Famous food brands come together to fight climate change
A major step forward with the food industries fight to climate change happened earlier last month. The Chief Executive Officers of a lot of food companies like Mars, Kellogg, Dannon, and even the all-knowing activist famous ice cream company Ben and Jerry's amongst others joined together to send a letter to different U.S. and World leaders to urge them to fight climate change.
In the letter written, the CEO's state that "Climate change is bad for farmers and agriculture. Drought, flooding, and hotter growing conditions threaten the world's food supply and contribute to food insecurity." The letter was introduced during a bipartisan meeting during a Congress session in Washington, D.C. along with 12 food company executives in the fight for climate change.
The last major food company to take action (or at least jab at) climate change was Chipotle, the ever popular all organic mexican grill resataurant (who by the way happens to be one of the very few national restaurants to sell non-processed meat in their foods). When Chipotle raised their prices on guacamole, they hinted at the fact that global warming could have had a major reason why they raised the price on guacamole by 15 cents extra, from $1.80 extra to $1.95. As a matter of fact, the company themselves stated last year that they could 'suspend' their guacamole product altogether should prices for beef and other ingredients continue to rise.
With our campaign, put your money where your mouth is, we strive to support restaurants who choose to fight the great battle of climate change, which is part of our sustainability awareness within restaurants. In our recently posted video, which featured a comedy skit similar to the style of Good Burger, we poked fun at the fact that even though we as shoppers may love to go to our certain stores, we might not be seeing the bigger picture of what these grocery stores or national food chains may be doing unto our environment. Climate change is an issue with our society today. Many business leaders can choose to deny the facts written by scientists which feature the idea that man is the leading cause for the destruction of our environment. The United Nations themselves came out with a report a couple of years ago stating that 95% of climate change happens to come from human kind, it also stated that by the year 2100, temperatures could increase by an average of 4-5 degrees fahrenheit.
Should climate change be a part of corporate responsibility? The answer is yes. Absolutely. Corporations are allowed to produce what they need in order to make their company more profitable, however, responsibility is a necessity and it comes with whatever tasks are given to you in life. The Environmental Protection Agency was created in order to ensure that multi-billion dollar corporations are following the guidelines in order to create a healthy and safe environment for everyone.
Speaking of the Environment Protection Agency, earlier in August, the agency announced the new Clean Power Plan, which is a mandatory calling to states to reduce the amount of emissions under the current plan established back in 2005. In the new plan, the goal is to rdeuce the amount of carbon emissions nationwide by 32% by the year 2030 in relative to the 2005 plan. This plan is basically urging states that have an inordinate amount of coal plants, such as Texas itself, to reduce that number and create more natural gas plants.
All in all, companies that back the effects of climate change understand that there is a rapidly changing environment and also understand that the time to respond is now. The food companies mentioned earlier are stepping up on their own and detailing to our United States Congress what they believe is necessary in order to create a more sustainable environment. One of the ten companies mentioned in the letter, General Mills, actually stated their plan tocut greenhouse gases by 28% by the year 2030. The chocolate company Nestle actually shared their decline in pumpkin harvests for their food products, an unfortunate event that President of Corportate affairs Paul Bakus believed was 'firmly' caused by climate change. Also Unilever's external affairs director Tom Langan stated that climate change has been costing their company $335 million a year. As more and more companies own up and take responsibility for their contributions to climate change, the trend we see in more progressive calls to action will be answered, which in turn will lead to more sustainable products and a more healthier livelihood for all of the American people.
