Dive Brief:
- Oxfam issued a harsh critique of 10 of the world's largest food and beverage companies, noting that if combined, they would be the 25th most polluting country on earth.
- The companies singled out in Oxfam's annual report on the state of the environment are Associated British Foods, Coca-Cola, Danone, General Mills, Kellogg, Mars, Mondelez International, Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Unilever.
- Oxfam says the food industry is responsible for a quarter of the world's greenhouse gases. (That's higher than the 10% estimate from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.)
Dive Insight:
It's obviously not great PR for any company to be mentioned in the "Standing on the Sidelines" report. But Kellogg and General Mills are singled out for particular disdain. The two cereal giants are called "clear laggards" in the movement to slow climate change. Oxfam urges both companies to disclose agricultural emission levels and to push their most-polluting suppliers to cut emission levels.
Of course for many companies on the list, earning the disdain of Oxfam is nothing new.