In reaction to announcements from the White House of actions by food companies to reduce emissions, Irit Tamir, Special Advisor to Oxfam America’s private sector team, made the following statement:
“We welcome President Obama’s efforts to work with food companies and retailers to encourage farmers to cut their emissions in an effort to stem climate change.
“Mitigation targets are vital to curbing climate change, given that agriculture and deforestation, which is largely driven by expansion of agricultural land, are responsible for a quarter of global emissions.
“But the food sector must also look to shore up resilience in their supply chains. The business model of benefiting from the profits while leaving all the risk to small-scale farmers is no longer sustainable.
“In the run up to the crucial Paris climate change negotiations, we hope even more companies make commitments to curb emissions and increase resilience in the sector, and get vocal about the need for a strong global deal to tackle emissions and help the poorest adapt to the negative impacts of climate change.”
Note: As part of our Behind the Brands campaign, we at Oxfam have been campaigning to get the world’s top food and beverage to reduce emissions in their agricultural supply chains. General Mills and Kellogg committed to reducing their agricultural emissions and setting science- based targets that were in line with preventing a 2 degree temperature rise. General Mills is due to have its target set and published in August and Kellogg’s in December.
