Campbell Soup Company: Pesticide Use in Agricultural Supply Chains
WHEREAS: American families have long trusted Campbell Soup Company’s iconic brands for providing nourishing food products. Consumers are increasingly demanding healthy, natural, and safe food products, including those grown without pesticides that can harm the health of consumers, farmers, communities, and the environment.
Pesticide-based agricultural practices raise a host of concerns for food companies. Scientists have connected pesticide exposure to cancer, developmental defects, and obesity, among other health harms. Pesticide-based farming methods generally degrade soil, increase erosion, and contribute to the loss of pollinator species essential to food production. Weeds and insects develop resistance to pesticides with associated crop losses of $1.4 billion per year. Food companies are also seeing increased litigation around pesticide use.
To ensure long-term food supply reliability, it is imperative that food companies mitigate the growing risks from pesticide use. Campbell’s does not currently disclose information on the pesticide use practices employed across its supply chains, nor does the company disclose whether it has set goals for pesticide use reduction.
Campbell’s failure to address pesticide use in its supply chains creates legal and reputational risk for the Company. Consumer advocates have recently called out food companies for glyphosate residues in common processed food products and for pesticide residues in produce. In fact, tomatoes – the key ingredient in one of Campbell’s most iconic products – is listed in the “Dirty Dozen”, for containing particularly high levels of pesticide residues. Potatoes are also included in this list. With Campbell’s acquisition of Kettle Brand potato chips, the Company has added additional pesticide risk to its portfolio. Consumer lawsuits have targeted manufacturers of foods containing such residues.
In a recent report comparing food manufacturers on pesticide risk management, Campbell’s scored only 6 out of 30 possible points. In contrast, other major food companies are doing more to track and reduce pesticide use and related risks:
Sysco reduced pesticide use by 6.3 million pounds in 2018 and reports the quantity of pesticides avoided annually.
General Mills established a regenerative agriculture initiative to reduce pesticide use, and will report pesticide use data for it beginning in 2020.
Kellogg’s committed to phase out use of pre-harvest glyphosate in its major wheat and oat supply chains by 2025.
Unilever phased out World Health Organization Class 1 pesticides for tea production and intends to phase out Class 2 pesticides by 2020.
BE IT RESOLVED: Shareholders request Campbell’s produce a report disclosing quantitative metrics on the use of synthetic chemical pesticides in the Company’s supply chains.
SUPPORTING STATEMENT: At Board discretion, we recommend the report include:
Metrics tracking the proportion of supply chain crops treated with chemical pesticides
Data regarding use of particularly high-risk pesticides (e.g. glyphosate, chlorpyrifos, dicamba)
Any targets for reduction of pesticide use over time
Resolution Details
Company: Campbell Soup Company
Lead Filers:
As You Sow
Year: 2020
Filing Date:
June 2020
Initiative(s): Pesticides
Status: Resolution Withdrawn, Agreement Reached