Anuga: nice to meat!

Have I ever seen so much meat in one place. Bratwurst all over the place, steaks, lambchops, chicken wings, porky tails. Ich bin ein Berliner in the literal sense of the sentence. It does not look like the food industry gathered at the Anuga, one of the big food exhibitions in the world of the food industry, has a clue about global warming and what that has to do with the consumption of meat. With some effort I found two exhibitors of 'non-meat meat'. Way to go baby!

Red Hat

Red neck, red hat? Yesterday evening we had a great debate in "De Rode Hoed", a famous used to be church, now used as a debating center on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. Prof. Van der Ploeg talked about the terrible empires of food in the world, including us, basically trashing the farmers by controlling the full supply chain. And of course we objected. It is all very nice to say that we make enormous profits by exploiting farmers, but we still only make 4 cents on every Euro that we sell. Jan Douwe van der Ploeg's favorite model is, as he calls it, farmers agriculture. That is not a contradictio in termino, no, it just means that he talks about smaller farmers diversifying into businesses that make money. And that we applaud. For the rest, we are just a retailer making sure it is operating in a fair way with its suppliers and by buying and selling we make some money.

http://www.ontwikkelingssamenwerking.nu/: missed faces?

On Saturday we had the big dag of Bert Koenders, minister of development cooperation in Holland. A big day because we were talking and debating about how to move on with development cooperation related to the MDGs. MDGs? The Millinium Development Goals as they are established within the United Nations. One of them, # 8, is all about sustainable trade amongst other things. Lots of talk about the influence of businesses in developing economies. But apart from the usual suspects on stage, like Peter Bakker from TNT, it was a day of missed changes. Where were all those innovative initiatives from a business perspective, where were the people taking charge in the countries that we talked about? Again it was a party of 'ons kent ons' (incrowd party) and not of 'ons willen die ander kennen' (meeting the other side of development cooperation). The Dutchies told themselves how good they were doing, did we ask Kofi how it works out on the ground?

https://www.cdproject.net/en-US/Pages/HomePage.aspx

The Carbon Disclosure Project has been out there for quite some time now. It tries to capture carbon emissions of all the major business in the world. Ahold for the first time this year disclosed via the Project and we are glad we did. The Project is the best recognized attempt to cover emissions and the developments. Used by investors to see if companies actually recognize the risks and opportunities that come with climate challenges.

In CDP language:
Consumer Staples Royal Ahold AQ IN 45 69 2,474,427 1,150,964 1,323,463

She did it!

Simone did it, in 1 hour and 45 minutes more or less. When I interviewed her at the finish line she looked quite OK for a lady running 10 miles. Well, I now loose quite some money, because all three people I sponsored completed the race. The proceeds are going to the Leefkring Huis, the foundation we support at Ahold to provide a safe haven for women and kids in need.

Dam2Dam

This year the 25th time of the Dam-to-Dam 10 mile running event. A'dam will be closed down over the weekend, as we are all out there to watch the bravehearts. Of course Ahold sponsors this event that brings runners from the Dam in Amsterdam to the Dam in Zaandam, the town where our company started more than hunderd years ago. And I have to sponsor a lot of people, so my wallet will be easy to carry around next week. My favorite is Simone, she will be running and it will be hard for her. Do not know her number, but keep an eye, because it will be tough for her!

http://www.damloop.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=10

Putz

Some two years ago Cargill, Heinz en Albert Heijn sat together about how on earth to make the cocoa supply chain more sustainable. Hunderds of thousands of farmers were out there in the field. In West Africa, in Asia en who knows where. Quality mostly lousy, social conditions same thing. Bringing cocoa to a collection station was mostly a matter of bringing in as much weight as possible. Throw in some rocks here and there, not at the top of the bag. Child labor? Who knows. Slave labor? Who knows. The task at hand was so immense. That is when I first started participating tha meeting. Cargill was thinking of telling Oxfam what great things they were doing in their cocoa supply chain. And then what, did we make a difference? No, I suggested, let's talk to Utz Certified. These guys know about sustainable coffee certification, coffee is a bean, cocoa is a bean. That was my simple reasoning. Wow, did I know you could raise so many objections comparing beans and beans! But in the end it worked. Today in Dutch newspaper a big article about what Cargill and Utz did. And that fills these eyes with tears. Gratitude, that some things work, more and more things work...