About Dole Foods:
Dole Food Company is an American agricultural multinational corporation with a 167-year-old history. Dole is the largest producer of fruit and vegetables in the world, with over 74,000 employees and 300 products in 90 markets. Additionally, Dole owns a shipping line called Dole Ocean Cargo Express to transport its extensive selection of food items.
Dole’s mission is to bring the finest, high quality products and to lead the industry in nutrition research and education. It supports these initiatives by investing in comprehensive programs dedicated to food safety, stringent quality control measures, pest management programs, state-of-the-art production and transportation technologies, R&D, and nutrition education on the importance of eating 5-13 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Additionally, Dole supports the safety of its employees, communities and environment by investing in four strategic sustainability pillars, including: water management, carbon footprint, soil conservation and packaging.
Despite Dole’s best sustainability efforts, there are a still many environmental factors that will negatively impact its business model in the years ahead.
How Dole Foods is negatively impacted by climate change:
Extreme weather and climate events are among the most visible consequences of climate change. Especially for the food industry, which relies to a great extent on natural resources, consequences can be disastrous. Droughts and unpredictable weather patterns will intensify our usage of groundwater which most likely cannot be replenished at the speed that it is depleted. This has direct consequences for instance for bananas, which grow and ripen at a significantly lower rate in times of water shortage.
Conversely, rising temperature on the planet not only trigger extreme weather events such as droughts, but also result in more frequent occurrence of tropical storms that can lead to severe floods. Floods lead to loss of agricultural land, infrastructure and potentially also distribution channels directly impacting Dole Foods’ core business.
One could also argue that rising temperature caused by climate change is beneficial for banana production in terms of number of geographically attractive locations and higher growth rates. However, research has shown that rising temperature will most likely increase fresh water demand by 12-15% (HBS, 2016). In addition, higher temperatures on the planet increases insect metabolic rates, which make the banana crop more vulnerable to insect spread plant diseases, subsequently lead to lower crop production (Futurity, 2018). More geographic growth areas seems attractive at first, but if there is no water to support the growth and insects are destroying a large share of remaining produce, a banana less world might become a reality.
Dole’s head start towards sustainability
As companies are becoming increasingly aware of the need to invest and adopt climate change mitigation practices, Dole has developed a strategy to incorporate sustainability among its operations. It focuses its efforts on water management, carbon footprint, soil conservation and packaging which allows Dole to mitigate its greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain.
In terms of water management, Dole is adopting water saving practices to reduce the amount of land that is uses on its farms and incorporates recycling systems to maximize utilization. Dole also pays close attention to soil conservation practices in order to ensure that the bananas are grown with healthy soil. It focuses on erosion, salinity, and contamination to avoid deteriorating the soil quality. In Dole’s packaging processes, the company makes an effort to reduce the amount of materials that are used across the entire supply chain as well as the material used in marketing and selling products. In addition, by measuring the amount of greenhouse gas emissions it is omitting, it allows for effective control and targeted reduction strategies.
Dole also invests in research and development to identify innovative agricultural practices, including high-yield plants and innovative technologies which can improve irrigation and land-use practices. Technological innovations such as genetic editing techniques could produce high-banana yields and as a result minimize land-usage. With higher yield products, however, laborers could be laid off which would affect local job markets. As such, Dole could diversify banana plantations to diminish risk of losses or supply interruptions.
Dole’s Opportunities for Sustainability
There are additional climate mitigation strategies that could be considered. For example, there are various fertilizers that could be adopted that are made with less fossil fuels and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, organic sprays could support healthier planting practices and reduce the shelf-life of the banana.
The nature of the global supply chain calls for a large movement of products around the world. Dole could invest in logistics research to understand how emissions could be reduced across its transportation fleet. In addition, research into sustainable cold or dry storage practices could extend the shelf-time of bananas and allow for less frequent shipments of bananas around the world.
Dole could also focus on product losses along the supply chain and maximize banana production from end-to-end. This includes ensuring that the banana seed will produce maximum yield, and that each banana harvested reaches the end retailer. This would minimize waste and as a result reduce the overall amount of bananas that are necessary to produce and transport.
In addition, Dole could support conservation policies that protect existing forests and encourage sustainable land maintenance. Dole’s prominence as a global food producer could lead sustainability efforts and influence other players to adopt agricultural practices that are mutually benefit to both conservation and farming productivity. In addition, Dole could invest in clean energy solutions that are not bioenergy such as corn for ethanol so as to reduce competition for land suitable for food crops.
Dole could engage cross-training on climate-smart practices to the plantation owners who could then disseminate this awareness to the farmers. This could include small mitigation strategies such as seed saving techniques and agro-ecological farming practices that improve soil quality. By focusing on the workers along the supply chain, Dole could ensure humane practices on their banana farmers. These efforts would both empower the farmers and improve climate-smart practices.
By: Marla Becker, Sunny Shih, Christian Swager, Olivia Zeydler-Zborowska
I wonder if there are some (genetically modified or natural) strains of bananas that are less water intensive or less resistant to the diseases discussed? I know there are a number of different varieties of bananas grown across the world (and which thrive in different climates), so curious how these will fare in the face of climate change.
Dole is using technology in an effective way to reduce their carbon footprint given their current state, and your article identifies really interesting ways for them to go even further. I think it would be effective for Dole and other agriculture companies to transition away from monoculture crops towards biodiverse farming practices, because it is a traditional way to improve soil yields and reduce water dependency. Additionally, Dole could help further this initiative by promoting diverse produce in addition to traditional staples (for example, a wider range of apples or other types of fruits).