Campbell's is grappling with how to be 'environmental sustainable' with its soups and agricultural purchases

Chief Agricultural Expert Harry Hall inspects tomatoes at Campbell's
research farm in the 1920s. (Photo via Lancaster Farming)

MMM MMM GOOD. Most Americans know that only means one thing -- Campbell's soup. What most of us may not know is where all those MMM MMM-ingredients came from, or what the agricultural practices of a company as dominating as Campbell's means. "But the Camden, New Jersey-based company is grappling with what it means to be environmentally sustainable as a major purchaser of agricultural products," reports Dan Sullivan of Lancaster Farming. "Supplier Ronnie Abrams grows 130 acres of potatoes and 130 acres of carrots in Burlington, New Jersey. . . . But Campbell's long ago shifted its tomato production to California, which grows 90% of the nation's and about a third of the world's processing tomatoes."

Campbell's soups are filled with tomatoes, wheat and potatoes, and the "company contracts with local produce growers, too. Some of the company's relationships with family farmers date back more than 70 years," Sullivan writes. "The company has sustainable agriculture programs for each of its key ingredients, part of a goal to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of its supply chain 25% by 2030."

The company used to breed "its own tomato varieties and send armies of agronomists to work with farmers," Sullivan reports. "Today, field staff visit the company's growers, helping them plan the season, monitoring the crop, and making sure Campbell's gets the tomatoes it needs in August and September." Ryan Vroegindewey, Campbell's associate director for sustainable agriculture, told Sullivan: "The crops represent important opportunities for us as a company to steward the environment and to partner farmers to steward the land that these crops are grown on."

When questioned on the company's "wisdom of the company putting all its tomatoes in one basket by growing in one small region of the country — and in an area with such a scarcity of water — rather than diversifying production geographically," Sullivan writes. "Vroegindewey said Campbell's continues to contract with some producers in other parts of the country for other agricultural products, and 80% of its contract tomato growers now use subsurface drip irrigation."

When asked if "Campbell's would consider shifting more production to the East to support sustainability principles, Vroegindewey said, 'I think people are thinking about it. . . . We're in California. We're there to stay.'. . . . Campbell's products are in 95% of U.S. homes, the company employs 14,500 workers across North America, and it has annual net sales of $9.4 billion."

Most hog farmers now use production contracts, USDA says; does that give more power to meat companies?

Graph by Investigate Midwest; click on it to enlarge

Most hog producers are now in production contracts that fix a price on the hogs before they're ready for sale. They have accounted for more than half of production for about two decades; now they are used by more than half of hog producers, according to nearly three-decade Department of Agriculture study.

A reliance on such contracts could leave hog farmers more at the mercy of large meatpackers, reports Madison McVan of Investigate Midwest. That's because in many if not most contracts, the packer "pays for the pigs, feed, veterinary care and transportation while the farmer provides equipment, housing and labor." This lowers the upfront cost for the farmer but gives packers the ability to drive down prices.

"As the meat industry as a whole has become more concentrated and a handful of large companies have more control over the market, advocates are concerned that the dominance of production contracts will lead to lower prices for producers," McVan reports. A bill pending in the U.S. Senate would "tackle the issue of producer exploitation by creating an Office of the Special Investigator for Competition Matters in the USDA. The investigator would be charged with enforcing the Packers and Stockyards Act, which includes protections for producers but is rarely enforced."

In fear of retribution, farmers rarely speak out about on abuses from meat companies, Steve Etka, the policy director of the Campaign for Contract Agricultural Reform -- an alliance of nonprofit organizations representing contract farmers, told Investigate Midwest in August.