General Mills has joined the battle for better sustainability in agriculture. The company just announced a $100,000 partnership with Walmart that will help farmers implement best management practices on their operations to improve nitrogen use efficiency.
Specifically, the company lists the following possible approaches it is considering:
• Uncoated or coated controlled-release
• Biological methods, practices or technologies promoting soil fertility health
• Precision agriculture delivery systems to provide variable rate application
• Data driven decision support mechanisms
• Other new and novel commercially available technologies that advance current approaches in the market today
“Accelerating adoptions of innovative on-farm nitrogen management tools will improve farmer economics, environmental outcomes and farm communities,” says Jerry Lynch, General Mills vice president and chief sustainability officer. It will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and nitrogen runoff, and aligns well with our commitment to sustainably source our 10 priority ingredients by 2020.”
Farmers can submit their proposals online at http://gwin.force.com/category/Sustainability. Proposals are due by September 1, 2014, and winners will be announced October 1, 2014. Winners will be invited to present their technologies at the mid-winter Field to Market workshop in Idaho Falls in early 2015.
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