[Pollinator] Honey Nut Cheerios helps conserve habitats

Tue Apr 26 11:12:50 PDT 2016

Here’s a post from the “Taste of General Mills” blog about the new
pollinator initiative launched by Honey Nut Cheerios. The text is below but
the actual blog includes photos, videos, and some audio clips, so you’ll
probably want to head there for the full experience!

Matthew

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http://www.blog.generalmills.com/2016/04/honey-nut-cheerios-helps-conserve-habitats/

APR 26, 2016 • BY ASHLEY HALLADAY

*Honey Nut Cheerios helps conserve habitats*

If we didn’t have pollinators, we wouldn’t have a lot of our favorite foods.

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about declining pollinator habitats. It’s
a major concern for us, considering about 30 percent of all ingredients
grown for use in General Mills products rely on pollination.

So, today Honey Nut Cheerios is taking action with an aggressive goal to do
something new about the decline.

The brand just announced that by the end of 2020, farms that Honey Nut
Cheerios sources oats from will house about 3,300 total acres of dedicated
pollinator habitat on 60,000 acres of land.

Pollinator Habitat

“The best way to really help bees is to provide them really good nutrition
and places where they can forage and nesting sites where they can live,”
says Dr. Marla Spivak, professor and entomology and bee researcher at the
University of Minnesota. “General Mills is doing so much to help the bees.
So, all around where they’re growing oats for Honey Nut Cheerios, they’re
going to be planting wildflowers, some native species that will really
benefit all of our bees. They’ll benefit our native bees and honey bees
will also be using these flowers for their food. It’s just a really nice
combination to have the oats and the flowers bordering them.”

With today’s announcement, General Mills is now making one of the largest
commitments to pollinator conservation by a company.

“We wanted to do something for pollinators that would truly leverage our
scale,” says Jared Pippin, associate marketing manager for Cheerios. “We
talked with experts in the field. We talked with our employees in our
sourcing division, and we decided that what we can do to make a difference
is plant this habitat on the fields we source our ingredients from.”

This video shows you how and why Honey Nut Cheerios is supporting the bee
population in North America.

This move today by the Honey Nut Cheerios brand team in the U.S. builds on
a recent program by their colleagues working on the brand in Canada –
“Bring Back the Bees.”

Both Honey Nut Cheerios campaigns come at a critical time.

But General Mills – along with several of our brands – has been an active
partner in efforts to improve the pollinator population for many years.

We collaborate with leading researchers – such as the University of
Minnesota and conservationists, primarily the non-profit Xerces Society –
to improve the health and quantity of pollinators.

Marla Spivak

General Mills and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
have partnered with the Xerces Society to restore large areas of habitat
for pollinators on farms nationwide. Through this partnership, dollars
invested by General Mills are matched 1 to 1 by NRCS, effectively doubling
the impact of both partners. Learn more, here.

Earlier this month, Cascadian Farm announced it is working with the Xerces
Society to plant thousands of acres of pollinator habitat at the brand’s
supplier farms by the end of 2020. (You may also recall the brand’s “Bee
Friendlier” campaign in 2014).

Bee Friendlier

Other large-scale habitat projects have already been planted or are
currently underway on farms supplying ingredients to Muir Glen, LÄRABAR and
Annie’s, with additional projects being planned.

“It’s wonderful that Honey Nut Cheerios and our other big brands are
getting on board, because that’s how you really influence change,” says Tom
Rabaey, principal agronomist for General Mills. (Tom talks about General
Mills’ commitment to pollinators, in this audio clip).

According to the USDA Farm Service Agency, bees have experienced an
unprecedented scale of habitat loss with more than nine million acres of
grass and prairie land converted to crop land since 2008.

“The real issue around honey bees and pollinator health or the viability of
those insects is really a result of changing agricultural practices the
last 30 years that has resulted in a decline in habitat,” Tom says. “As
agriculture has transformed, the landscape – prairies, pastures, meadows
and hayfields – has disappeared over time.”

Pollinator habitats, before and after

So, it’s crucial that we restore pollinator habitats.

Pages 52-54 of our recently released 2016 Global Responsibility Report
focus on how we’re supporting pollinators and bio diversity.

“Pollinator conservation addresses issues other than just bee health, it
provides wildlife habitat for all native species in surrounding farms and
there’s soil conservation that goes with it,” says Beth Robertson-Martin,
manager of our Organic Center of Excellence at General Mills.  “You’re
conserving water because these are native hedgerows, so they’re drought
resistant. And then you’re also addressing a big concern of a lot of modern
agriculture, which is lack of biodiversity.”

It’s not just about habitat growth, though. The Xerces Society is also
working to educate farmers on conventional farms about integrated pest
management.

“In addition to planting a hedgerow, when it’s a conventional farm we’ll
work with the farmer to develop a pesticide program that’s more consistent
with providing a positive environment for the bugs and the bees,” Beth
says. “The integrated pest management is critical to conventional farms to
help support pollinator health.”

According to Jared, in this audio clip, farmers in our Honey Nut Cheerios
supply chain appreciate the guidance.

He says we hope our commitment will make a positive difference restoring
pollinator habits and inspire others to do something too.

Honey Nut Cheerios Pollinator Infographic

“If our pollinators continue to decline at the rate they are, we are in
jeopardy of losing a good chunk of our food supply,” says Jared. “This is a
big issue that we can help solve by planting wildflowers. We’re just trying
to do that on as big of a scale as we can.”

“This is truly a General Mills initiative where we are nurturing our
planet, serving people and doing the right thing all the time,” Beth says.
“This is a way that we can show that our scale is making a huge positive
impact. This not only makes a big impact in pollinator conservation, but
this also is guaranteeing that we’re still around to continue to do the
right thing.”

It’s certainly a big move, appreciated by our partners, that will bloom
into something even bigger.

“By focusing specifically on pollinator conservation within the supply
chain, General Mills is going above and beyond any other food company in
terms of supporting pollinators,” says Eric Lee-Mäder, pollinator program
co-director, The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. “This
approach is so significant because it is directly changing farm conditions
for pollinators with high quality wildflower habitat and better protection
from pesticides.”

To learn about how you can help pollinators in your area, follow the
conversation at #WeNeedtheBees and visit Cheerios.com/WeNeedTheBees/ or
Xerces.org/BringBackThePollinators/.

------

Ashley Halladay is the social media specialist in Global Communications at
General Mills, based in Minneapolis. She manages "A Taste of General Mills"
and helps represent the company on various social media sites. She began
her career at General Mills in 2015. More posts by this author - See more
at:
http://www.blog.generalmills.com/2016/04/honey-nut-cheerios-helps-conserve-habitats/#sthash.WTh5Y86Z.dpuf

________

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