I like the [Cool Farm Tool] because it’s not a black box. With other tools you can’t do the what-if scenarios. You just pay for the study and are delivered the results. This is a better way of engaging farmers and helping them to prioritize options. Other tools we've used give generic mitigation options copied and pasted from elsewhere and don't always apply to the particular farm in question.
Mark Pettigrew, Pepsico
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At least fifteen companies are teaming up to estimate the greenhouse gas footprint of specific farming systems and talk with farmers to figure out how to reduce that footprint as rapidly and efficiently as possible.
Researchers at the
University of
Aberdeen , who convened scientists to write the agriculture chapter of the last IPCC report, have partnered with Unilever to develop a tool to use on sample farms in representative farming systems. This Green House Gas calculation tool, along with other consistent methods and datasets, is being applied now to provide an assessment of immediate opportunities and barriers.
Christof Walter from Unilever explains, “The Cool Farm Tool helps us understand what practices make the biggest difference in any particular farm situation, including the considerations that farmers are balancing in choosing between management decisions. Taking the circumstance on individual fields and farms into account is crucial because the effects of most GHG reduction practices vary strongly, depending on soil, climate, management system and input intensities. For instance, minimum tillage can lead to overall GHG saving under one set of circumstances, but actually increase net emission under other circumstances. This project will analyze the costs, trade-offs and possible barriers to implementing GHG reduction practices at farm and field level, and what options there are to overcome them. We’ll end up with practical advice in each circumstance.”
The Global Agriculture Climate Assessment combines several aspects that set it apart from the many other initiatives in the area of carbon footprinting and stewardship:
Researchers at the
Christof Walter from Unilever explains, “The Cool Farm Tool helps us understand what practices make the biggest difference in any particular farm situation, including the considerations that farmers are balancing in choosing between management decisions. Taking the circumstance on individual fields and farms into account is crucial because the effects of most GHG reduction practices vary strongly, depending on soil, climate, management system and input intensities. For instance, minimum tillage can lead to overall GHG saving under one set of circumstances, but actually increase net emission under other circumstances. This project will analyze the costs, trade-offs and possible barriers to implementing GHG reduction practices at farm and field level, and what options there are to overcome them. We’ll end up with practical advice in each circumstance.”
The Global Agriculture Climate Assessment combines several aspects that set it apart from the many other initiatives in the area of carbon footprinting and stewardship:
- Farmer focused: The farmer is the focus of data gathering and information feedback, thus providing access to farmers’ knowledge on improvement measures, while at the same time providing farmers with the information to assess climate benefits;
- Context sensitive: The project will gather specific data for farming systems of your choice and taylor recommendations accordingly, providing much better insight into your product life cycle than the use of calculator estimates based on generic assumptions or averages for entire regions;
- Global in scope: The scope is global, rather than local or national, and will include a range of systems (annual crops, perennial crops, livestock), thus allowing a uniform and consistent approach for all your supply chains. See the systems and geographies committed to thus far.
- Consistent approach: A calculation tool and data analysis system that carries the stamp of approval of a large consortium of industry and academic experts and has the potential to become an industry standard, thus providing you with well-founded data on your supply chain that may be used in carbon footprint calculations of your products or interactions with NGO’s and consumer groups;
- Action oriented: The initiative goes further than just measuring, by providing an action perspective for both farmers and you as a supply chain partner. It will also provide an assessment of barriers that farmers face and the training and incentives that will most efficiently overcome those barriers.