World Wildlife Fund Sustainability Works

Discovery is a purpose driven company with a mission to satisfy curiosity, entertain and inspire our global audiences around the world. For over 30 years we have had cameras in every corner of the globe, telling the stories of our planet’s extraordinary creatures. Unfortunately, over time, these programs have also had to show the negative impact that humankind has had on wildlife and their natural habitats. We watched the devastating effects of species loss and said, “Not on our watch.” Discovery has a responsibility and opportunity to go beyond the lens and help turn things around through raising awareness, engaging viewers, and working with partners to protect wildlife and habitats for future generations. We are all in this together.

McDonald’s feeds millions of people around the world every day and with that comes a responsibility – and opportunity – to use our size and scale to help transform the global food system for the better. While COVID-19 has revealed near-term supply chain vulnerabilities, climate change will have even more devastating impacts along the food system value chain in the long run - from changing weather patterns to the potential collapse of ecosystems, and as shown in the 2020 global Living Planet Report, we can’t put climate action on hold. In 2018, McDonald’s became the first restaurant company in the world to commit to a science based target to reduce emissions across our restaurants, offices and supply chain by 2030 from a 2015 base year. We can’t do this alone, which is why we’re partnering with our franchisees, suppliers, farmers, ranchers and expert partners, like WWF.

Over the past ten months, COVID-19 has underscored the ways in which our relationship with nature—in all its forms—is fundamentally broken.

This presents significant risks for business and finance, as they are inextricably linked. Structural issues that have compounded over time can no longer be pushed aside, or left to tackle at a later date. Collectively, we must turn our attention towards the health of our environment, and work to create a “nature-positive” economy.

Over the last decade, we saw a major increase in the number of corporate commitments to eliminate deforestation from agricultural supply chains. This trend put a spotlight on how the production of soft commodities like food crops, wood fiber, and rubber contributes to deforestation. It also led to important improvements in supply chain transparency.

Nevertheless, agriculture continues to drive forest loss across the world, with enormous implications for sustainable economies, livelihoods, and biodiversity. Companies urgently need to intensify their efforts to improve transparency in their supply chains, work with suppliers to ensure commodities are not causing deforestation, and report on their efforts and progress in line with the Accountability Framework—the best practice guidance for setting and implementing corporate deforestation commitments.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major ongoing food supply chain disruption. Widespread food business and market closures have led to massive surges in on-farm food loss across a variety of products and commodities; at the same time, there’s a growing number of food insecure people around the world.

We live in uncertain times. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic threw our lives into chaos, we seemed to be hit daily with dire predictions of what the future could look like if we don’t curb greenhouse gas emissions, if we don’t manage our water resources, if we don’t get our consumption in check.

We tend to focus on potential negative outcomes because we need people to know that the stakes for these issues are very high and very real. But it’s important to take a moment to look at a future where we make the right choices. If we kickstart innovation now, invest now, and get the right people to start working toward this common goal now, here’s what the mid-Mississippi Delta could look like 50 years from today:

As stated in the previous post, a more distributed and resilient food system won’t happen on its own. To enable a future where American food production puts less strain on the environment, is closer to consumers with less waste, and benefits economically depressed areas, WWF’s Markets Institute is looking out to the future.

In the next three years, we will need to focus on the following:

The mid-Delta has tremendous potential to grow specialty produce in commercial quantities at competitive prices to secure our food system and revitalize the region. While California will continue to be a key agricultural state, the Markets Institute envisions a more distributed and resilient food system, with more capacity for different regions to grow what is best suited to shifting climates, where food is produced closer to consumers with less waste, and economically depressed areas can benefit from higher-value produce.

The mid-Delta region has a deep connection to agriculture. The Mississippi River and the smaller Arkansas River have good soil and are transportation corridors. Agriculture has driven the economy in the region since the first European settlers arrived. Sugar and rice dominated the 18th century, and cotton became king in the early 19th century. These row crops remain common, but now wheat, soy, and corn (soy and corn for animal feed) have also become mainstays. Today, 75% of farmland is used to produce row crops, with 25% used for specialty crops.

California dominates farming of specialty produce in the US today, growing half our vegetables and more than 2/3 of our fruits and nuts. Yet this is becoming increasingly unsustainable. Water is becoming scarcer, fires are common, and increasing temperatures are threatening some crops’ ability to fruit properly. The critical task of growing our nation’s food will need to adapt and shift, but without proper planning it might promote extensive land conversion, which is harmful to the environment, and ignore or worsen racial and social inequities. The US is not alone in facing this challenge. Countries across the world have their own “California” but no one is looking for the next one.