General Mills Updates Pollinator Policies

close up of a butterfly


“Many of the crops that General Mills buys depend on pollinators,” said Austin Wilson, Environmental Health Program Manager at As You Sow. “By investing in supply chain sustainability, General Mills is ensuring the future of its supply chain and its profitability.”
General Mills agreed to update its Global Responsibility Report with a commitment to support the White House’s Pollinator Health Task Force strategy. The company has also committed to “protecting pollinators from exposure to pesticides” through an extended partnership with nonprofit conservation group Xerces Society and key commodity crop suppliers “to consolidate and disseminate guidance to growers of key commodities such as corn and soy on how to protect and minimize the impact of neonicotinoids and other pesticides to pollinators.”
Home Depot, Lowes, and Whole Foods recently made commitments to provide suppliers with incentives to cease using neonics.
Susan Baker of Trillium Asset Management, who joined Clean Yield and As You Sow in the discussions, commend the company for its actions. “These steps send an important market signal that working closely with suppliers to reduce pollinators’ exposure to bee-harming pesticides is essential to mitigating a serious systemic risk to our food system.”
General Mills’ other corporate responsibility initiatives include a commitment to sustainably source 100% of [its] ten priority ingredients by 2020, as well as targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.