Food Industry Leaders Tell Congress It’s Time for Action on Climate Change
With agriculture facing huge challenges such as diminishing arable land, disappearing natural resources, and increasing demand as populations rise, climate change is a very real economic threat to the food industry. Ten of the leading food companies are responding to the problems by calling for action to combat climate change.
Ahead of the United Nations conference on climate change in Paris, scheduled for November 30, the food and beverage companies are urging congressional leaders to embrace the opportunity to come to a “sound, properly financed” sustainability agreement.
“Climate change is bad for farmers and for agriculture,” the letter reads. “Drought, flooding and hotter growing conditions threaten the world’s food supply and contribute to food insecurity.” The signatories included the CEOs of Mars, General Mills, Unilever, Kellogg, Nestle, New Belgium Brewing, Ben & Jerry’s, Clif Bar, Stonyfield Farm, and Dannon.
Ceres, a non-profit that advocates for leadership in sustainability, organized the companies and ran the letter as a full-page ad in The Washington Post and Financial Times. The nonprofit also hosted of a bipartisan climate roundtable spotlighting the letter featuring Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY), and several of the CEOs.
If there is any chance that the Republican-led congress will take meaningful action to combat climate change, support from businesses will be vital. During the discussion, Whitehouse said Gibson’s presence was “a very big deal,” as no Republican presidential candidate or congressional leader has supported any action on climate change.
"If conservation isn't conservative, then words have no meaning at all," Gibson said in an interview with the Times Union in September. "Part of being conservative is judicious conservation of resources, both man made and natural."
Gibson is one of few elected Republicans who considers conservation a conservative value. He introduced a resolution in September urging congress to acknowledge the existence of climate change and to take significant action. The resolution attracted 10 other moderate Republican co-sponsors, but party leaders have yet to take it up for a vote in the House.
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Original article from TakePart
