Our Grown for Good standard has been specifically designed for the herbs and spices sector and focuses on building resilient production systems through regenerative agriculture, biodiversity and ecosystem services, and water conservation.
Learn MorePurpose-led Performance is one of the guiding principles for how we conduct business globally. Our responsibility as a leader in the global food industry is to ensure our investments have tangible benefits, especially for farmers and customers, which we see most clearly in our own supply chain. We work to eliminate intermediaries so we can establish direct relationships with our suppliers and farmers. We work with our suppliers to eliminate unnecessary intermediaries so we can establish direct relationships with our suppliers to our farmers.
McCormick’s steadfast commitment to creating a sustainable supply chain for all our stakeholders is secured by the principles outlined in our Sustainable Agriculture Policy, which ensures the agricultural raw materials in our products are produced responsibly through enhancing the environmental and social sustainability of our agricultural supply chain partners and local impacted communities.
As part of our sustainable vanilla sourcing program, we have partnered with USAID on Conservation and Communities Projects in two regions of Madagascar to encourage biodiversity and prevent deforestation. The projects aim to slow the clearing of forests which sequester carbon from the atmosphere, an important resource that regulates our climate and provides essential environmental benefits. These projects currently support over 3,000 vanilla farmers in Madagascar.
McCormick has committed to sourcing all herbs and spices in its portfolio sustainably, beginning with the top five branded iconic ingredients (black pepper, cinnamon, oregano, red pepper and vanilla) by 2025. These herbs and spices are significant drivers of our business, which is why we see the opportunity to make the most impact in our supply chain.
| Iconic Ingredients | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Pepper | 12% | 24% | 51% | 62% | 80% |
| Cinnamon | 0% | 0% | 17% | 33% | 88% |
| Oregano | 0% | 4% | 35% | 50% | 69% |
| Red Pepper | 32% | 60% | 64% | 100% | 99% |
| Vanilla | 7% | 34% | 53% | 70% | 100% |
We are currently fully focused on sustainably sourcing all five of our branded iconic products by 2025. However, as we begin to reach our targets, additional focus will be given to the next ingredients on our priority list: turmeric, cumin, celery seed, dill seed, ginger, sage, cardamom, cloves and thyme.
In addition to our five iconic ingredients, palm oil, rice, soy and wheat are four agricultural commodities our organization produces or sources that are considered to have a significant agricultural impact on the environment. Thus, we continue to pursue ways to source these raw materials in a less resource-intensive, sustainable manner.
READ OUR PALM OIL & SOY SUSTAINABLE SOURCING COMMITMENT »
McCormick does not produce or use significant volumes of palm oil; however, due to our 2017 acquisition of the French’s Food Company, we use palm oil in the production of specific French’s products. Despite the relatively low volumes of palm oil we use, we identified it as a priority raw material due to its potential impact on deforestation. As part of our Purpose-led Performance program, a cross-functional task force on palm oil sustainability carries out an annual palm oil supply chain assessment and reviews progress towards a 2025 commitment roadmap. The roadmap captures McCormick’s global uses of palm oil along with the availability of sustainable palm oil to help prioritize its use.
To mitigate the use of palm oil in our products, McCormick has joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) program, an organization that implements global standards for sustainable palm oil. In 2020, we met our 2025 goal to sustainability source 100% of the palm oil within our supply chain through the RSPO.
We have named soy a priority ingredient due to its association with deforestation risks. Our risk around deforestation related to soy is very low as a large majority of our soy is sourced in North America. Our Global Supplier Code of Conduct covers our first-tier suppliers and requires our suppliers to be responsible for any deforestation and environmental impacts as well as the impacts of their own suppliers. Additionally, our supplier code of conduct allows us to audit our suppliers and inspect records related to their own upstream suppliers.
At McCormick, we believe in the fair and humane treatment of animals across our supply chain. As part of our commitment to an ethical supply chain, we are taking definitive actions to monitor and address potential issues. When it comes to two of the most pressing animal welfare issues today around cage-free eggs and monkey labor, McCormick is mitigating risks in the following ways:
Cage-Free Eggs: McCormick is committed to using cage-free eggs as we stated in our recently-released 2022 Purpose-led Performance Progress Report disclosure tables. Egg use in McCormick’s products is very low. 48% of eggs procured for use in McCormick-controlled operations are cage-free. We anticipate a rising percentage of cage-free egg use through 2030. Humane Society International has offered to work with us during this transition period, which has been our current focus.
Monkey Labor in Thailand: We are against forced labor of any sort. Our procurement team works closely with suppliers and other stakeholders to uphold our zero-tolerance policy towards forced labor, including animal labor. Our full statement on monkey labor in the Thai coconut supply chain can be found here.
McCormick has committed to ambitious goals to reduce our GHG emissions, in an effort to combat climate change. These include targets for scope 3 emissions, including the impact of agricultural activities in our supply chains. We have therefore partnered with Winrock Solutions on calculator tools for selected McCormick supply chains, which will help highlight the positive impact of our sustainable sourcing programs on reducing GHG emissions.
McCormick implements regenerative agricultural practice which is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It promotes practices focusing on topsoil regeneration, increasing above and belowground biodiversity while maximizing water efficiency, enhancing the ecosystem and carbon sequestering. The overall objective is to strengthen the health and vitality of topsoil to improve farm resilience to climate change. As with all our farm and farming community programs, the first step was to conduct a baseline study of soil health. In 2020 we began rolling out soil testing on farms growing our top-five branded iconic raw materials, expanding it to other commodities in 2021. The results of the testing enabled us to identify areas for improvement in soil health and provide recommendations to suppliers and farmers on inputs and practices. As these are implemented, we will be tracking impact both on yield and ongoing soil health improvements.
Healthy soils are not only great for plants, but also play an important role in climate change mitigation by storing carbon, a key component of regenerative agriculture. Our newest initiative in Vietnam links our healthy soils program with McCormick’s Net Zero ambition - we are on a quest to create a net-zero black pepper farm.
See how we're leading the research into net zero black pepper »
