The award was presented to ADM Agriculture at the Commodity Trading Awards 2023 on April 25 in London for driving positive change through regenerative agriculture practices.
Ana Yaluff, director, EMEA Sustainability; Christopher Colley, trader at ADM Agriculture; and Allie Hesketh, climate-smart AG country coordinator accepted the award on the company’s behalf. ADM was recognized for its efforts to provide economic and sustainable solutions through regenerative agriculture practices in the UK.
Its latest regenerative agriculture initiative included the first 23 farmers contracted to grow an estimated 10,000 tons of regenerative barley in the UK during 2023, destined to the beer industry – a pioneering initiative in the country. This will encourage peer-to-peer learning as well as sharing best practices to benefit the farmers and their land. ADM supported this important initiative by championing its benefits to farmers, and by helping to launch it commercially through relevant supply contracts. The next step is to expand this program to other crops such as wheat and rapeseed.
Another important project has involved working with ADM’s internal supply chain to develop a program that seeks to understand the carbon footprint of the milling wheat being produced. This project kicked off in 2022 with a group of ADM farmers who committed to share their farm data. This allowed ADM to calculate their carbon footprint for the wheat they produced and, with the help of a third-party data verification partner, farm field records were used and growers surveyed to put together data covering circa 7,000 acres. ADM held a feedback session for farmers to discuss group results, explain trends and share insights on carbon footprints. ADM will continue to work to support these farmers in reducing footprints further.
This is just year one of a 3-year pilot, and the next stage will involve collecting data from the same group of farmers over the next two wheat harvests to ensure ADM creates a reliable baseline for the company and its customers for its milling wheat emissions and to track changes year-over-year.
James Daw, a farmer from Staffordshire taking part in the pilot said, “I have farmed my whole life and am deeply committed to looking after the land and environment so it can continue to provide a living for myself and for future generations. 15 years ago, I embarked on using regenerative agriculture methods to reduce my footprint and improve the health of my soil – from cover crops, to crop rotation. Now, I’m really excited to work with ADM, to measure the emissions that come from producing wheat on my farm and better understand what further steps I can take to improve my carbon footprint.”
