The three-year programme is supporting farmers to better understand their carbon footprint and reduce their emissions
ADM, global leader in nutrition, and one of the leading flour millers in the UK, has for the first time calculated the emissions from the production of wheat in its UK supply chain.
The pilot – undertaken by ADM Milling – is also one of the first led by a major food manufacturing company in the UK to calculate the emissions in the production of wheat, recognising that as climate change intensifies, it is vital for companies to understand the level of emissions produced further up their supply chain and take action to reduce their carbon footprint.
Using Map of Ag as a data collection partner, ADM partnered with around 50 farmers to collect data and calculate the carbon footprint of farms’ wheat production based on approx. 25,000 tonnes of wheat harvested last summer, equating to 20 million 1kg bags of flour milled by ADM – the equivalent of roughly 40 million loaves of bread (of 800g each).
The data from year one of the pilot shows that the emissions from the UK farmers involved in the study sits at 302kg CO2e/t*, well below the previously reported standard values for UK milling wheat, which typically fall around 420kg CO2e/t. The next stage of the pilot will involve collecting data from the same group of farmers over the next two wheat harvests to ensure ADM creates a reliable baseline for the company and its customers and to track changes year-over-year.
Nitrogen fertiliser was responsible for the biggest proportion of emissions (on average 75%). However other key sources of emissions included energy use (liquid/gaseous fuel and electricity) and crop residue (the breakdown of crop residues in field by natural processes).