That old mindset, however, seems to be changing. Over the past several months these industries have advanced a slew of sustainable agriculture initiatives to champion better water, soil and emissions management.
The latest example of this is formation and first meeting of the Monsanto-led Carbon-Neutral Collaborative, which is developing a framework for agricultural GHG accounting and will advise Monsanto on its commitment to become carbon neutral by 2021. Other members of the collaborative include representatives from Mid-West universities along with the Coalition on Ag Greenhouse Gases, National Corn Growers Association and The Soil Health Partnership.
Monsanto announced its goal of a carbon neutral operational footprint a year ago. The agribusiness giant — along with other industry leaders like General Mills, Kellogg and Mars — was one of more than 350 companies that signed a letter urging president-elect Donald Trump to uphold the Paris climate agreement and expressing support for U.S. low-carbon policies.
“While the problem of climate change is incredibly complex with many regional differences, the contributions over the past year — by some of the strongest leaders in agricultural and environmental science — are very promising,” said Brett Begemann, Monsanto’s president and COO, in a statement about the Carbon-Neutral Collaborative.
