General Mills: Environmental Responsibility

By setting goals that push the company to do more, we demonstrate leadership in establishing aggressive goals within the food industry. 

For example, because we set goals: 

  • General Mills burns oat hulls left over from the milling process to reduce one of our plant's carbon footprints by about 21 percent. 
  • We have an irrigation process that uses 50 percent less water than conventional furrow irrigation, and also reduces electricity and pesticide use. 

Our fact sheets contain these and other interesting details. 

Videos from this campaign

Content from this campaign

Environment

The Life of a Modern Cowboy
Zachary Jones is a rancher. But he’s no lone ranger.

In fact, people are at the center of his job. He’s even earned the nickname “push-button man” from his two young daughters. He’s often on his phone, email or Skype.

Environment

Changing Consumers Ignite Food Revolution
Elke Richards drives two hours to Maple Grove every month to shop at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, both of which offer more organic groceries or minimally processed food than she can find near her home in Alexandria. In the summer, she goes to farmers markets for locally grown produce. For meat, she visits a local family farm that raises sheep and cattle using environmentally friendly land management practices.

Environment

To Boldly Go to the Next New Frontier, Look Down
We support the recent Noble Research Institute announcement. To date, General Mills has invested almost $3 million to support soil health research and practices. Together with The Nature Conservancy, Soil Health Partnership, Soil Health Institute and other industry leaders, we are striving to implement practices on more than 50 percent of U.S. farmland.

Environment

World Soil Day: Reflecting on Soil Health’s Growing Recognition
The Soil Health Partnership has built a network of 111 farmers across 12 states, from North Dakota to Maryland. These farmers have raised their hands to join in learning about how a little science and soil health can help improve cropping system resiliency, economic performance and environmental outcomes (water quality, air quality, and biodiversity).

Environment

Could Perennial Grains Be the Next Climate-Saving Superstars?
A new cereal grain more than 40 years in the making is finding its way into the marketplace in several forms, including a new product from food giant General Mills. Some believe it carries the promise of a whole new type of staple crop — one that requires minimal plowing, fertilizers or pesticides — that also could become a weapon in the battle against climate change.

Environment

General Mills Deepens Investment in Soil Health With $735,000 Contribution to National Wheat Foundation
General Mills continues to invest in soil health practices on U.S. agricultural farmland with its latest contribution of $735,000 to the National Wheat Foundation who together with the Soil Health Partnership, will advance widespread adoption and implementation. The funds, equally distributed over the next three years, will be used to conduct soil health research on wheat farms and education outreach to more than 125,000 wheat farmers across the Northern and Southern Plains. This latest contribution brings General Mills’ recent financial commitments to nearly $3 million for promoting the expanded adoption of soil health practices.

Supply Chain & the Circular Economy

General Mills Signs on to World Cocoa Foundation's Joint Frameworks for Action to Combat Deforestation
General Mills joins leading companies in an agreement to end deforestation, protect national parks from illegal cocoa production and develop alternative livelihoods for affected smallholder farmers in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. The two countries produce nearly two-thirds of the world’s annual supply of cocoa. The far-reaching joint Frameworks for Action, led by the World Cocoa Foundation, was announced today at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany.

Environment

How Soil Sparked a New Sustainable Ag Movement
For three weeks every month, Ray Archuleta captivates audiences with a few handfuls of soil. He begins with two clumps, dropping them into water. The soil from a farm where the soil isn’t tilled holds together, while the tilled soil immediately disperses, indicating poor soil structure. Next, volunteers from the audience — mostly farmers and ranchers — pour water over a soil that grew a variety of crops, and it runs right through. A sample of tilled soil that grew only corn is like a brick, and the water sits on top. Water is the most precious resource for growing crops, and having a soil unable to absorb water is crippling for farmers.

Environment

Soil Matters More Than You Think
As I walked through the verdant fields filled with a dazzling array of sorghum, hairy vetch, daikon radish, collards, cowpeas, clover, millet, kale, and other crops, I was struck by how different this field looked relative to so many other farms I've walked over the years. When we conducted a spade test, digging out a section of the soil with a simple tool, it revealed heavily clumped, rich brown matter with visible earthworms: soil life.

Environment

Healthier Soil, Better Climate?
Organic food is growing in popularity. We can almost predict what’s next: “Regenerative agriculture.”

It’s a holistic approach to farming that could, among other things, halt and even reverse some of the food system’s contribution to climate change.

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