How farm supply chain in UK is meeting UN sustainable development goals

The UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) are rising up the agenda of businesses that buy from UK farmers and supply them with goods and services.

Set out in 2015, they are a call for action by all countries to promote prosperity while protecting the planet, and the aim is to meet the SDG targets by 2030.

The goals have a far higher profile in some countries than in the UK, but more agricultural supply chain players here are adopting them.

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This, in turn, is affecting commercial relationships and changing practices on farm, with the greatest potential for progress often involving supply chain links working together.

Farming practices are most directly concerned with SDG2 (zero hunger), 12 (responsible production and consumption )and 13 (climate action), while SDG15 – life on land – has an environmental focus.

The direct effects of the adoption of SDGs is an increasing interest in purchasing traceable, certified farm produce.

The goals also make business sense because they tackle many of the risks associated with the issues they aim to address, such as the effect of climate on food supply.

SDGs are important for corporate investment interest too, and are closely linked with the concept of environmental, social and governance issues on which quoted companies must report.

Many prominent agricultural businesses have formally signed up to the SDGs, choosing a selection of the 17 goals they see as most pressing and relevant for their future.

Arla

European dairy co-op Arla’s business practices and commitments chime with many of the 17 SDGs, but the focus is on a selection relating directly to its business risks and where it can make most progress.

These relate to food, the environment and climate. The co-op’s work towards more sustainable dairy farming supports SDG6 (clean water and sanitation) by seeking to ensure that nitrogen and phosphorus are in balance on its supplying farms.

Under SDG7 – affordable and clean energy – it encourages its farmers to produce and or use renewable energy.

In 2021, 24% of Arla’s farmer-owners produced renewable electricity at their farm from solar panels or wind turbines and 11% had biogas generators or delivered manure to external biogas plants.

SDG12 relates to responsible consumption and production and is chosen by most agricultural buyers and suppliers, while SDG13 – climate action – sees Arla working towards reducing carbon dioxide equivalent on its farms and working towards carbon net zero in 2050.

“Since 2015, Arla farmers have reduced emissions per kilogram of milk by 9% and Arla Farmers’ carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per kilogram of milk are about half the global average.

“Our target is to reduce on-farm emissions by 30% per kilogram of milk by 2030,” states the co-op.

Its Arlagarden farm-quality management programme has four cornerstones: Milk composition, food safety, animal welfare and environmental considerations.

This includes a climate check tool to help farmers measure and reduce their climate impact in feed consumption, energy and fertiliser use, crop yields, herd data, manure storage and application, as well as the products they sell.

This delivers a detailed picture of a farm’s carbon footprint, triggering an advisory visit resulting in bespoke advice and guidance. There is a 1euro cent/litre (0.86p/litre) financial incentive to take part in this.

Cefetra

Grain trader, feed and food ingredient supplier Cefetra is part of the German-owned BayWa group, which has adopted seven of the UN SDGs to guide its sustainability strategy.

Cefetra’s most recent development in sustainable production (SDG12) and sourcing has seen it begin to reward farmers financially for sustainable practices.

This delivers practical advice backed by documented sustainability standards, with Cefetra promising benefits for all supply chain partners.

Thomas Todd farms near Cornhill-on-Tweed, Northumberland, and has taken up Cefetra’s Ecosystem Services to help reduce carbon use, implementing min-till and lower nitrogen use.

Carbon certificates are generated by changing farming practices in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions or through increased carbon storage in the soil, with 70% of the value of the carbon certificates generated passed to the grower.

Pilgrim’s UK

Pilgrim’s UK breeds and rears one million-plus pigs a year in the UK, most of which is contracted through BQP, delivering a 30% UK market share.

The company has committed to net zero in its own operations by 2030, a pledge which it says will make it the most sustainable producer and supplier in the industry. For its wider supply chain, Pilgrim’s UK’s net zero aim is 2035.

Its approach has been developed in line with SDGs, aiming to significantly reduce emissions across all sites in its supply chain, continuing to use 100% renewable electricity across its manufacturing sites and to use only 100% verified deforestation-free, sustainable soya by 2025.

Its average pig farm footprint is 2.53kg CO2e/kg liveweight, which is half of the industry average level in UK and European pork production.

Matt Dight, the company’s head of sustainability says: “We already boast the largest higher-welfare supply chain and most sustainable pig production system in the industry, driven by our successes on sustainable diet formulation and regenerative use of pigs within a wider mixed rotation system.

“Reaching net zero by 2030 is possible for our organisation because we are starting from such a strong position, meaning we are able to be bolder in the pace and scale of our commitments than the rest of the industry.”

The company already has the lowest soya inclusion levels in Europe and has committed to using only deforestation- and conversion-free soya in feed by 2025.

Conversion-free soya is that produced on land which has not been converted from ecologically important habitats into farmland.

Pilgrim’s UK has committed to the following sustainable development goals:

• Zero hunger (SDG2)
• Good health and wellbeing (3)
• Clean water and sanitation (6)
• Affordable and clean energy (7)
• Decent work and economic growth (8)
• Responsible production and consumption (12)
• Life on land (15).

Suntory

Japanese food, drink and health product manufacturer Suntory owns UK household brand names, including Ribena, Schweppes, Lucozade and Oasis.

It owns several distilleries in Scotland and produces, among others, Laphroaig and Bowmore single-malt whiskies.

Suntory has adopted five of the 17 SDGs and began a regenerative agriculture trial with Suffolk-based maltster Muntons in autumn 2022, exploring how barley can be grown in a more sustainable way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect water.

The trial is a collaboration between Suntory, Muntons, supply chain consultancy Future Food Solutions and Norfolk-based barley growers led by merchant Dewing Grain.

Sixteen growers put about 160ha in the trial of spring and winter barleys, to be malted by Muntons and used in Suntory’s beer and whisky production from next year.

The ambition is to produce barley with 50% lower greenhouse gas emissions within five years by using a nature-based programme of interventions that seek to reduce emissions, enhance soil health and protect water, while maintaining crop performance and grain quality.

Conventional malted barley contributes 39% and 41% to the carbon footprint of beer and whisky, respectively, and the trial has the potential to deliver a 20% emissions reduction from the overall value chain of production in one step, says Muntons.

Suntory buys 90% of blackcurrants grown in Britain for its Ribena brand, and the company is working with growers of this crop to promote sustainability, employing a full-time agronomist and partnering with the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group to produce a biodiversity plan tailored to habitats in and around each farm.

In the spring of 2023, it launched a project with the University of East Anglia and Soil Ecology on 60ha of blackcurrants grown at Gorgate Farm, Norfolk, where Rosie Begg’s family have produced the fruit for Ribena since the 1950s.

This aims to reduce carbon emissions from Suntory’s supply chain, improving soil health so that it can support plant resilience, and increase the amount of carbon it can sequester.

“Collaborating with Suntory’s global team will enable us to share our knowledge and learn from regenerative projects all over the world,” says Rosie.

“Soil truly is the most important and essential ecosystem; it’s linked to every function on the planet.

“The aim is by focusing on soil biology restoration, we can allow natural processes to support blackcurrant production without so much intervention, benefiting both the environment and blackcurrants we grow substantially.”