Ahead of a United Nations summit in New York on food systems, the Swiss food giant said it wanted to promote agriculture aimed at "
protecting and restoring the environment, improving the standard of living of farmers and strengthen the well-being of farming communities
”.
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To this end, it plans to invest 1.2 billion Swiss francs (1.1 billion euros) over the next five years in regenerative agriculture, he announced Thursday.
The program is structured around three axes, including a wheel of technical assistance to farmers, a wheel of investment support and a bonus for raw materials from regenerative agriculture. The Swiss group thus intends to contribute to improving biodiversity, preserving soils, regenerating water cycles and integrating animal husbandry.
Among its plans to reduce these emissions in its supply chain, Nestlé intends to work with 30 dairy farms in 12 countries to test regenerative farming practices that can be implemented on a larger scale, he said. as an example.
He also plans to work with farmers to select and grow legume varieties that can be used in alternatives to milk.
No common charter for regenerative agriculture
Agriculture accounts for nearly two-thirds of Nestlé's total greenhouse gas emissions, the Swiss group acknowledged.
Dairy products and livestock alone account for about half of these emissions.
The big names in food such as Unilever, Danone or General Mills, but also in luxury and fashion, have in turn adopted this term, unknown to the general public, of regenerative agriculture in their communications on their environmental commitments.
All of them aim to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in their supplies of agricultural raw materials.
But there is no common charter, and each company defines its own criteria.
