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Building Resilience Through Better Practices
by Sysco
BUILDING RESILIENCE Thr ough Bett er Practices
As commodities continue to grow and sustainability continues to be of great importance to today’s consumers, Sysco is dedicated to partnering with ranchers to improve grasslands and wildlife habitat. By improving grassland health and resilience we can positively impact the beef supply chain, reduce our environmental footprint, improve the livelihood of ranchers and create a more sustainable future for this industry.
In keeping with this commitment, we partnered with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and Cargill to implement one of the largest sustainable beef cattle grazing practices in the United States.
THE SOUTHERN PLAINS GRASSLAND PROGRAM
In a unique cross-industry partnership funded with $5 million from Sysco and
Cargill over the next fi ve years, we launched our fi rst beef sustainability initiative with Cargill and NFWF in April 2021. NFWF will work with ranchers in Texas,
Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, and Colorado to create one of the nation’s largest sustainable beef cattle grazing eff orts.
The initiative’s scope includes transforming 1 million acres in the Southern Great Plains – an area responsible for approximately 30% of the beef produced in the U.S. – by tackling the impacts of climate change and improving grasslands and wildlife habitat.
SOUTHERN PLAINS GRASSLAND PROGRAM
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The Southern Plains Grassland Program has the potential to sequester greenhouse gases equivalent to removing 78,000 passenger vehicles from the road in one year.
SUPPLIER PARTNERSHIPS AND CLIMATE GOALS!
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THE PROJECTS, MANAGED BY NFWF, WILL FOCUS ON FOUR AREAS FOR IMPACT:
Safeguarding the livelihoods of ranchers and rural communities in the region. More than 95% of cattle ranches in the U.S. are family-owned, and they represent a major economic driver in large areas of the country. These eff orts will help protect against decreased yields as well as the long-term health of ranchers’ businesses. Promoting biodiversity. The
Southern Great Plains provides critical habitat for native wildlife. The region is home to important migration corridors for monarch butterfl ies, migratory birds, and species like swift foxes, pronghorns, western box turtles, burrowing owls, prairie chickens and bobwhite and scaled quails.
Increasing carbon storage.
Healthy grasslands sequester and store a large amount of carbon in the soil.
Management practices that focus on grassland prosperity allow these ecosystems to capture and hold additional carbon from the environment. Improving soil health and protecting from erosion and compaction. Healthy grasslands and habitats hold more water, reducing fl ooding impacts and making the land more resilient to droughts.
