foundation for an active and healthy life.

Food security affects human health and welfare, and economic and political stability around the world. The commodity price spikes of 2008 brought renewed attention to the issue and were a stark reminder that the world can’t take food security for granted. The United Nations estimates that more than one billion people suffer from a lack of access to sufficient food today. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes – one child every five seconds. Global food production, already under strain from the credit crunch, must double by 2050 to head off mass hunger.

Six dimensions must work together to achieve food security

• Sustainable production. For the food system to become more productive, sustainable and reliable, agricultural raw materials need to be grown where resources provide the greatest production efficiency and can be renewed so that production can continue for many years – and then traded to the benefit of all parties.
• Efficient use of markets. Markets facilitate price discovery by matching supply and demand. Cargill believes governments should not implement policies that distort markets, and accordingly, harm developing country farmers as well as consumers.
• Free trade. For food to move from surplus to deficit areas it needs to be traded, often across international boundaries. Trade helps create jobs, supports local economies, helps raise living standards in all countries and contributes to a more food secure global population.
• Food safety. To move food efficiently across borders, standards for food safety need to be consistent and grounded in sound science; international food safety standards should be globally adopted. Transparent and consistent safety risk management systems are needed throughout the supply chain to provide accountability.
• Investment in agricultural research and education. Governments should support private sector investment in agricultural technology, increase their own commitment to research and development, and encourage investment in physical infrastructure.
• Cooperation between the public and private sectors. Both sectors have roles to play in food security and can achieve more by working together to deal with food security on a long-term basis.

Working to create a food secure world 

About half of Cargill’s global workforce is in the developing world. The work those employees are doing is helping to improve the quality of local agriculture and managing the infrastructure and basic food-processing facilities that give local communities access to safe, affordable food. Cargill has a U.S. $13 billion investment in the developing world – providing well-paying jobs in the handling, storage, transportation and processing of food staples. This focus on the basic infrastructure of the global food supply chain is the core of our business. 

Investing in farmers, agricultural research and education 

Cargill invests in training and practical support for farmers around the world to help them increase their productivity in a sustainable way and raise their living standards. This includes training them in best practices; providing credit and infrastructure; establishing fair, transparent pricing policies; and increasing their access to markets. For example, we: 

• Support government investments in rural communities and local agriculture that boost farm productivity and output. 
• Have trained more than two million Chinese farmers on world-class crop nutrition, animal breeding and feeding technologies to increase productivity and animal health. Recently, Cargill announced the launch of a "Golden Key Plan" to help improve farmers’ incomes in China. 
• Support local tapioca production in Thailand, which has helped double yields and increase farmers’ incomes by 50 percent. 
• As part of a public-private partnership, have trained more than 3,000 Vietnamese farmers to date on how to sustainably grow cocoa. 
• Train 10,000 farmers per year on improving the quality and quantity of their cocoa beans and increasing their incomes at our free Farmer Field Schools in the Ivory Coast.
• Train farmers in environmentally sustainable practices and teach conservation to school children in places like Honduras. 

Promoting open trade 

Cargill works with governments worldwide to promote the importance of open trade and investment policies to achieve food security goals. We encourage governments to remove harmful barriers to trade and investment such as prohibitively high import taxes, customs and regulatory bottlenecks, application of non-science based standards to imported food and feed, and imposition of equity caps on foreign investment in agriculture. Cargill advocates openly with governments for the removal of trade-distorting production and export subsidies as well. We educate our employees worldwide through our trade education program, TradeWorks™, to equip them with information for discussions on trade issues with their local and national governments. 

Public/private partners in food security 

Cargill believes that both the public and private sectors have appropriate roles to play in food security and can achieve more by working together. The private sector can be a strong partner with governments and communities to improve food and agricultural systems. Through corporate responsibility and in partnership with other stakeholders, companies can help governments and communities deal with food security on a long-term basis. 

Cargill works with a diverse group of global, national and local organizations to support food security. Some examples include:

• We have a five-year, $10 million partnership with CARE to improve food security for more than 100,000 people.
• We have partnered with the World Food Programme for more than a decade to improve access to food and education for children in South East Asia, Central America and Africa. We have contributed more than $5 million to these programs.
• We have partnered with TechnoServe for more than a decade to help entrepreneurial men and women in poor areas of the developing world build businesses that create income, opportunity and economic growth for their families, their communities and their countries.
• We work with a number of organizations, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UTZ Certified and others to improve the lives and increase the incomes of cocoa farmers and their communities in West Africa.
• Cargill employees at locations around the world provide hands-on support to local organizations by making contributions and volunteering in activities that address both immediate needs and long-term solutions to end hunger.

Encouraging government policy that promotes food security 

Cargill encourages governments to advance policies that will help the world meet its growing food needs. Specifically, we believe governments must: 

• Encourage free market development so that food produced is priced to markets and not set by government. However, governments must still recognize their role in providing safety nets in the event of emergencies. 
• Encourage open trade in a fair, transparent, rule-based, rigorously enforced system so that food surpluses can reach deficit areas, because self-sufficiency is not the answer to food security. 
• Encourage private sector investment in the agricultural and food chain and support clarifying property rights, so that farmers and others in the supply chain have a real stake in improving their longer term situation. 
• Champion international food safety standards and their application throughout the supply chain. 
• Invest in agricultural research and development and core infrastructure.
• Invest in extension services and farmer training programs. 
• Encourage sustainable production by pricing resources properly, including environmental resources like water. 
• Support women farmers in rural areas. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, rural women produce half of the world’s food, and in developing countries, 60 to 80 percent of the food crop is produced by women. Focus on women as farmers is key to achieving food security goals.