DEAR IOI COMMUNITY
It is the season to be grateful. Starting with Germany’s Erntedankfest on the first Sunday in October, versions of the same, mostly secular holiday are celebrated from Canada (on the second Monday of October), to Liberia (on the first Thursday in November), to Japan (on November 23), to Thanksgiving Day in the US and Brazil on the last Thursday in November.
While large family gatherings—the modern-day interpretation of this celebration—might be difficult during the Covid pandemic, the season gives us an opportunity to focus on the origins of this festival—being thankful for the year’s harvest. It is an important reminder that we should not take our food and land for granted. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that soils around the world are heading for depletion at a rate of 30 football fields a minute, with only an estimated 60(!) harvests left before our lands are too barren to feed the planet.
IOI has been leading regenerative agriculture programs for many years. While these programs increase the nutritional value of the local diet, bolster the local economy, and increase food sovereignty in remote locations, they are also part of IOI’s larger strategy to become a carbon negative organization, contributing to our overall mission to promote the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Concretely, IOI’s regenerative agriculture programs lower the local carbon footprint of food imports by 51 grams of carbon emissions per kilogram of food produced. In addition to lower rates of fertilizer and pesticide/herbicide use, our cattle breeding program helps to protect local soils. When pastures are managed responsibly, ruminants are an integral part of soil conservation and regeneration.
More on that in upcoming newsletters! For now, let’s be thankful for what we harvested this year (or for 2020 being almost over) and look forward to a new year with new politics, new vaccine and treatment options, and a re-opened IOI—all of which are looking very much in reach right now.
