The Sustainable Food Lab, in conjunction with Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform, today announce the start of a comprehensive global climate project to evaluate the greenhouse gas footprint of specific farming systems and identify and implement the greenhouse gas reduction potential from practice alternatives. The goal of the project, which will take place over the next 12-18 months, is to empower food companies to engage the agricultural sector of their supply chain in the evaluation and effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to provide an assessment of barriers that farmers face, and the solutions needed to efficiently address climate impacts from agriculture.

The first-of-its-kind global climate project uses a combination of resources including available data, interviews with key players in each farming system, and the newly created "Cool Farm Tool" GHG calculator to estimate the current carbon footprint of each farming system being evaluated. Researchers at the University of Aberdeen, who convened scientists to write the agriculture chapter of the previous report from the International Panel on Climate Change, developed the "Cool Farm Tool" in strategic partnership with leading consumer goods company, Unilever, for use on sample farms in representative farming systems.

"The Cool Farm Tool will help us understand what practices make the biggest difference in any particular farm situation, including the considerations that farmers are balancing in choosing between management decisions," explains Dr. Christof Walter, Research Manager for Sustainable Agriculture at Unilever. "Taking the circumstance on individual fields and farms into account is crucial because the effects of most greenhouse gas reduction practices vary strongly, depending on soil, climate, management system and input intensities."

The project has already attracted the support of some of the largest and most influential organizations in the food and agriculture space including Unilever, PepsiCo, Heinz, Sysco, Pulse Canada, Oxfam and the Canada Canola Growers Association. Each organization will support the research by evaluating at least one or in some cases more than one farming system. These farming systems will consist of a diverse range of geographies including, the U.S., Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia as well as a wide variety of crops such as canning tomatoes, potatoes, dairy, beef, cotton, lettuce, mixed vegetables, pulses, tea and coffee.

"While many of our members have done individual studies of the impact on climate of their value chain, this project is an effort to put various elements together and hence bring more value and robustness to each organization's work. There will be good 'value for money' because we'll share research costs and each case will be peer reviewed," says Peter Erik Ywema of SAI Platform.

The Sustainable Food Lab and SAI Platform have partnered in support of the project launch, and the Assessment will be managed by the Sustainable Food Lab staff ongoing.

About the Sustainable Food Lab
The Sustainable Food Lab is a consortium of 70 businesses, NGOs and academic institutions from four continents that share a commitment to accelerate the shift of sustainable food from niche to mainstream in order to ensure a healthy future for the planet and its people. The organization was founded in 2004 to provide a venue for businesses and NGOs to share information, develop strategies and manage projects in a "safe space" collaborative environment.

About The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI)
SAI Platform is a food industry initiative which actively works to promote sustainable agriculture as a productive, competitive and efficient way of producing agricultural products, while at the same time protecting and improving the environmental, social and economic conditions of local communities.

Sustainable Food Laboratory

Sustainable Food Laboratory

The Sustainable Food Lab is a consortium of 70 businesses, NGOs and academic institutions from four continents that share a commitment to accelerate the shift of sustainable food from niche to mainstream in order to ensure a healthy future for the planet and its people. The organization was founded in 2004 to provide a venue for businesses and NGOs to share information, develop strategies and manage projects in a “safe space” collaborative environment.

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