Lucas Borras - agronomy professor from National University of Rosario, Argentina

Kellogg has worked with suppliers and experts since 2015 to provide education, hands-on training and support so that 800 Argentine farmers can implement more sustainable agriculture practices. This includes 550 Argentine farmers of non-GMO flint corn on 140,000 hectares of farmland. Since 2018, we have partnered with suppliers and farmers to ensure that this crop is "Responsibly Sourced," or grown and harvested in accordance with environmental and social best practices, verified by an independent, third-party auditor. The Responsibly Sourced program applied to all corn sourced for Kellogg's Corn Flakes® and other foods sold in Europe.

Better yields in India

In 2015, building on the success of CARE’s Pathways program and support from Cargill and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Kellogg Company 25 Year Employees’ Fund generously supported CARE to work in Odisha, India. We helped 5,600 smallholder farmers to improve corn productivity (+19%) and household income (+103%) through training on sowing, pest disease management, post-harvest practices, and selling strategies.

Midwest U.S.A. Corn

Most of the corn in our U.S. cereals like Kellogg's Corn Flakes® and Frosted Flakes® is grown in the Midwest states of Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, and Kansas. In 2009, Kellogg began partnering with Bunge, a corn supplier, to track on-farm continuous improvement and sustainable agriculture practice adoption over time. This project reaches more than 95 farmers and 116,000 acres in these states.

Phillipines Rice Farmers

In the terraced Mountain Province of the Philippines’ Cordillera region, smallholder farmers have been growing heirloom rice for generations using manual farming practices which are inefficient and can increase pre- and post-harvest losses. In 2015, Kellogg partnered with IRRI and the Dept. of Agriculture to provide funding to help improve the agronomic practices and entrepreneurial skills of the farmers in this region. Part of the funding was also invested in machinery to drive efficiencies, increase yields and mitigate post-harvest loss. This project benefitted nearly 280 farmers, 80% of whom were women, and it was supported by the Kellogg Company 25 Year Employees' Fund.

Certified Transitional Crops

Less than 1% of U.S. farmland is Certified Organic, and transitioning conventional farmland to organic is difficult. The process takes 3 years to complete and farmers use organic practices during that time but can only sell their food at conventional prices. To help farmers make this transition, in 2017, Kashi® worked with Quality Assurance International (QAI), the leading organic certification organization, to create the Transitional Certified program. We now source Transitional Certified ingredients from more than 4,200 acres.

Certified Transitional Crops

Less than 1% of U.S. farmland is Certified Organic, and transitioning conventional farmland to organic is difficult. The process takes 3 years to complete and farmers use organic practices during that time but can only sell their food at conventional prices. To help farmers make this transition, in 2017, Kashi® worked with Quality Assurance International (QAI), the leading organic certification organization, to create the Transitional Certified program. We now source Transitional Certified ingredients from more than 4,200 acres.

Certified Transitional Crops

Less than 1% of U.S. farmland is Certified Organic, and transitioning conventional farmland to organic is difficult. The process takes 3 years to complete and farmers use organic practices during that time but can only sell their food at conventional prices. To help farmers make this transition, in 2017, Kashi® worked with Quality Assurance International (QAI), the leading organic certification organization, to create the Transitional Certified program. We now source Transitional Certified ingredients from more than 4,200 acres.

Certified Transitional Crops

Less than 1% of U.S. farmland is Certified Organic, and transitioning conventional farmland to organic is difficult. The process takes 3 years to complete and farmers use organic practices during that time but can only sell their food at conventional prices. To help farmers make this transition, in 2017, Kashi® worked with Quality Assurance International (QAI), the leading organic certification organization, to create the Transitional Certified program. We now source Transitional Certified ingredients from more than 4,200 acres.

Certified Transitional Crops

Less than 1% of U.S. farmland is Certified Organic, and transitioning conventional farmland to organic is difficult. The process takes 3 years to complete and farmers use organic practices during that time but can only sell their food at conventional prices. To help farmers make this transition, in 2017, Kashi® worked with Quality Assurance International (QAI), the leading organic certification organization, to create the Transitional Certified program. As of 2019, We have partnered with 19 farmers on their journey to organic. Because of Kashi, over 9,000 acres have transitioned from convential to organic. Find out more here: https://transitional.kashi.com

Less than 1% of U.S. farmland is Certified Organic, and transitioning conventional farmland to organic is difficult. The process takes 3 years to complete and farmers use organic practices during that time but can only sell their food at conventional prices. To help farmers make this transition, in 2017, Kashi® worked with Quality Assurance International (QAI), the leading organic certification organization, to create the Transitional Certified program. As of 2019, We have partnered with 19 farmers on their journey to organic. Because of Kashi, over 9,000 acres have transitioned from conventional to organic. Find out more here: https://transitional.kashi.com

Less than 1% of U.S. farmland is Certified Organic, and transitioning conventional farmland to organic is difficult. The process takes 3 years to complete and farmers use organic practices during that time but can only sell their food at conventional prices. To help farmers make this transition, in 2017, Kashi® worked with Quality Assurance International (QAI), the leading organic certification organization, to create the Transitional Certified program. As of 2019, We have partnered with 19 farmers on their journey to organic. Because of Kashi, over 9,000 acres have transitioned from convential to organic. Find out more here: https://transitional.kashi.com

Bats that seek nectar from flowering plants are natural pollinators

Rice grown in Spain’s Valencia goes into Kellogg’s® Special K cereals and other foods across Europe, but local challenges with soil salinity and crop pests can make rice production challenging. Through 2018, Kellogg worked with local partners to help farmers managing over 550 hectares improve their soil health and protect their crops through agronomic practices that promote natural predators to pests.

Women farmers in India receive training

Farmers in Madhya Pradesh, a province located in Central India, have been impacted by ongoing drought conditions. In January 2015, Kellogg and TechnoServe launched a project to provide these farmers with climate smart agriculture hands-on training in wheat, corn, and soy, as well as increased access to markets to sell their crops. This project was completed in 2018 and reached 12,190 farmers, 38% of who were women. This project was supported by the Kellogg Company 25 Year Employees' Fund and recognized by the US Chamber of Commerce's 2019 Corporate Citizens Awards as the Best Economic Empowerment Program.

Justin grows wheat in Michigan

Since 2015, farmers who provide soft white winter wheat to our supplier, Star of the West Milling Co., have documented their on-farm sustainability improvements on over 12,700 acres of wheat. These Farmers also collaborate with Kellogg on sustainable agriculture projects through reporting, farmer workshops, and continued education.

Meryl Kennedy Farr is CEO of Kennedy Rice.

Since 2016, Kellogg has been working with five rice suppliers in Arkansas and Louisiana to engage farmers in tracking on-farm sustainability improvements across 30,000 acres of rice.

Manuel, a Spanish rice farmer

Rice grown in Spain’s Delta Del Ebro region goes into Kellogg’s® Special K cereals and other foods across Europe, but local challenges with soil salinity and crop pests can make rice production challenging. A local network of 68 farmers managing over 4,690 hectares partners with Kellogg and the Institute of Agri-food Research and Technology to address these challenges through training, field research and demonstration plots to promote regenerative practices that support local ecosystems. The program has helped farmers implement native floral margins along rice fields to encourage beneficial insects, test diverse crop rotations with ryegrass, pea, oats and vetch, and install on-farm habitat for natural pest predators such as bats and swallows. Field trials of innovative irrigation techniques, like alternate wet-dry, have shown greenhouse gas reductions of up to 45%, improved water use efficiency, and no yield loss. Critically, the program has benefited farmers economically. By 2018, farmers reported an average 15% increase in production and an average profitability increase of €285 per hectare from their demonstration plots.

Scott, Wheat Farmer, Shelley, Idaho

Since 2016, Kellogg and supplier Ardent Mills have partnered with wheat growers supplying grain from farms in southeast Idaho and northern Utah. We've enabled farmers to use tracking tools on more than 7,000 acres of wheat to better understand and strengthen farming practices that improve overall sustainability performance and operational efficiency.

Kellogg, Mexico Government, CIMMYT, and SASCA Representatives

Kellogg’s Corn Flakes® and Kellogg’s Zucaritas® are best-selling cereals made from yellow maize. However, this variety of maize is not commonly grown in Mexico. Since 2016, Kellogg partnered with the preeminent International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and suppliers to establish a local responsible sourcing program that helps farmers in Sinaloa and Guanajuato produce sustainably grown yellow maize for Kellogg products. The partnership exceeded its 2020 goal to reach 200 farmers who have begun producing yellow maize. The farmers received direct training to implement conservation agriculture practices and have improved their farm profitability by 36%. Because of this success, Kellogg and CIMMYT have extended their partnership for another four years to expand this local sourcing model that restores healthy soils and promotes farmers’ resilience.

Kukua Weather Station

Kellogg and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) co-funded a project led by Kukua Weather Data and Forecasting Services on the enhancement of weather information services for use by farmers in Ghana. Kukua has observed that farmers who receive weather forecasts with corresponding agronomic advice have increased their income 10-82%.

Agronomic Training for Women Farmers in South Africa

Kellogg partnered with TechnoServe on a program to help improve corn production in South Africa by employing a variety of climate-smart agricultural approaches. This included access to technology, improved inputs, and specialized agronomic training. This project was supported by the Kellogg Company 25 Year Employees' Fund.

Lambasi Corn Farmers

TechnoServe and Kellogg launched a program to improve smallholder livelihoods in the Lambasi area of the Eastern Cape Province, which has the highest poverty levels in the country. The project increased productivity of corn farmers in the area, and facilitated market connections to improve their resiliency to climate change. The program benefited 490 farmers - 70% of whom are women - and increased crop profitability by 10%. This project was supported by the Kellogg Co. 25 Year Employees' Fund.

Thailand Rice Farmer, Jayna

Kellogg's® Rice Krispies® to plant and grow in Thailand for the first time. Through conventional breeding practices and two years of testing, in 2015, Kellogg was able to develop a non-GMO rice variety that not only delivered the right taste, texture and nutritional content that was also high-yielding and pest-resistant. At that time, 700 farmers were producing this variety. As of 2019, the program exceeded its goal to reach 1,000 smallholder medium grain rice farmers. Kellogg’s agribusiness team continues to work with extension workers and suppliers to maintain farmers’ access to Good Agricultural Practices, most recently developing an agronomic sustainability “tool box.” Kellogg continues to work towards the aims of higher yields with less inputs, higher milling yields, and better rice quality, requiring less energy and producing less waste throughout the supply chain.

In 2018, we partnered with our supplier, Olam, to support the livelihoods and resilience of 3,000 cocoa farmers in Ecuador over three years. Partners provided training and materials to help farmers to diversify crops grown on cocoa plantations, create new income streams for farmers, and help farmers produce their own organic farm inputs.

Women Farmers in Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d’lvoire is among the world’s largest producers of cocoa and women farmers are involved in nearly all production activities. Kellogg formed a unique partnership with ASDA, Cargill, and CARE to better understand the barriers women cocoa farmers face in their communities. Learning from these insights, the team developed the first gender sensitization training program to raise awarenss of gender issues. More than 70,000 cocoa farmers have been impacted through this training, and 1,000 women farmers have received female-focused training.

Columbia rice field

For more than 10 years, Kellogg has supported Colombian rice farmers by providing climate-smart agricutlture training to help improve crop quality and yields through this Kellogg's Origins™ program.

Congressman John Moolenaar, Mike Gurne of the Gratiot Conservation District and Rich Bowman of The Nature Conservancy

In partnership with The Nature Conservancy, Kellogg has been part of a Regional Conservation Partnership Program since 2015 in Michigan's Saginaw Bay area. Farmers, communities and wildlife depend on the Saginaw Bay watershed. Funding and technical assistance to farmers will help improve soil health and water quality by reducting excess nutrients and sediment from over 18,700 acres of farmland. By the end of the partnership, farmers adopted conservation practices on 93 farms across nearly 63,000 acres, preventing nearly 3,500 tons (or 250 dump trucks) of soil from eroding into the Saginaw Bay.

Midwest U.S.A. Corn

Most of the corn in our U.S. cereals like Kellogg's Corn Flakes® and Frosted Flakes® is grown in the Midwest states of Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, and Kansas. In 2009, Kellogg began partnering with Bunge, a corn supplier, to track on-farm continuous improvement and sustainable agriculture practice adoption over time. This project reaches more than 95 farmers and 116,000 acres in these states.

In 2018, Kellogg partnered with vanilla supplier Symrise to develop a three-year program (2019-2021) to support 1,000 vanilla producers, representing the equivalent of 100% of the vanilla bean Kellogg sources annually. The partnership has reached its goal and remains on track for completion despite challenges caused by COVID-19 in 2020. By 2019, the partnership had supported 400 farmers across 12 villages in Ankavanana, Madagascar, a remote, biodiverse region prone to climate variation and high soil erosion due to slash-and-burn agricultural practices. Program goals include improved productivity, food security, and farmer livelihoods through adoption of climate smart agriculture practices and access to financing and financial training. The program also provides advisory services protecting against deforestation and encouraging reforestation, as well as direct community investment through financial support to elementary schools and empowerment of women in farmer and community associations.

With support from Kellogg, The Nature Consernvacy (TNC) is piloting a cost-share program funded to broaden engagement with local corn producers. Specifically, TNC is working with farmers to increase soil health practice adoption by offering technical assistance and financial incentives. TNC is also helping to identify potential market mechanisms (e.g., voluntary carbon markets) to understand the feasibility of an economically self-sustaining soil health practice program. The Nature Conservancy is collaborating with one of Nebraska’s Natural Resource Districts and the local USDA Natural Resouce Conservation Service (NRCS) office, leveraging both private and public resources to ensure outcomes of this project are lasting and scalable in Nebraska and beyond.

In collaboration with Kellogg, The Nature Conservancy its expanding the successful Pay for Performance program, which offers participating farmers financial incentives to implement soil health practices that increase soil carbon, save topsoil, reduce harmful runoff, and improve water quality in the Saginaw Bay and its tributaries. Soil health practices include cover crops, reduced tillage, and pollinator strips. Using the Great Lakes Watershed Management System, a web-based spatial conservation simulation tool developed by Michigan State University Institute of Water Research, the team can estimate the amount of sediment load reduction from a given practice and offer incentives to farmers based on the estimated environmental benefit.                          

Kellogg worked with ACDI Voca and TechnoServe on two projects for rice and dates, to enable sourcing from smallholder farmers into Kellogg’s foods. As part of the project, Kellogg is providing support on climate-smart agriculture practices to help improve livelihoods for farmers and their communities. This project was completed in 2018 and supported by the Kellogg Company 25 Year Employees' Fund.

Kellogg partnered with Ardent Mills to pilot a Fieldprint Project with wheat growers in California. This program created a platform that enabled participating producers and value chain members to gain and share insights about the impacts and benefits of their management decisions across a number of key resource issues, including water use, and the bottom line. We completed this pilot program in 2019.

Kellogg, along with Colgate-Palmolive, Nestlé, Unilever and Wilmar International Limited, in collaboration with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), are joining forces to improve labor conditions and improve the working conditions and livelihoods of workers across the wider palm oil supply chain in Indonesia. In 2018, the group conducted a series of supplier workshops in the major palm oil producing regions in Sumatra and Kalimantan. The workshops will heighten awareness on wages, employment contract status and grievance mechanisms.

Bangladesh is the third largest producer of potatoes in Asia. However, the majority of farmers use outdated technology for production and post-harvest activities. In 2014, Kellogg - working with SEBA Limted - identified an opportunity to help improve yields and boost incomes for 1,200 smallholder farmers through technical training on the benefits of adapting new farming practices. Farmers were also given access to new markets. Through these efforts, crop yields grew 25-200% higher than the national average. In the 2019/2020 growing season, this partnership has directly engaged over 1,210 smallholder farmers, about 7% of whom are women. Farmers directly participating in the program have also converted to meeting 25% of their fertilizer requirements with organic fertilizers or green manure to build up soil organic carbon in their fields. About 2,000 farmers joined our 2019/2020 training sessions on better agronomic practices, and more than 3,000 visited our demonstration farms, extending learning experiences farmers beyond our supply chain could use in their own potato growing.

Since 2014, Kellogg has partnered with farmers in Northampton, England, who grow the nutritious wheat that is used to make Kellogg’s® Special K® cereals. We have focused on identifying ways to help improve soil health, boost yields and reduce the environmental impact on the farms. Over time, farmers have seen a 20% increase in worm presence, indicating biological activity and good soil health. Cover crops field implemented in field trials have also decreased nitrogen leeching by 40%. Finally, a 2020 carbon emissions and removals analysis on one farm confirmed that realistic changes in farm practices - including improved nitrogen management, silvopasture, expanded field margins, and crop rotations - could reduce net farm emissions by 60% while maintaining yield and financial performance. This result confirmed that invesing in improved practices can make a significant contribution to meeting UK farming’s ambitious goal of reaching net zero by 2040

Kellogg collaborates with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Illinois, where Kellogg sources corn ingredients, to expand the Saving Tomorrow's Agriculture Resources (S.T.A.R.) initiative. With a grant from Kellogg, 50 additional farmers managing more than 31,000 acres of Illinois farmland used S.T.A.R. to limit erosion, improve water quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on their farm since 2019. TNC is instrumental in the program as they provided on the ground support to help farmers adopt climate-smart agriculture practices. Support from Kellogg allows TNC to help expand resources to corn producers by providing mini-grants to S.T.A.R. program representatives who will offer technical advice and one-on-one consultations to farmers interested in participating in the program. Thanks in part to this support, cover cropping implemented by S.T.A.R. farmers has prevented more than 5,440 tons of CO2e from entering the atmosphere, or the equivalent of removing more than 13 million vehicle miles off of the road. TNC is also establishing a cost-share program to incentivize edge-of-field practices like saturated buffers and constructed wetlands, which tend to be costlier to implement and, thus, are often overlooked by farmers. Lastly, TNC is working to build a farmer-led peer network that allows producers to engage with and learn from each other.

In 2017, Kellogg joined supplier United Sugar (American Crystal Sugar), General Mills, and Barry Callebaut to work with sugar beet farmers in Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota, the largest sugar beet growing region in the United States. As of 2018, more than 30 farmers across over 24,000 acres of sugar beets participated in the project and measured their on-farm sustainability practices to set a benchmark for future continuous improvement. During 2019, the partnership reached 21 farmers across more than 22,000 sugar beet acres, with about 7,200 acres (or, over 2,930 hectares) representing Kellogg’s sourcing volume. In the five-year history of the project, 2019 saw the highest number and annual percentage of farmers reporting using three or more conservation practices on their sugar beet fields. Through this partnership, Kellogg will continue to work with all partners to grow the reach of the project and provide feedback on results to participating farmers.

In 2020, Kellogg Company joined a partnership with Mars Petcare, Manildra Group, Allied Pinnacle, Sustainable Food Lab, and leading researchers at Charles Sturt University and Food Agility to launch the Cool Soil Initiative in New South Wales, Australia. This $2 million “paddock to product” partnership will help 200 Aussie wheat farmers over three years to adopt soil health practices including cover crops and crop rotation to improve resiliency to climate change. Healthy soils can store carbon, and if the Cool Soil Initiative can restore a 0.1% increase in soil carbon across 1.7 million acres, the impact would the equivalent of removing more than 1 million cars from the road. Partners have embraced the program, with 100% retention of participating farmers and more than 30,000 acres of “Innovation Paddocks” enrolled.

In 2020, Kellogg joined a multi-year partnership with the Fair Labor Association, other multinational agri-business food and beverage companies, Turkey-based suppliers, and the Turkish Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services (MoFLSS) to improve recruitment and employment practices among seasonal migrant agriculture workers in Turkey. This project will map members’ supply chains for multiple commodities, including grapes for raisins and sultanas, equipping labour brokers and contractors to establish dialogue on responsible recruitment and advancing fair recruitment practices.

In 2020, Kellogg and TechnoServe launched the "Improving Livelihoods for Smallholder Farming Households" program to empower smallholder wheat farmers in five districts across Uttar Pradesh. The program's approach to making agriculture more sustainable and profitable – especially as COVID-19 severely impacted smallholder farmer economics in the region – includes enrolling women in local Farmer Interest Groups (FIGs) and Farmer Field Schools (FFSs) to provide training in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and promote their participation in agriculture. This program successfully trained 2,719 farmers in 2020, 88% of whom are women, with work planned to continue in 2021.

In 2020, Kellogg began a partnership with the NGO Wild Asia through our Impact Incubator, funding work directly with smallholders to increase market access and support for the production of sustainable palm oil. It is part of the Wild Asia Group Scheme (WAGS) program which has the goal to increase the production of sustainable palm oil by small producers and to help connect to global markets. This program will directly support (1) funding and training of independent small producers in Malaysia who are improving their production, social, and environmental performance and transitioning to grow certified sustainable palm oil as well as (2) support sustainable agriculture training with the goal of improving producer yields with fewer inputs. The program seeks to develop "BIO Farms," which are working farms to adopt natural farming methods into their existing systems. BIO Farms are systems that apply different production methods to improve the soil fertility and ultimately improve farm profitability.

For several years, we have collaborated with supplier Farm Frites to engage with their potato growers on sustainable agriculture in Europe. Several activities are carried out to enhance the sustainability performance of the potato growers. Every year, Farm Frites assesses the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of potato production in The Netherlands and Belgium using the Cool Farm Tool. Furthermore, Farm Frites and Kellogg actively share knowledge and best practices on sustainable farming with the 500+ grower base in annual gatherings like the Tour de Farm. Also in 2019, nine Farmer Knowledges Meetings were organized. These meeting are in smaller groups so technical information could be shared and discussed.

In 2017, Kellogg Korea began work on its Healthy Soils, Healthy Rice campaign to empower farmers in the local Seocheon region, where we source rice ingredients, to improve their soils using nature-based techniques. With support from Kellogg, partners including the EcoBuddy Institute and Seocheon Agricultural Technical Center have equipped local brown rice farmers with training and organic soil amendments - including rice straw, microbial agents, and green fertilizers created specifically for use in this region – to improve their soils’ health. Participating farmers have received regular soil testing to track improvements in their soil health, including soil microbial biomass, after using these organic amendments. Participating farmers also educate students at the local Hansan Elementary School on sustainable farming techniques, bringing the value of sustainable agriculture to future generations. As of 2019, this program reached 13 farm households and supported the local economy.

In September 2018, Kellogg partnered with supplier Barry Callebaut to kick off a two-year pilot program aimed at remediating and mitigating the risks of child labor in cocoa farming community of Bonsu, Nkwanta, Ghana. The project consisted of a package of interventions designed to provide educational support to the children of cocoa farming families, teacher support and community support. The pilot program design is predicated onthe idea that to fight child labor, holistic community wide solutions are required and that by supporting families and communities, we can empower people with the resources they need to benefit from sustainable long-term change. Rather than quick fix solutions, we seek to address the root causes of these issues, the complexities, and the needs of families as we seek to affect lasting change. After the first full year of implementation, community engagement was high, and activities implemented continued to show ongoing benefits for the community. A newly completed borehole has provided safe and consistent access to clean water, solar lamps at homes allow children to study in the evenings and provide cell phone charging, school kits have made the community the first in the region to deliver the most up-to-date curriculum, and a school feeding program appears to be reducing student truancy. More details are available on our 2019 Human Rights Milestones report.

In Italy, from 2015 to 2019, Kellogg worked with a multi-stakeholder partnership to identify opportunities where rice farmers can implement new, more sustainable agriculture methods to improve production. Through the program, we have trained more than 60 farmers, and we are tracking continuous improvement on crop yields and reductions in environmental impact.