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Driving sustainability goals
As owners of one of the world ’ s biggest and best-loved rice brands – Ben ’ s Original™ – rice is a critical raw material for Mars Food & Nutrition . The organization is focused on making rice farming more sustainable by reducing the amount of irrigation water , minimizing GHG emissions and increasing yields , as well as bringing about meaningful improvements to the lives of the people in its value chain , enabling them to thrive .
“ As I said earlier , my remit covers farm to fork , and we need to work collaboratively across our supply chain to drive our sustainability goals . So , one great example is the way in which we ’ re working closely with a sixth-generation rice farmer in Arkansas , the Whitaker family . In collaboration with this amazing family and farm , we ’ ve been able to work on reducing GHG emissions and reducing water usage . Paddy fields are huge expanses of flooded land , and one of the things the Whitakers do brilliantly well is they adopt a sustainable agricultural process . That means they don ’ t keep a paddy field flooded , they saturate it , then dry it , and then saturate it again . This process can maintain yields while significantly reducing the amount of water usage by as much as 30 percent . It also minimizes the methanation process which is hugely positive from a GHG emissions perspective too .
“ I love our purpose : Better Food Today . A Better World Tomorrow . It ’ s super simple but means a lot to all 2000 of us . At the start of 2021 , we set out purpose commitments , with a new ambition of delivering 5.5 billion healthy meals a year by 2025 . Through this , we aim to deliver four billion servings of vegetables , a 30 percent increase in fiber and an additional five percent sodium reduction across our portfolio . We ’ re ahead of some of those targets , so , we ’ re really proud of both the commitments and our performance against them to date .”
Another partnership of which we ’ re incredibly proud involves reviving rural farming
Mars Food & Nutrition ’ s progress has been driven by a combination of reformulation efforts , optimization of the portfolio and implementing product innovation that meets the Mars Food Nutrition Criteria ( MFNC ), which includes targets for calories , added sugar , sodium and fat content . Adopting widely agreed upon nutrition recommendations issued by the World Health Organization and other leading public health authorities , Mars Food & Nutrition is continuing to address global dietary issues , such as lack of fiber and micronutrients , with a strong focus on vegetables and whole grains and the important role of gut health .
Championing climatesmart practices
The organization believes everyone working within its extended supply chains should earn sufficient income to maintain a decent standard of living and is committed to ensuring that 100 percent of rice farmers in its supply chain at risk of poverty are reached by programs designed to enable them to thrive .
“ Another partnership of which we ’ re incredibly proud involves reviving rural farming . Mars Food & Nutrition has funded the Sustainable Agriculture and Rice Initiative ( SARI ) program since 2018 , implemented by the German development organization GIZ . Through this program , 1450 farmers , 70 percent of whom are women , have been taught sustainable rice
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