McCain Foods is releasing an update on where it’s at with its regenerative agriculture and sustainability promises, a June 6 news release said.
The food processing company has released McCain’s Global Sustainability Summary which shows strong progress within each of the four pillars of McCain’s sustainability efforts: smart and sustainable farming, resource-efficient operations, good food and thriving communities.
Smart and Sustainable Farming
- McCain has created its Regenerative Agriculture Framework and developed regional plans for implementation. The Framework outlines how it will measure the adoption of regenerative practices within McCain’s six principles of Regenerative agriculture (enhancing farm resiliency, armouring soils with plants, enhancing farm and ecosystem biodiversity, minimizing chemical inputs and optimizing water use, minimizing soil disturbance and integrating livestock elements) and guides farmers towards a regenerative model.
- The first growing season at the Farm of the Future Canada, located in Florenceville, N.B. has been completed. It has set important benchmarks, identified sustainable agriculture techniques that are viable and practical and testing new technology and machinery.
- Established regenerative agriculture and healthy soils training programs for North American growers.
- Developed regional climate mitigation strategies, including 20 per cent of crops grown using stress tolerant varieties.
Resource-Efficient Operations
- Absolute CO2 emissions in scopes one and two have reduced by nine per cent since 2017.
- Renewable electricity use is up to 15 per cent.
- 11 per cent improvement in water-use efficiency in seven priority plants.
- 98 per cent of paper packaging and 89 per cent of plastic packaging is designed to be recycled.
- A new target has also been introduced — cutting food waste intensity by 50 per cent across all McCain operations by 2030.
Good Food
- Strong Roots, which makes plant-based, environmentally responsible frozen food.
- The Simple Root, developers of an innovative alternative to dairy products using root vegetables, such as the potato.
- GoodLeaf Farms, a climate-controlled, indoor vertical farm that grows leafy microgreens and baby greens for the Canadian market.
Thriving Communities
- McCain launched McCain Chips In, a program that offers all employees a paid day off to volunteer in their community.
- Despite the challenges of COVID, McCain donated nearly 10 million meals in 2021 to families in need through NGOs and food banks around the world.
- Impacting more than 1,000 beneficiaries through community development projects across the globe, bringing the total number of over 6,000 to date.
The news release noted McCain will release a full annual Global Sustainability report in early 2023.
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