PepsiCo Agriculture Sustainability Director on Growing a Sustainable Business

The 2011 ARA Conference and expo’s theme was Growing a Sustainable Business: What your customers, consumers and the government want from ag retailers. This year’s conference featured five speakers and two panels over the two days of the conference. The speakers offered their perspective on how the issue of sustainability will impact ag retailers and some offered ways to better handle that shift. Here are some highlights of each speaker’s presentation.

The 2011 conference opened with a presentation from Ian Hope-Johnstone, director, agriculture sustainability, PepsiCo. He offered a view of sustainability from PepsiCo’s perspective. He explained PepsiCo’s sustainability lens by saying the company took a two-pronged approach to sustainability. PepsiCo considers sustainability to be about ensuring continued access to key ag raw materials necessary to supply growing consumers’ needs. Secondly, PepsiCo sees sustainability as respecting the environment. Hope-Johnstone said the company recognizes that it’s going to be a challenge making farmers more productive in the future while preserving natural resources. As a result, PepsiCo sets up contracts with growers who apply proven practices.

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