Operating mid-supply chain has some advantages when it comes to implementing regenerative agriculture practices, says Anne Jacobs, global regenerative agriculture manager at US-based food manufacturer Griffith Foods.
Griffith Foods makes ingredients that range from seasoning blends and sauces to dough mixes, texture components, and functional blends for meats that enhance flavor and color. Its roots in food innovation go all the way back to the early twentieth century, when the company’s founders saw the need for more science in the food industry.
Today, the company, which is still family owned, operates across 30 countries, working with some of the largest CPGs and meat-processing groups in the world.
Like other companies, Griffith Foods has set climate targets with the Science Based Targets initiative. By 2030, it aims to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 50% by FY2030 (from FY2020 base year) as well as reduce scope 3 GHG emissions 23% per tonne of product produced by FY2030 (from a FY2020 base year).
Growing its regenerative agriculture activities is part of that process. The company recently completed the first year of its regenerative wheat project in Ontario, Canada, with the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA), Canadian agribusiness Parrish & Heimbecker (P&H), and the Sustainable Food Lab to promote regenerative practices like cover cropping and split nitrogen application. The project is currently in its second year, with an expansion across 10,000 additional acres slated.
In the UK, the company runs a 70-acre, farmer-led cover crop pilot to enhance biodiversity and water filtration, while in Colombia, it runs a composting project at a food processing location focused on turning waste (e.g., the end of a lettuce head) into crop compost for farmers that work with the facility.
Below, Jacobs discusses these projects and what the company has learned so far when it comes to transitioning farmers to regenerative agriculture.
AgFunderNews (AFN): What are some of the specific ways Griffith Foods engages in regen ag?
Anne Jacobs (AJ): Most recently, we identified a few key raw materials [that go back to crops we want to focus on], and we’ve gone to our suppliers and said, “Can we work on a program together?” More times than not, they’re open minded and want to do it.
From there, we aim to look at both environmental practices and economic viability and support for those practices to get implemented on the ground. We identify first the context: what’s going on in the space, what are well-adopted practices, what are some of the low-hanging fruits, and what are some of the practices that maybe are a bit more challenging? From there, we really want to focus in this region on, say, water quality or soil health.
For example, our flagship program started in Ontario, Canada because we’ve had a longstanding relationship with Parrish & Heimbecker. Together, we discussed the local context in Ontario for wheat farming and developed the project plan, which included engaging with other partners, piloting regenerative farming practices, offering appropriate farmer incentives, and providing technical support.
We’ve repeated that process in Colombia with our coriander project, where we look at composting.
In the United Kingdom, [we’ve focused] on parsley. And then we’re also developing programs in Brazil on corn and Thailand in cassava.
AFN: How is being in the middle of the food supply chain advantageous for Griffith’s regen ag goals?
AJ: It puts us in a place where we can connect people. Typically, we’re one step removed from anybody that’s going to be buying directly from a farm, but we’re that much closer to CPGs.
Our biggest advantage is that we can really hear everyone. We can be that much closer to the farmer and understand the supplier that typically has these agronomy teams working right next to the farm on a day-to-day basis.
Every time we get to begin a program we’re leading, we visit [the farm] and meet in person with our supplier and build that relationship. We always end up on farm, where [farmers] share their learnings and give us recommendations on how we can [partner] with even more farms.
AFN: Farmers typically need both technical and financial assistance to transition to regen ag practices. How does Griffith Foods contribute to this?
AJ: Return on investment for farmers is super important, and so at this time, we are the ones that are paying for that technical assistance portion and that support.
We work directly with farmers to co-invest in practices that improve soil health and long-term resilience. The support we provide is tailored to each farm and practice, whether it’s helping offset increased labor or input costs.
We also commit to purchasing the crop, if the farmers are interested in selling to us. This means we take on some risk, although we strongly believe it’s worth it to help the farmers make changes that benefit soil and productivity, increase biodiversity and, ultimately, their livelihoods.
We strive to build trust, transparency and long-term partnerships with mutual benefits. Over time, we need to collaborate to reduce costs as yields ideally improve [along with] soil health, and environmental and economic efficiencies are achieved.
AFN: Any notable learnings you’ve acquired so far doing these projects?
This idea of monitoring and evaluation for our pilot projects has been super important; we actually sat down with all of our program partners from our flagship program and just asked, “What can we do better?”
What we came up with is that we have to offer farmers options as to how they implement [regen ag] on their own farm.
For example, the way that you plant cover crops is is different [depending on] where you’re at. So that’s one thing—just that farmers need options.
Another learning is that farmers love to learn from each other, and they’re so good at sharing knowledge. While we bring in local experts and agronomists who know the regen space really well, what we actually intentionally added more of in some of our follow-up events were farmer panels. This is important because we’re talking to folks that maybe haven’t implemented regen practices before.
When we gave them the farmer panel [at the events] and they could go back and forth, that was that was a game changer.
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