Carbon Labeling

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

The agricultural industry has done a tremendous job of delivering exactly what consumers want: abundant, safe, affordable food. But an increasing number of consumers are adding new values on top of that criteria, and a big one has to do with carbon emissions and climate impact. Richard Waite is a senior research associate at the World Resources Institute’s Food Program.

Waite… “There is a lot of interest right now in carbon labeling. I know there are some companies that have started doing it voluntarily. Panera is the first company that we're working with, where they've actually published the greenhouse gas emissions of each of their dishes on their menu. And they've marked the lower emitting ones as cool food meals. And if you go on the Panera app now you can kind of look through and there's part of their menu that says sort of lower emission food and you go on their website and see that calculations.”

Just as the demand for affordable and abundant food has driven the commodity markets we know today, a new market lever like climate, if big enough, could create new market opportunities for farmers.

Waite… “I mean, I could see things moving in that direction. Just given all of the interest right now in combating climate change and in transparency and, you know, for those who are leaders and making real strides in what they're doing, they'll probably want a way to label that as well.”

Food for thought for all of us in the ag industry interested in the farm of the future.