Grown for Good
As a global leader in flavor, McCormick's commitments promote continuous improvement of sustainable sourcing of herbs and spices. To underscore our commitment to sustainable sourcing, we developed Grown for Good. Our third-party verified sustainability standard goes beyond the industry norms to drive community resilience, including economic stability for farmers, gender equality and women's empowerment, as well as biodiversity conservation and regenerative farming practices.
Investments in Farming Communities
McCormick works with our suppliers to increase the direct economic benefits generated by farmers and to remove unnecessary intermediaries to buy our five iconic ingredients directly from farmer groups. This increases the efficiency of the supply chain and allows farmers to access better prices and services like health insurance, interest-free loans and access to inputs that reduce costs for farmers (thus increasing their profits). A premium or bonus incentive is usually paid to farmers for sustainable products.
THE THREE PILLARS OF GROWN FOR GOOD
Regenerative Production Systems
Resilient Communities
Grown for Good Certified
In 2021, black pepper in Brazil became the first raw material under the Grown for Good standard. Later in the year, vanilla from Indonesia was certified, demonstrating the flexibility of the standard across regions and raw materials. Programs for red pepper in India, vanilla in Madagascar and black pepper in Vietnam are being implemented, with the expectation that other supply chains will follow.
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Health Insurance
In Madagascar, McCormick and its supplier provided health insurance to over 10,000 vanilla farmers and their households, providing free healthcare and significantly reducing the incidence of debt, contributing to a more stable supply and higher quality of vanilla. The Grown for Good standard, soon to be deployed in Madagascar, will ensure we are building resiliency in our farming communities.
Empowering Women Farmers
Since 2018, we have worked with CARE Impact Partners and their local country teams to understand women’s roles on the farms and identify opportunities to help them thrive. This year we will launch the McCormick Women's Empowerment Framework, a tool to track the impact of our community initiatives focused on gender equality.
Vanilla Value Chain
Antongil Bay's natural habitats, which contain endemic species like lemurs, are being destroyed. We partner with USAID, the World Conservation Society, Tetratech, and NCBA CLUSA to work with farmer co-ops to build environment-friendly vanilla value chains with Rainforest Alliance certification. The Grown for Good standard, soon to be deployed in Madagascar, will ensure vanilla grows sustainably while lemurs enjoy pristine forests.
Soil Health
We partner with the Australian Center for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR), the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), and universities to conduct regenerative agriculture research on black pepper in Vietnam. This research aims to optimize the fertilization regime and to test and develop biofertilizers. By understanding the soil microbiome and physicochemical properties, we can develop improved farming methods to regenerate soil health.
Sustainability Training and Certifications
Over the last two years, we have supported the rollout of sustainability training and certification to over 350 oregano farmers. Environmental standards, the well-being of farmers and their families, and protecting worker's rights are key elements of the Grown for Good standard. We are on track to source 100% of our branded oregano sustainably by 2025.
Water Conservation
In India, our suppliers have adopted methods to grow more crops per drop of water. By implementing methods such as drip irrigation across our supplier backward integrated farms, we made significant strides toward pursuing water stewardship. From 2020 to 2021, our program helped farmers to adopt drip irrigation which saved approximately 9.2 million liters of water, enough to provide every person in India with almost 14 glasses of water.
Supply Chain Traceability
Traceability is key for achieving sustainability. We have worked to eliminate unnecessary intermediaries in our cinnamon supply chain and, through trusted local partners, we train our cinnamon farmers on good agricultural practices and ensure that the necessary traceability documentation is in place. All sustainably verified materials are then transported directly to a McCormick facility for processing.