Co-investments will support farmers in the adoption of regenerative agriculture in key sourcing regions to foster soil health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
SALISBURY, NC, and MINNEAPLIS, MN — Recognizing the importance of collaboration across the value chain, Ahold Delhaize USA and General Mills announced an innovative approach to address Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions within their shared value chain.
Through co-investments in priority supply sheds — or geographic growing regions where key ingredients are sourced — the two companies will support farmers as they adopt regenerative farming practices. Utilizing expertise from Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), a nonprofit member-based consortium, farmers will receive technical and financial support to implement techniques like cover cropping and nutrient management, and a combination of field sampling and modeling will estimate net greenhouse gas emissions.
“This relationship emphasizes how strategic collaboration is essential for addressing climate impacts and creating positive environmental outcomes,” said Marc Stolzman, Chief Sustainability Officer, Ahold Delhaize USA. “Ahold Delhaize USA looks forward to the learnings from this supply shed collaboration and using the findings to drive progress across the supply chain.”
By the end of 2025, ESMC along with local implementing partners will help advance regenerative agriculture management on over 70,000 acres of farmland in Kansas and Saskatchewan in Canada. The scale of this effort represents the approximate number of acres General Mills engages to source key ingredients, like wheat and oats, for its products sold at grocery stores operated by Ahold Delhaize USA’s brands — Food Lion, Giant Food, The GIANT Company, Hannaford and Stop & Shop.
“In 2019, General Mills became one of the first companies to commit to helping advance regenerative agriculture,” said Mary Jane Melendez, Chief Sustainability and Global Impact Officer, General Mills. “We champion a farmer-centered approach across key regions where the ingredients we source are grown, aiming to produce positive environmental, social and economic outcomes. Ahold Delhaize USA is a natural fit for collaboration with shared goals of creating a more healthy and resilient food system.”
ESMC will facilitate the program and oversee impact measurement. Greenhouse gas reductions and soil carbon sequestration will be verified by an independent third-party verification organization, ensuring transparency and accountability. This collaboration is a continuation of General Mills and ESMC’s multi-year partnership, which began in 2020, rewarding farmers for beneficial environmental outcomes from regenerative agriculture.
“ESMC’s ongoing partnerships with General Mills and Ahold Delhaize USA continue to leverage our collective investments and generate shared outcomes. By creating opportunities for co-investing in regenerative agricultural solutions, producers win, corporations win, and consumers win,” said Debbie Reed, ESMC Executive Director. “These verified improvements in agricultural production systems increase on-farm resilience for producers and build resilience throughout the supply chain.”
This program highlights the importance of prioritizing industry collaboration to scale sustainability initiatives by maximizing efforts and extending shared impact across the value chain. This is Ahold Delhaize USA’s second farmland-focused Scope 3 pilot this year, and its first collaboration taking a supply shed approach.
About Ahold Delhaize USA
Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of global food retailer Ahold Delhaize, is part of the U.S. family of brands, which also includes five leading omnichannel grocery brands – Food Lion, Giant Food, The GIANT Company, Hannaford and Stop & Shop. When considered together, the companies of Ahold Delhaize USA comprise the largest grocery retail group on the East Coast and the fourth largest grocery retail group in the nation, serving millions of omnichannel customers each week. For more information, visit www.adusa.com.
About General Mills
General Mills makes food the world loves. The company is guided by its Accelerate strategy to boldly build its brands, relentlessly innovate, unleash its scale and stand for good. Its portfolio of beloved brands includes household names like Cheerios, Nature Valley, Blue Buffalo, Häagen-Dazs, Old El Paso, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Totino’s, Annie’s, Wanchai Ferry, Yoki and more. General Mills generated fiscal 2024 net sales of U.S. $20 billion. In addition, the company’s share of non-consolidated joint venture net sales totaled U.S. $1 billion.
About ESMC
Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC)/Ecosystem Services Market Research Consortium (ESMRC) is a nonprofit agricultural supply chain market program. Our innovative public-private partnership is transforming decarbonization along the agricultural supply chain through collective action and shared investments. Our 60+ member organizations spanning the agricultural supply and value chains have collaboratively invested, tested, and launched a harmonized, standardized ecosystem services market for agricultural supply chains. Eco-Harvest, ESMC’s voluntary market program, is an accredited end-to-end digitized solution to decarbonize agriculture. The program incentivizes, quantifies, and verifies (through independent third-party experts) carbon, greenhouse gas and water outcomes annually, paying farmers from the sale of Scope 3 outcomes (impact units) to corporates. www.ecosystemservicesmarket.org.
