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Responsible Sourcing

Responsible Sourcing

The ongoing success of our business depends on farmers and the crops they grow, which become the foundations of the food we produce for people to enjoy around the world. We intend to help build resilient, responsible supply chains through our commitment to meet the responsible sourcing goals we set for our priority ingredients. 

Our Commitment

As part of our Kellogg’s Better Days® Promise goal to create better days for 3 billion people by the end of 2030, we are committed to supporting farmers and agronomists and to building resilient and responsible supply chains for our priority ingredients. In accordance with our Better Days Promise methodology, we select our priority ingredients for responsible sourcing with regular environmental, social, & governance (ESG) materiality assessments. Our most recent assessment took place in 2021.

Our Approach

Our strategies are designed to address our most salient environmental and social issues and opportunities in our supply chains. These strategies include a combination of direct investment at origin, third-party verification & certification, and farm-level continuous improvement programs.

Direct Investment and Verification/Certification

For crops like sugar cane, palm oil, and cocoa, we source our priority ingredients using a combination of third-party certification and direct investment in our sourcing regions to address more severe impacts to people and planet, including but not limited to deforestation and human rights risks. Certification schemes like the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil provide the foundation for responsible sourcing of these ingredients.

Origin Investments

We also invest in on-the-ground interventions to support farmers, including smallholder producers in regions with systemic challenges that current supply chain models have only partially addressed to date. These direct investments are all included in our Kellogg’s Origins™ program. We created Kellogg’s Origins™ to build partnerships with farmers that support their climate, social and financial resiliency. We work with our ingredient suppliers, research institutions and non-profit organizations around the world to provide farmers and workers in our sourcing regions with on-the-ground training and technical assistance they need to improve farm productivity, regenerate soil health, protect species and habitats, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve their livelihoods in ways that protect and respect both the environment and human rights.

Continuous Improvement

In addition to each project’s environmental or social outcomes, we track and report the numbers of farmers and agronomists engaged by participation in training on any of the above topics, receipt of technical assistance or inputs, receipt of project funding, or receipt of other educational resources to help change agricultural, business or financial practices. Each participant is tracked as one person engaged.

For more information about our direct investment projects, please visit the Global Kellogg’s Origins™ interactive map.

Continuous Improvement

For row crops including corn, wheat, rice, potatoes, fruits and sugar beets, we source our priority ingredients by measuring continuous improvement at the field and farm levels across key environmental and social indicators of sustainable, responsible agriculture. In partnership with our suppliers, we have used or accepted industry-standard survey tools and calculators, including the Cool Farm Tool, Field to Market’s® Fieldprint® Platform or SAI Platform’s Farm Sustainability Assessment. Where equivalent industry tools are not available, we have used the Kellogg Grower Survey, an annual farm management survey that we developed and first launched in 2016 to document and measure on-farm management decisions with farmers over time.

Each year, we collaborate with suppliers, project partners and farmers to collect this data and share results with suppliers and producers. This annual process helps to identify opportunities with suppliers and farmers to support improvements. Our continuous improvement survey tools gather information about one or more of the following environmental and social indicators, based on each tools’ capabilities and relevant concerns for the crop and its growing location:

• Input optimization, including fertilizer
• Farm productivity
• Conservation or regenerative agriculture practice adoption, such as conservation tillage, cover cropping, crop rotation, integrated pest management, buffer strips, nutrient management, biodiversity measures, and climate risk mitigation strategies
• Worker safety practices, such as use of personal protective equipment and health and safety training
• Environmental outcomes, such as greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and water quality

As we shared in our 2020 Responsible Sourcing Milestones, we met our original, 2015 responsible sourcing commitment for priority ingredients, including corn, wheat, rice, potato, fruit and sugar beet ingredients, that we source with continuous improvement tools. With 2016 as our baseline year, suppliers delivering at least 80% of our annual volumes of these priority ingredients implemented one of our accepted survey tools for 3 or more years, with a goal of 5 years of completion. When appropriate, suppliers that joined our supply network after 2018 were onboarded to an appropriate continuous improvement tool for their crop and supply chain to ensure 80% or greater coverage of our annual ingredient volumes.

As a result of multiple years of partnership with our suppliers, survey tools display encouraging examples of continuous improvement. In 2022, 39 suppliers partnered with us to gather Kellogg Grower Survey responses from 579 farmers, responding from 17 countries. Their responses showed improvement trends in farmers’ reported use of climate risk mitigation, adoption of 2 or more soil health practices, and adoption of biodiversity measures on farm.

After meeting our 2020 goals for continuous improvement, we continue to implement these survey tools with our ingredient suppliers to maintain transparency across our value chain and identify further opportunities for collaboration to support farmers’ climate, social and financial resiliency.

Our Progress

• We met our original 2020 responsible sourcing goals for nine of our original priority ingredients, including corn, wheat, rice, potato, fruit, sugar beet, cocoa, palm oil, and vanilla ingredients.
• In 2022, we continued to responsibly source our priority palm oil, corn, wheat, rice, potato, fruit, and sugar beet ingredients using continuous improvement tools. We also have also directly invested in Kellogg’s Origins^™ programs within these ingredient categories.
• For ingredients we responsibly source through direct investment or certification, we have either continued strategies in place or have begun a strategic review to build on and evolve our responsible sourcing programs for these ingredients.
• As we continue to refine and evolve our methods for supporting continuous improvement in our priority ingredients, we are committed to maintaining our current progress to date.
• Since 2015, we have partnered with more than 485,000 farmers and agronomists to promote farmers’ climate, social and financial resiliency, with measurement environmental and social outcomes.
• This includes more than 37,200 smallholders, 15,500 women farmers and 2,500 agronomists trained.

Our Impact

• Kellogg conducted a pilot program collaborating with Lower Mississippi River Basin rice farmers, agribusiness firm Syngenta and leading agricultural GHG measurement firm Regrow to implement climate-positive practices to help reduce their impact on the climate. During the pilot year, farmers achieved a reduction of more than 1,600 metric tons of greenhouse gases.¹
• In Australia, the Cool Soil Initiative is helping wheat farmers implement cover crops and crop rotation to improve resiliency to climate change. Healthy soils can store carbon, and if the Initiative can restore just a 0.1% increase in soil carbon, the impact would be the equivalent of removing more than 1 million cars from the road.
• Details for current and past projects are available on our Global Kellogg’s Origins™ interactive map in reports found in the Archives section.

Approaches and Programs, By Priority Ingredient Category

• Corn
  We will meet our responsible sourcing goals for corn ingredients through implementing continuous improvement tools at the farm level, using the Kellogg Grower Survey and equivalent industry tools like the Fieldprint® Platform. Key performance indicators include soil health, productivity and fertilizer efficiency. We also directly invest in programs that support farmers’ climate, social or financial resilience. Kellogg’s Origins^™ programs active in 2021 included our renewed partnership with CIMMYT, Supporting U.S. Farmers in Illinois and Nebraska, and purchasing verified responsibly sourced corn with supplier Dacsa and farmers in Argentina. Details for current and past projects are available on our Global Kellogg’s Origins^™ interactive map, our 2019 Responsible Sourcing Milestones, and our 2020 Responsible Sourcing Milestones.
   
• Rice
  We will meet our responsible sourcing goals for rice ingredients through implementing continuous improvement tools at the farm level, using the Kellogg Grower Survey, the Fieldprint^® Platform, and the Cool Farm Tool. Key performance indicators include soil health, productivity and fertilizer efficiency. We also directly invest in programs that support farmers’ climate, social or financial resilience. Kellogg’s Origins^TM programs active in 2022 included Kellogg’s Origins Spain and our medium-grain Thai rice program. In 2022, Kellogg Company announced the Kellogg’s InGrained^TM program, a program to reward U.S. farmers' efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
   
• Wheat
  We will meet our responsible sourcing goals for wheat ingredients through implementing continuous improvement tools at the farm level, using the Kellogg Grower Survey and equivalent industry tools like the Fieldprint® Platform. Key performance indicators include soil health, productivity and fertilizer efficiency. We also directly invest in programs that support farmers’ climate, social or financial resilience. Kellogg’s Origins^™ programs active in 2021 included the Cool Soil Initiative, Supporting U.S. Farmers in Michigan, and Kellogg’s Origins U.K. Details for current and past projects are available on our Global Kellogg’s Origins^™ interactive map, our 2019 Responsible Sourcing Milestones, and our 2020 Responsible Sourcing Milestones.
   
• Potatoes
  We will meet our responsible sourcing goals for potato ingredients through implementing continuous improvement tools at the farm level, using the Kellogg Grower Survey and the Cool Farm Tool. Key performance indicators include soil health, productivity and fertilizer efficiency. We also directly invest in programs that support farmers’ climate, social or financial resilience. Kellogg’s Origins^™ programs active in 2021 included a new partnership with supplier Clarebout, Soil Capital and potato farmers in France and Belgium to provide farm carbon assessments and generate carbon credits through adoption of relevant farming practices. Details for current and past projects are available on our Global Kellogg’s Origins^™ interactive map, our 2019 Responsible Sourcing Milestones, and our 2020 Responsible Sourcing Milestones.
   
• Fruits
  We will meet our responsible sourcing goals for raisins, sultanas and freeze-dried strawberries ingredients through implementing continuous improvement tools at the farm level, using the Kellogg Grower Survey and the Cool Farm Tool. Key performance indicators include soil health, productivity and fertilizer efficiency. We also directly invest in programs that support farmers’ climate, social or financial resilience such as the Harvesting the Future project with the Fair Labor Association.
   
• Sugar Beets
  We will meet our responsible sourcing goals for beet sugar through implementing continuous improvement tools at the farm level, including the Fieldprint® Platform and the equivalent of SAI Silver or higher third-party assurance. One hundred percent of the beet sugar volumes we source from Europe were provided by suppliers that have partnered with farmers to meet this SAI Silver assurance equivalency. We also directly invest in programs that support farmers’ climate, social or financial resilience. Kellogg’s Origins^™ programs active in 2021 included our partnership with supplier United Sugar (American Crystal Sugar), General Mills, and Barry Callebaut, which Kellogg joined in 2017 to partner with sugar beet farmers in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota. Details for current and past projects are available on our Global Kellogg’s Origins^™ interactive map, our 2019 Responsible Sourcing Milestones, and our 2020 Responsible Sourcing Milestones.
   
• Cocoa
  In 2022, Kellogg began a partnership with Enveritas, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that verifies global supply chains for multinational food companies. Their focus is on hard-to-reach fragmented smallholder supply chains, such as cocoa and coffee. Throughout 2022, Enveritas assessed approximately 40% of Kellogg Company’s total cocoa purchases; the percent estimated to be from Cote d’Ivoire. This work provided an overview of our procurement footprint within the country, regions and areas at highest risk for salient issues such as child labor and deforestation, and potential interventions to support vulnerable smallholders and communities mitigate these risks.
  
  Continuing into 2023, Enveritas has been supporting Kellogg in creating a workplan to further our responsible sourcing goals and efforts in cocoa.
   
• Sugar Cane
  We are undergoing a strategic review to build on our current program to responsibly source sugar cane to advance toward our goal of 100% Responsibly Sourced by the end of 2030.

  Beginning in 2021 and continuing through 2022, we partnered with Proforest in Mexico to invest in a program to support and promote the health and safety of sugar cane cutters, who are particularly vulnerable to human rights risks in sugar cane supply chains. The program provides free personal protective equipment to farm workers and delivers trainings in health and safety practices.

  Since 2019, Kellogg has been an active member of the Alliance for the Sustainability of the Sugarcane Agroindustry (ASACAM) in Mexico. The group is a cooperative and voluntary partnership comprised of various organizations in the sugarcane agroindustry value chain, including agricultural producers, sugar mills represented by the National Chamber of the Sugar and Alcohol Industries, six multinational food and beverage companies, and the public sector represented by the National Committee for the Sustainable Development of Sugarcane.

  ASACAM was convened in recognition of the need for producers, processors and buyers to establish a common agenda in activities related to the sustainability of the sugarcane agroindustry in Mexico. The Alliance’s focus is to promote pre-competitive and multisectoral support to promote country wide sustainability initiatives that take into account the unique opportunities and most salient issues present within the country.

   
• Palm Oil
  Since 2009, Kellogg has been on a journey to responsibly source palm oil. We have continued to evolve our strategies and actions to ensure that we are incorporating best practices and learnings from our own experiences, our suppliers, peer companies and industry organizations.

  In 2020, we set a timebound goal of purchasing 100% physically certified palm oil by the end of 2025. We are currently on track to meet this goal, having achieved 81% at the end of 2021.

  Our work to support the production of sustainable palm oil has continued to expand through direct investment with Wild Asia, a Malaysian non-profit organization that supports smallholder farmers increase their ability to achieve certification through multiple interventions including providing training on regenerative and sustainable agricultural techniques. More information can be found in our 2021 Global Palm Oil Milestones.

• Eggs
  We are working to achieve 100% cage-free egg sourcing globally by the end of 2025. The overwhelming majority of Kellogg’s portfolio is plant-based, and we use a small volume of egg ingredients in some of our foods – less than 1% of our total ingredient and material spend. We focus our efforts on sourcing egg products from suppliers with cage-free options that address animal welfare, food safety, worker and employee welfare, and the environment.
  
  Our responsible egg-sourcing strategy has two components: advancing our plant-based focus by reducing our use of eggs as an ingredient, and transitioning the eggs we do use to cage-free.
  
  Since 2022, we’ve cut our global egg use by 28%, and we continue these efforts through product reformulation or removing products from the portfolio entirely. Additionally, 1% of global egg purchases were cage-free. Following is a further break-down by geography:
  • North America: 1% cage-free egg products
  • Latin America, Egypt: 0% cage-free egg products
  • Europe, Asia: we do not purchase egg products
  
  Kellogg annually reports our progress against our responsible sourcing goals, and we have a path to demonstrate continued progress against our egg reduction and cage-free transition goal. We expect to transition about 40% of our global egg portfolio by the end of 2023 and about 65% by the end of 2024, through both egg elimination and increased cage-free egg sourcing. Specific to cage-free, globally, as of Q3, we are on track to achieve 17% cage-free eggs by the end of 2023 and 25% cage-free by the end of 2024.
  
  We purchase egg ingredients (liquid and powder egg, and dried egg whites) rather than whole eggs in shell – and at a smaller scale than others – which make sustainable cage-free options a challenge. Availability has recently been impacted by inflation, market fluctuations and a recent, sharp decline in supply availability because of avian flu. We continue to work with our suppliers to find effective ways to source cage-free egg ingredients that do not exacerbate already surging egg prices for consumers.
  
  Kellogg will continue to transparently report on the two key aspects of our egg sourcing strategy: sourcing of cage-free eggs plus substantially reducing our overall egg use. This will be published in our Better Days Promise ESG update each year in Q3, as well as interim progress updates towards our goal of reaching 100% cage-free eggs in our products by end of 2025.


• Soy
  Starting in 2021, Kellogg added soy to its priority ingredients for responsible sourcing. In 2017, Kellogg first signaled support for responsibly sourced soy by supporting the Amazon Soy Moratorium, joining the Cerrado Manifesto Statement of Support (SoS).Since then, soy has become a more important part of our business, from the growth of our MorningStar Farms^® brand in the United States, to our 2017 acquisition of Parati^® in Brazil.
  
  As of the end of 2021, 93% of Kellogg soy ingredients were sourced from markets with low deforestation risk, such as the United States. For the remaining volumes (7%) we continue to work with our suppliers to mitigate environmental risks. We are working to determine 2022 metrics and will report in late 2023.
   
• Oats
  We will meet our responsible sourcing goals for oat ingredients through implementing continuous improvement tools at the farm level, using the Kellogg Grower Survey and equivalent industry tools like the Fieldprint® Platform. Key performance indicators include soil health, productivity and fertilizer efficiency. We also directly invest in programs that support farmers’ climate, social or financial resilience. Kellogg’s Origins^TM programs active in 2022 included the Cool Soil Initiative, and Kellogg’s Origins U.K.
   
• Almonds
  Soil and water stewardship, enhanced biodiversity and pollinator health, and climate resilience are material issues in our almond ingredient supply chains.
   

  One of our U.S. suppliers, Blue Diamond Growers and its approximately 3,000 member-growers, have a multi-generational history of sustainable almond growing. Blue Diamond has an innovative Sustainability Incentive Program, which rewards member-growers who document their practices and encourages progressively higher levels of commitment toward adopting additional sustainable measures in their almond orchards. The incentive program utilizes the internationally recognized Almond Board of California’s California Almond Sustainability Program (CASP) which has been benchmarked by SAI Platform’s Farm Sustainability Assessment at Gold equivalent. Other aspects of the program include recognition for obtaining Pollinator Partnership’s Bee Friendly Farming certification and assessing on-farm greenhouse gas emissions and soil carbon sequestration.

• Hazelnuts
  Kellogg sources some ingredients that contain hazelnuts grown in Turkey. Due to material social issues in this region, including farmer and worker rights and fair recruitment, we have added ingredients made with Turkish hazelnuts to our responsible sourcing priorities. We have begun work with our supplier to confirm the traceability of hazelnuts in our ingredients.
   
• Cheese
  Cheese ingredients used in the Cheez-It® brand are sourced in North America. Animal welfare and stewardship of greenhouse gas emissions in dairy production are both material issues in our cheese ingredient supply chains. To address these issues, all suppliers for these ingredients will continue to implement the National Dairy FARM Program, including the Animal Care standard and Environmental Stewardship (ES) module, with dairy producers in their supply networks. Through implementation of FARM ES, which provides a comprehensive estimate of greenhouse gas emissions and energy use on dairy farms and provides tools and resources for farmers to measure and improve their footprint, our suppliers have begun sharing with Kellogg annual greenhouse gas estimates to track our cheese ingredients’ farm-level emissions over time. These actions reflect our commitment to animal welfare, as well as contribute to our efforts to meet our 2030 and 2050 targets scope 3 greenhouse emissions reduction.
   
• Vanilla (retired in 2021)
  Through our partnership with Symrise, we were able to meet our 100% Responsibly Sourced vanilla by 2020 goal. Even though our portfolio has changed since we first identified vanilla as a priority ingredient in 2015 and vanilla has been sunset as a priority ingredient, we are still committed to supporting smallholder farmers and communities.
  
  Our work with Symrise continued through 2022 and the progress and success of the partnership inspires us in our other areas of work and ingredient supply chains.
  
  Environmental and social innovations and results from this program are detailed in our 2019 Responsible Sourcing Milestones, 2020 Responsible Sourcing Milestones and 2020 Human Rights Milestones, and the 2021 Human Rights Milestones.

^{[1] Measured in metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) through increased carbon sequestration and abatement of GHGs including methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O)}