Here on this dairy farm in Switzerland, David Jaccoud and his 100 or so cows
produce three thousand liters of milk per day.
David’s farm uses cutting edge technology to automate milk collection
and reduce the impact that production has on the environment.
Changing how we farm is essential in the fight against climate change.
Across the world, agriculture accounts for up to a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Which means that if we're going to make substantial progress,
we need more than just David and his herd to get on board.
Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company.
Founded on the shores of Lake Geneva in 1866, Nestlé began
as a small Swiss company producing milk-based products.
Over 150 years later, it’s remained true to its roots.
It tops the table of the world’s largest dairy groups,
with ice cream and milk sales nearing £12 billion last year.
Milk is the most important raw material for Nestle since the very beginning.
It started all with milk. And milk is still
the most important raw material for Nestle worldwide.
The food group works with over 500,000 farmers across its supply chain,
more than 100,000 of whom are dairy producers.
On this farm, David practices what’s known as ‘regenerative agriculture’.
That means producing food while reducing the impact on the environment.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization defines regenerative farming
as a range of farming methods with the common goal of
“caring for the land to support its health and vitality”.
In short, it involves protecting the health of the soil,
sustainable water usage, and better fertiliser management.
Regenerative farming is not new. But as the food industry comes under
increasing pressure to reduce agricultural emissions, many now see it as the only way forward.
Agronomist and former farmer Daniel Baertschi walked me through the benefits.
We need to find ways how we can mainstream a positive agriculture system.
And regenerative agriculture is exactly the system that allows every farmer to make progress,
as the farmer here, he can start where he’s at and then he can build up capacity,
he can improve the farm and improve the carbon footprint.
Here on a dairy farm like this, it’s methane-emitting manure
that's the big problem. But also an opportunity.
The intergovernmental panel on climate change states that in order to reach net zero by around 2050,
“deep reductions in agricultural emissions” resulting from methane will be required.
Professor Beat Reidy studies agricultural emissions from dairy farming
down the road at the Bern University of Applied Sciences.
Usually on a dairy farm the biggest proportion of emissions
come from rumination, from the dairy cow itself.
Another large proportion, usually that comes from manure management.
David and his team employ a number of techniques
to reduce methane emissions including optimizing the cows’ diet.
So you see for every group of cows there is a certain feed ratio.
The feed is mixed by an automated system
and delivered to the herd throughout the day by a robot.
The different elements are in the feed. So you see there are some grains here,
there is some hay, there is some silage. This is really the perfect diet for this cow.
The group this side, they are a bit jealous because the dairy cows, they get the good stuff.
Nestle’s research and development team monitor the effectiveness of the systems
trialled on David’s farm to keep track of what’s working, and what isn’t.
The cows wear smart collars which track their movements
and alert David when a problem is detected with their milk production.
Other measures include reducing the use of fertilisers and preventing the loss of nutrient-rich topsoil.
The manure is part of the nutrient cycle, from the feed, to the cow,
to the manure and back to the field. So the whole idea is actually,
is to close this cycle and make sure there are no or as little loss as possible.
More than two-thirds of Nestlé’s global greenhouse gas emissions
originate from the sourcing of agricultural raw materials,
with dairy and livestock supply chains accounting for more than half of those emissions.
The food group has pledged to be net zero by 2050,
but its head of sustainable agriculture says that’s just the start.
We launched 20 years ago the sustainable agriculture initiative.
And we have run a lot of projects over these past two decades,
however we acknowledge as well that now sustaining is not enough, we need to restore.
Over the past few years, Nestlé has launched a series of pilot programmes in over a dozen markets,
all with the idea that by working closely with farmers such as David,
emissions can be reduced at the source. The firm’s CEO, Mark Schneider, told me why.
Before you scale things up you have to actually go through
a period of intense trial and error and piloting solutions,
so this is where farms like these come in, that are very close to our global research center,
and with farmers that are highly educated and willing to explore new ways of farming.
It may sound too good to be true, big corporates imposing carbon reduction targets
on farmers thousands of miles away. But can it really bring about meaningful change?
There’s a lot of interest in regenerative agriculture from corporations like Nestle and others,
and that’s a good sign. It doesn’t mean it’s already done, it’s a long journey.
Experts say food giants working with partner farmers such as David
will need to do more than just provide moral support.
Financing this transition must also be a part of the equation.
Nestle has committed to investing $1.3 billion
in regenerative agricultural programmes over the next three years.
Politicians are taking note. Here in the Swiss canton of Vaud,
the local government is getting involved on the project,
to try and help bring David’s farm to net-zero emissions.
Usually we have funding from private industry, but also a big proportion of it
comes from government itself because they know this is an important topic
and we have to develop solutions that can be applied on the farms.
Because a lot of approaches and solutions exist, have been proven to be effective in the lab,
but not yet proven to be effective on the farm itself.
If successful, Nestle's pilot programmes across the world could serve as a model
to other corporates and public sector agencies, as other major food producers
including Danone, Kellogg’s, General Mills, and Unilever
also stick their teeth into fostering regenerative agriculture across their supply chains.
Ultimately, it may prove vital in getting the private sector to net zero.
We would miss by a mile if we optimized everything in our factories and our offices
and miss out on improving agricultural practices around the world.