Taco Bell Releases Statement Regarding Reduction in Antibiotics Used for Beef 

Taco Bell recognizes consumers’ growing food supply concerns, including animal welfare and antibiotic resistance. Building upon its commitment to making its beef more sustainable from January 2019, Taco Bell has committed to reduce antibiotics important to human health in its U.S. and Canada beef supply chain by 25% by 2025. This new policy around its dominant menu protein, beef, will better protect human, animal and environmental health.

As part of this new policy, Taco Bell will also give preference to suppliers that are making measured reductions in their use of antibiotics important to human health, as defined by the World Health Organization, as well as suppliers that increase veterinary oversight when it is required to medically treat sick animals. Preference will also be given to...

Cargill States Commitment to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions Across North American Beef Supply Chain

Global demand for protein is rising rapidly, challenging farmers, ranchers and agribusiness to feed a growing population while protecting the planet. Across the food and agriculture industry, there is a pressing need to do more with less impact. To help address this need, Cargill is launching BeefUp Sustainability, an initiative committed to achieving a 30% greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity reduction across its North American beef supply chain by 2030.

The opt-in initiative will reduce GHG emissions throughout Cargill's beef supply chain from a 2017 baseline, measured on a per pound of product basis. BeefUp Sustainability is designed to engage a diverse set of stakeholders including producers, customers and innovators. The initiative will focus on four key areas: grazing management, feed production, innovation and...

What are the Top Cold Chain Logistics Problems Facing Food Companies?

SpendEdge, a leading provider of procurement market intelligence solutions, has announced the completion of their latest article on the top cold chain logistics problems facing the food industry.

The shift in consumer preferences has increased the demand for perishable food products. However, the changing regulatory norms, capital intensive equipment and strict-temperature requirements pose challenges for cold chain logistics companies. The increase in sensitivity and quality standards further creates the need for companies to improve food cold chain management...

Walmart Announces Plan to Invest $1.2 Billion to Upgrade Logistics in China

Ryan McDaniel, Senior Vice President of Walmart China Supply Chain, announced Monday that Walmart will increase its investment in its supply-chain logistics. In addition to building the first customized perishable food distribution center, the South China Fresh Food Distribution Center, the company plans to increase investment in its supply-chain logistics in China by RMB 8 billion, or about $1.2 billion, building or upgrading more than 10 logistics distribution centers over the next 10-20 years.

Walmart invested more than RMB 700 million to build the South China Fresh Food Distribution Center, which has been in operation since March 2019. It currently serves more than 100 Walmart stores in Guangdong and Guangxi, with daily distributing capacity of up to...

Walmart to Create Angus Beef Supply Chain

Walmart, the nation’s largest grocer, announced its entry into the beef industry, developing an end-to-end supply chain for Angus beef.

The retailer has been diligently working to improve the quality of its food offering with the company’s fresh division and meat department at the forefront of this effort. To ensure supply of quality Angus beef and to meet customer demand for a more transparent supply chain, Walmart is working with best-in-class partners including Texas rancher Bob McClaren of Prime Pursuits.

“As clean labels, traceability and transparency become more and more important to customers, we’ve made plans to enter into the beef industry creating an unmatched system that allows us to deliver consistent quality and...

Cargill Bolsters Commitment to Deforestation-Free Supply Chains

Cargill operates at the intersection of agriculture and business, connecting farmers to consumers around the world. Today, the company took bold steps to advance its commitment to protect forests and promote rural agricultural development across its supply chains, with the launch of a South America Sustainable Soy Policy, a Human Rights Commitment and an updated Forest Policy.

"Farming and forests can—and must—co-exist," said Dave MacLennan, Cargill chairman and CEO. "The world depends...

Agribusinesses Seek to Modernize Global Agricultural Commodity Trade Operations

Driven by opportunities to increase transparency and efficiency for customers, global agribusinesses are turning to emerging digital technologies – including blockchain and artificial intelligence options – to reduce resource- and time-intensive processes associated with the global agricultural commodity value chain.

Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) (“ADM”), Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG) (“Bunge”), Cargill, Incorporated (“Cargill”), and Louis Dreyfus Company (“LDC”) are investigating ways to standardize and digitize global agricultural shipping transactions for the benefit of the entire industry. The companies also seek broad-based industry participation to promote global access and adoption.

Initially, ADM, Bunge, Cargill and LDC are focused on technologies to automate grain and oilseed post-trade execution processes, as they represent a highly manual and costly part of the supply chain, with the industry spending significant amounts of money every year moving documents around the globe. Eliminating inefficiencies would lead to shorter document-processing times, reduced wait times and better end-to-end contracting visibility.

Longer term, the companies want to drive greater reliability, efficiency and transparency by replacing other manual, paper-based processes tied to contracts, invoices and payments, with a more modern, digitally based approach. Specific benefits would include...