Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Harvest Public Media is a reporting collaboration focused on issues of food, fuel and field. Based at KCUR in Kansas City, Harvest covers these agriculture-related topics through an expanding network of reporters and partner stations throughout the Midwest.Most Harvest Public Media stories begin with radio- regular reports are aired on member stations in the Midwest. But Harvest also explores issues through online analyses, television documentaries and features, podcasts, photography, video, blogs and social networking. They are committed to the highest journalistic standards. Click here to read their ethics standards.Harvest Public Media was launched in 2010 with the support of a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Today, the collaboration is supported by CPB, the partner stations, and contributions from underwriters and individuals.Tri States Public Radio is an associate partner of Harvest Public Media. You can play an important role in helping Harvest Public Media and Tri States Public Radio improve our coverage of food, field and fuel issues by joining the Harvest Network.

Food Companies Face Water Risk

Abby Wendle
Sunset over a field of organic soybeans growing at the Allison Farm, Western Illinois University's organic research farm.

America's biggest food production companies face a growing threat of water scarcity, according to a new report from Ceres, an environmental sustainability group. The report cites pollution as one of the primary culprits.

 
Farming can be a major contributor to water pollution through runoff from chemicals and manure. Because food companies depend on clean water, they have an incentive to help farmers clean up their act.
 

 
But Brooke Barton, co-author of the report, said two-thirds of the companies assessed aren’t even engaging farmers on this issue. 

“A lot of the food companies are frankly asleep at the wheel,” Barton said. “Many have not even begun to look at the water impacts associated with the farmers, the dairies, and the ranches that they source from.”

Some companies are working with producers. Barton said Unilever, the producer of Hellmann’s mayonnaise, is paying their Iowa soybean farmers ten cents a bushel to adopt sustainable water practices.
 

As water supplies risk becoming increasingly depleted and polluted in major agricultural growing regions, traditional risk management approaches - like geographic diversification – are less effective.

“There’s not a lot of growing area left and we are pushing up against the limits of available water supply,” Barton said. “So, this is a time to invest in the supply chain. To invest in watersheds and in agriculture. Not a time to run and hide.”

The report cites drought, aquifer depletion, and competition from cities as additional reasons for water worries. Many food companies have already seen their bottom line take a hit because of drought.

Cargill, one of the world’s major pork and beef companies, reported a 12% drop in profits in the last quarter of 2014 because of damage to pastures used to raise beef in the southwest.