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WHEREAS:  Pesticide-based agricultural practices are creating growing risk to food companies. Scientists have connected pesticide exposure to cancer, developmental defects, and obesity, among other health harms.  Consumers are increasingly demanding healthy, clean, and safe foods, and food companies are seeing increased litigation around pesticide use. Pesticide-based farming methods degrade soil health, increase erosion, and contribute to the loss of pollinator species essential to food production.  Weeds and insects develop resistance to pesticides with associated crop losses of $1.4 billion per year.

To ensure long-term food supply reliability, it is imperative that food companies mitigate these risks.  J.M. Smucker does not currently disclose information on pesticide use practices across its full supply chains, nor does the company disclose whether it has set goals for pesticide reduction.

Smucker’s failure to address pesticide use in its supply chains creates legal and reputational risk for the company.  In 2018 and 2019, juries in three glyphosate trials hit Bayer with multimillion-dollar awards for causing plaintiffs’ cancer.  Consumer advocates have recently called out food companies for glyphosate residues in common processed food products and for pesticide residues in produce; in fact, both grapes and strawberries – key ingredients for popular Smucker’s products – were named in the “Dirty Dozen,” as produce with some of the highest levels of pesticide residues. Consumer lawsuits have targeted manufacturers of foods containing such residues.

In a recent report comparing food manufacturers on pesticide risk management, Smucker’s scored only 2 out of 30 possible points.  In contrast, other major food companies are doing more to track and reduce pesticide use:

• Sysco reduced pesticide use by nearly 4.9 million pounds in 2015 and reports the quantity of pesticides avoided annually.

• General Mills established a regenerative agriculture initiative and will report pesticide use data for it beginning in 2020.

• Kellogg’s committed to phase out the use of pre-harvest glyphosate in its major wheat and oat supply chains by 2025.

• Unilever phased out World Health Organization Class 1 pesticides for tea production and intends to phase out Class 2 pesticides by 2020.

BE IT RESOLVED: Shareholders request that the Board produce a report, at reasonable expense and omitting proprietary information, describing its strategies to reduce pesticide use in the company’s agricultural supply chains.

SUPPORTING STATEMENT:  While the company has the discretion to determine the precise content of the report, meaningful disclosures would include:

• Mechanisms for tracking and reporting pesticide use in its supply chains

• Goals or targets for reduction of pesticide use

• Defined Integrated Pest Management and regenerative agriculture programs and percentage and/or quantities of suppliers engaged in such programs

• Defined sustainable sourcing standards and guidelines for suppliers

Resolution Details

Company: JM Smucker

Lead Filers:
As You Sow

Year: 2020

Filing Date: 
February 2020

Initiative(s): Pesticides

Status: Agreement Reached, Resolution Withdrawn

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