General Mills Inc: Disclosure of Regenerative Agriculture Outcomes

WHEREAS: Industrial agriculture’s reliance on conventional farming practices — including substantial synthetic pesticide and fertilizer use, monocropping, and tillage — demonstrably harms farm resilience, pollinators, soil fertility and retention, the climate, water and air quality, and farm worker and community health, among others.

Conventional farming relies on the application of hundreds of tons of synthetic pesticides annually, which causes serious long term health impacts to farmworkers, including cancer, birth defects, cognitive impairment, and acute pesticide poisoning that results in approximately 11,000 deaths annually.[1],[2] Pesticide use also directly harms pollinators, which are critical to 35% of crop production, and contributes to air and water pollution.[3]

In contrast, regenerative agriculture is a farming system that includes the reduction of pesticide and synthetic fertilizer use, reduced tillage, crop rotation, cover cropping, and natural pest management. These practices preserve soil health and retain topsoil, while reducing impacts to humans and the environment.[4]

Failure to significantly reduce synthetic pesticide use impairs the soil’s ability to retain live organisms, which are critical to improving and maintaining soil health and sequestering carbon, key components of a regenerative farming system.[5],[6],[7]

The Boston Consulting Group estimates that farmers using regenerative practices will experience increased resiliency and see up to a 120% increase in profits over time compared to peers that farm conventionally.[8]

In 2019, General Mills committed to advancing regenerative agriculture on 1 million acres of farmland by 2030 to improve soil health, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and build more resilient supply chains.[9],[10] However, the company does not disclose if or how it tracks, monitors, or reports pesticide use reduction by its suppliers, representing an important blind spot for the company and raising the potential for claims of greenwashing.

In contrast, General Mills’ peers are quantitatively reporting outcomes of their pesticide reduction practices: Conagra reports that its farm management practices, including regenerative agriculture, avoided 145,000 gallons of soil fumigants and 8,700 gallons of post-emergence herbicides in its supply chain from 2021 to 2023.[11]
Campbells publicly discloses the percentage of pesticides that are hazardous to humans and pollinators avoided in its tomato and potato supply chains, and that it uses crop rotation, reduced tillage, and integrated pest management.[12]
Lamb Weston reports the amount of active ingredient pesticides used across its supply chain (3.1 pounds per ton harvested), representing progress toward its 2030 pesticide reduction goal.[13]

In a competitive marketplace that is increasingly demanding clean food, reduced human and environmental harm, and accurate information, understanding and disclosing supplier use of pesticides can reduce risk for shareholders and our Company, while minimizing harm to stakeholders.

BE IT RESOLVED: Shareholders request that General Mills disclose, at reasonable expense and omitting proprietary information, the reduction of pesticides achieved through adoption of its regenerative agriculture practices.

[1] https://www.pesticidereform.org/pesticides-human-health

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33287770/

[3] https://newsarchive.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/10/25_pollinator.shtml

[4] https://regenerationinternational.org/why-regenerative-agriculture/

[5] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2984095

[6] https://www.csuchico.edu/regenerativeagriculture/blog/soil-microbes-carbon-sequestration.shtml

[7] https://soilhealthinstitute.org/news-events/nationwide-study-on-30-u-s-farms-shows-positive-economic-impact-of-soil-health-management-systems/

[8] https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/regenerative-agriculture-profitability-us-farmers

[9] https://www.generalmills.com/how-we-make-it/healthier-planet/environmental-impact/regenerative-agriculture

[10] https://www.generalmills.com/news/stories/how-were-building-brands-with-purpose

[11] https://www.conagrabrands.com/citizenship-reports/conagra-brands-citizenship-report-2023, p.21

[12] https://www.campbellsoupcompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2023-IPM-Reporting.pdf