Greenhouse Gas Reductions Will Require Collaborative Efforts

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Many food companies have made commitments to reduce their carbon footprint. But Dr. Steve Rosenzweig, principal soil scientist at General Mills, says these ambitions are not something that one company can do alone.

Rosensweig… “You know one of the things I try to say a lot is, you know, we won’t be successful in hitting our goals unless everybody hits their goals. We’re in this together. You know, greenhouse gas reduction, it doesn’t really make sense even to think about, you know, climate reduction goal for each individual company because the climate is, it’s a planetary goal that we ultimately have to keep warm and blow below 1.5 degrees C, so even if General Mills and all the other companies that have voluntary commitments met their goal, we still wouldn't hit that planetary goal. And so we have to kind of first focus on what is the real goal at that community level at the planetary scale and make sure that’s the goal that we’re really acting towards, and that requires partnership and collaboration and you know, working with others to try and influence things that are outside of our control. So this greenhouse gas reduction goal is kind of more about looking outside of our four walls and trying to get involved and be collaborative and being helpful in moving sort of these bigger systems forward.”

Rosenzweig emphasized that it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, but joint collaborative efforts are necessary to make real change.