By Alicia Wallace, CNN Updated 9:26 AM EST, Tue November 21, 2023 CNN Business
Arden Hills, Minnesota CNN —
In 2023, the surge in responsible investing hit a wall.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives buckled under the pressure of economic and political forces, including efforts by congressional Republicans and conservative-led states to limit “woke” investments that prioritize “agendas and ideology.”
But in America’s Heartland, a century-old dairy cooperative and Fortune 500 firm continues to double down on its sustainability-focused investments in the land and in rural communities.
At the helm of Land O’Lakes is Beth Ford, the first woman to lead the $19 billion Arden Hills, Minnesota, cooperative, which has 9,000 employees and 2,809 member-owners.
Since 2018, when she became chief executive of one of the country’s biggest producers of butter and cheese, Ford has tapped the collective mindset of the company’s farmers, retailers and producers to unabashedly launch initiatives to further rural broadband access, reduce the company’s carbon footprint, address food supply concerns and promote environmental stewardship.
At a time when social and environmental investments have been politicized, Ford and Land O’Lakes are staying the course.
Those efforts simply make good business sense, she told CNN.
“We’re focusing on the things that are most important to our members, their families and to their businesses,” she told CNN. “And from my perspective, I don’t get involved in politics. We don’t talk politics. We talk policies that are enablers for farmers, for the food supply.”
“I talk about trade,” she added: “I talk about the strength of the US dollar … I talk about [how] my responsibility is to make evident to everybody the things that we need to do to continue to invest, to be protective for all of us in our food supply.”
Fueling resilience
Under Ford, Land O’Lakes deepened its investments in Truterra, a subsidiary that bridges data-driven technology with sustainability practices. When Truterra was launched in 2016 under the name SUSTAIN, the business unit explored initiatives such as feed additives to reduce methane emissions from animals, a plastics recycling process and public-private partnerships to reduce water usage and improve soil health.
In 2021, Truterra started a program in which it offered upfront cash payments to farmers who sequestered carbon, which involves capturing and storing greenhouse gases naturally produced by plants.
Paying out $20,000 on average and up to $100,000 in certain cases, Truterra paid farmers $4 million in its first year for the sequestering of 200,000 metric tons of carbon. In 2022, those payouts grew to $5 million for 273 farmers participating.
“We have agronomists, we have one of the first-of-its-kind data models, so we’re working with farmers directly, and it’s about practice change,” Ford said. “And so it’s not really a buzzword, it makes the land more resilient. It makes the farmer more resilient for climate change.”
In her role, Ford said she has become a fierce advocate for science and technology, both on the corporate side as well as in the regions that produce the nation’s food.
In August, the US Environmental Protection Agency lauded Land O’Lakes as a leader in on-farm sustainability initiatives that help members balance profit and their environmental goals. The EPA and the Hershey Company gave $2 million to Land O’Lakes member farms in Pennsylvania.
“I like to mention that 18% to 19% of the population lives in rural America, and they comprise 47% to 48% of the military,” she said. “These are families that are invested in this country, they are constantly doing what is necessary and hard. I admire our farmers, our members. I will be a loud advocate on their behalf because I think it is right for all of us as American citizens.”
From butter to ag-tech
Throughout her life and career, Ford has long drawn inspiration from her mother.
Ford’s mother, Carol, held critical caregiving roles both professionally — as a nurse, a therapist and a minister — and personally, raising eight children with her husband on a working-class budget.
That resilience, humility and work ethic became deeply engrained in Ford, who was the fifth of eight children in the Sioux City, Iowa, family.
In a 2018 interview with CNN’s Poppy Harlow, Ford recalled how her mother told her that “while we may not have everything, we have enough, and given what we have, much was expected of us.”
“She said, ‘Do you understand what is expected of you? Do you understand how much you have? Don’t disappoint,’ and I was like, ‘I’ve got to work hard to not disappoint,’” Ford told Harlow at the time.
From the age of 12 and through college, Ford held a variety of jobs, including roles in detasseling corn, babysitting, working as a night cashier and cleaning toilets.
The versatility went on to define her nearly 40-year career, at seven companies — including Pepsi, Mobil and Scholastic — in six industries. (Visit CNN Business for the full article.)
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