Kellogg’s Partnership with Louisiana Farmers Yields Promising Results

(Credit: Kellogg)

InGrained™, a five-year partnership between Kellogg Company and Lower Mississippi River Basin rice farmers, is reporting early positive results. During the pilot year of the program, InGrained™ helped farmers implement climate-smart irrigation practices that achieved a reduction of more than 1,600 metric tons of greenhouse gases – the equivalent of taking more than 345 gasoline-powered cars off the road for one year. The Louisiana River Basin supplies much of the rice used in iconic foods like Kellogg’s® Rice Krispies® cereal and Kellogg’s® Rice Krispies Treats®.

In collaboration with leading agricultural greenhouse gas measurement firm Regrow Ag., Kellogg piloted this program to help growers more accurately measure their rice’s greenhouse gas emissions and included Kellogg supplier Kennedy Rice Mill LLC and agribusiness firm Syngenta.

According to the World Resources Institute (WRI), Rice is one of the most widely grown food crops in the world. It is a nutritious staple crop for more than half of the world’s people, but growing rice produces methane, a greenhouse gas more than 30 times as potent as carbon dioxide. Methane from rice contributes around 1.5 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions and could grow substantially without intervention.

“Not only are we helping farmers implement new practices on their farms, but farmers are telling us that just as importantly, the quality of their rice was not affected by the adjusted irrigation practices,” said Stacey Shaw, Syngenta’s Senior Sustainability Lead.

“Kellogg’s™ Better Days environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy is committed to supporting 1 million farmers and reducing Scope 3 GHG emissions across our value chain by 15 percent by the end of 2030,” said Janelle Meyers, Kellogg Company’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “Programs like Kellogg’s InGrained™ contribute to this ambitious goal, create positive impacts on the planet and support the livelihoods of farmers who grow the rice for some of our most iconic foods.”

Kellogg and its InGrained™ partners are working together to ensure that both financial and technical support continues to help farmers transition into farming practices that benefit the environment and their communities. Kellogg is also exploring expanding the program to include various regions with different weather patterns, soil types, and agronomics.