© James Akena / Reuters
In a Sunday statement, General Mills announced a plan to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas emissions across its value chain, "from farm to fork to landfill."
The company said that it has "long been committed to being part of the solution on climate change," according to its website, and CEO Ken Powell said climate action is as much a good business strategy as it is a corporate responsibility gesture.
"We think that human-caused greenhouse gas causes climate change and climate volatility and that's going to stress the agricultural supply chain, which is very important to us," Powell said in an interview with the Associated Press. "Obviously we depend on that for our business, and we all depend on that for the food we eat."
Comment: It's quite unlikely that anthropogenic global warming is having much, if any, effect on the global climate and causing a shortage in food:
- Anthropogenic CO2 is too small to be a significant or relevant factor in the global warming
- New study proves anthropogenic CO2 emissions can't be responsible for 'global warming'
- The Creeping Fascism of Global Warming Hysteria - a dogma of coercion, bias, and junk science
- A glimmer of truth emerges: More scientists challenge the hoax of global 'warming'
This isn't just talk: Since 2005, the company has managed to reduce its emissions by 13 percent. But getting to 28 percent in the same amount of time is a little more complicated than just making company-wide green policies like using less cardboard and plastic in its packaging, as 92 percent of greenhouse emissions in its chain come from entities that it doesn't control.
However, General Mills, whose brands range from Haagen-Dazs ice cream to Progresso soups, can exert strong influence over such entities, and this cooperation would be an essential part of its climate plan.
A spokeswoman for General Mills said symptoms of climate change are already having an effect on food production, pointing to extreme and volatile weather conditions and the decline in pollinating insects. A dramatic example of this is the drought in California, which threatens a large parts of the United States' agriculture industry.
Comment: Yes, these are actual, observed changes, and they're the result of natural climate change. Man-made greenhouse gas emissions have very little effect on the climate/weather: The chaos that's going on in the socio-economic/political spheres is mirrored in the environment:
This fear of a hungry future is visible in the company's climate action plan. In addition to investing $100 million in cleaner energy in its own operations, General Mills will encourage its partners to use "climate-resilient" soils.
John Church, General Mills' senior vice president of global supply chain, told Minnesota Public Radio that the company is also working with its milk suppliers to cut greenhouse gas emission through better management of cattle.
"Our biggest greenhouse gas contributing ingredient is dairy, milk," he said. "In that supply chain, it's because the cows themselves create methane in their digestive process."
Comment: Methane produced by cows is not causing climate change. However, the vast quantities of methane, CFCs, and other greenhouse gases released during volcanic eruptions and undersea outgassing does appear to play a significant role in the mechanism of climate shift. Spikes in methane production are a marker for glacial rebound - the sudden onset of an Ice Age. So it's not global warming that the world should be afraid of, it's global cooling!
- Current spike in atmospheric methane mirrors Ice Age climate change events
- Bubble trouble for East Siberian Arctic Shelf: Increasing storminess and rapid sea-ice retreat cause increased methane fluxes from the sea
- New climate change threat: Arctic seabed releases millions of tons of methane into atmosphere
- Ice Ages start and end so suddenly, "it's like a button was pressed," say scientists
These climate-conscious moves reflect a growing trend of corporations making environmental pledges. In 2014, General Mills became a member of Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP), a policy advocacy group that lobbies to pass climate change and energy legislation, joining competitors such as Nestle and Kellogg's.
Methane from (factory) dairy farms? I wonder if dairy cows fed on their traditional diets of grass would produce so much methane? I bet they don't. Factory farms are horribly wasteful, disgusting and pollute the whole ecosystem.