CEOs of 10 Major Food Companies Demand Climate Action

http://www.triplepundit.com/special/climate-week-nyc-2015/ceos-of-10-major-food-cos-demand-climate-action/

by Jen Boynton on Friday, Oct 2nd, 2015

The days of business push-back on environmental legislation are in the rearview mirror, at least for the food industry. So long, don’t let the door hit you on the way out! Yesterday 10 major food companies — coordinated by Ceres and led by Mars — released a letter to U.S. and global leaders calling for action on climate change. The signatories are a mix of major food conglomerates and mid-sized companies with a known sustainability bent: Mars, General Mills, Nestle USA, Unilever, Danone Dairy North America, Stonyfield Farm, Ben & Jerry’s, Kellogg Company, New Belgium Brewery, and Clif Bar. “Climate change is bad for farmers and for agriculture. Drought, flooding and hotter growing conditions threaten the world’s food supply and contribute to food insecurity,” the letter, which also ran in full page ads in the Washington Post and Financial times, states. Beyond calling for action in Paris, the letter includes three commitments: re-energize our companies’ continued efforts to ensure that our supply chain becomes (sic) more sustainable, talk transparently about our efforts and share best practices, and use our voices to advocate for governments to set clear, achievable measurable, enforceable science-based targets for carbon emissions reductions.

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The letter signing was announced at a Washington D.C. roundtable attended by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rep. Christopher Gibson (R-NY), who have joined together across the aisle to advocate for action on climate change. At the roundtable, Sen. Whitehouse spoke from the heart,

“Modern life has put a great many of us into a private bubble of consumption. There is too much distance between us and the natural world, we are no longer dependent on nearby farms. So the signals of distress that the earth and atmosphere are sending are falling on deaf ears. It’s really important that the big agriculture and food companies that provide the bridge between natural world and our bubble understand the importance of action on climate change.”

tags: ethical businesses