Sustainability
Agriculture holds the key to nourishing people and nurturing the planet
Sustaining our planet and all its inhabitants is at the heart of who Alltech has always been. For more than 40 years, we have helped farmers, ranchers and producers worldwide efficiently and profitably produce nutritious food.
In 1989, Alltech founder Dr. Pearse Lyons introduced the ACE Principle, which committed the business to seeking the safety, benefit and well-being of the Animal, the Consumer and the Environment. He believed that the well-being of each component depended on maintaining harmony between all three.
Thirty years later, as the agricultural sector was being tasked with increasing outputs to meet the world’s nutritional needs while also reducing outputs to address climate change, Alltech president and CEO Dr. Mark Lyons launched Working Together for a Planet of Plenty®. Propelling the ACE Principle into the future, he issued a bold call for collaboration across industries and geographies to create and embrace science-based solutions that help sustain agriculture and provide nutrition for all, revitalize rural communities and replenish the planet’s natural resources.
“Agriculture has the greatest potential to positively shape the future of our planet,” Dr. Lyons said. “Through strategic collaboration and stewardship, we can transform the future of our planet with sustainable farming and nutrition. Agriculture has already made huge strides in sustainability. Imagine what is possible when we all work toward the shared goal of creating a world of abundance for future generations.”
How Planet of Plenty shapes our future
Working Together for a Planet of Plenty transcends environmental sustainability. It is a vision of a more positive future, full of promise and possibility. It’s not just Alltech’s mission. It is our purpose.
Agriculture is at the forefront of solutions that nourish people and nurture the planet. With the advent of new agricultural technologies, the adoption of improved sustainable farming practices and the widespread commitment to innovative collaboration, we can sustainably nourish the world and minimize the harmful effects of agricultural practices on the environment.
Alltech is committed to prioritizing the efficient production of nutritious food and reducing our environmental impact while helping producers implement profitable solutions to their sustainability challenges.
“Everything we do is centered on helping us advance our purpose of Working Together for a Planet of Plenty,” said Tara McCarthy, Alltech’s global vice president for ESG. “We have made great progress, but we know that there is always more work to be done. Alltech team members around the world have shown unwavering commitment to sustainable and ethical business practices. We continue to reach for ambitious ESG targets, find areas for improvement and innovation, and strive to nurture a culture of sustainability.”
Guided by this purpose, Alltech is committed to:
- Delivering measurable impact: With producer profitability, production efficiency and sustainability in mind, Alltech develops and promotes the use of nutritional and digital technologies, improved farm management practices, and innovations that benefit animal well-being and human health.
- Connecting with global partners to advance sustainable agricultural practices: We have developed a platform for global collaboration that helps us advance our Planet of Plenty purpose, allowing us to partner with like-minded companies and individuals to solve high-impact issues.
- Advocating for our industry: We are sharing the sustainable power of science in agri-food through stories and videos on our Planet of Plenty website and through our social media channels. In 2024, we will release our first feature-length documentary, World Without Cows, which examines the cultural and economic significance of cattle, their role in feeding the world and their impact on the environment.
- Investing in education and research: Alltech’s unparalleled global presence and foundation of scientific research have powered the creation of many technologies that enhance animal health and productivity, strengthen the safety of the entire food chain and support sustainable agri-food. From optimizing animal health to safeguarding our natural resources, the agri-food industry faces many obstacles today, particularly as it works to nourish a burgeoning global population. To tackle these challenges, Alltech’s research teams are forging into new frontiers, addressing issues such as antimicrobial resistance, soil health, greenhouse gases, carbon sequestration — and more.
- Sharpening our ESG strategy: Alltech’s ESG framework guides our actions as we work to reduce our environmental impact, prioritize social responsibility and adopt governance practices that ensure transparency and accountability. The building blocks of our strategy include our proof points, industry thought leadership, organizational-skills development and our value chain partnership model (customers and suppliers).
Turning insights into action
To guide us on this path, Alltech conducted a global, industry-wide survey in 2023 to gather insights on the issues that matter most to the agri-food value chain and its stakeholders. Through interviews with 26 global industry leaders and a comprehensive survey completed by more than 2,500 members of the agri-food industry, we quantified attitudes about sustainability. The Alltech Sustainability Insights Report helped us identify actions to build a more sustainable future — for Alltech and for the wider agri-food industry — and effect real change across the value chain.
The survey allowed us to listen to the voices of our industry and develop a robust, future-facing program of insights support that is relevant, ambitious and genuinely impactful.
“We are an industry that has remained resilient and provides a robust and efficient food system for all. To be seen as sustainable food leaders, we need to adopt a holistic approach and continue to evolve the narrative,” McCarthy said. “While everyone across the value chain has a role to play, food producers are clearly front and center. The proactive role of the industry and policymakers in this conversation is absolutely vital.”
Telling our story
Alltech continues to serve as a voice for the industry, advancing agri-food innovation and sharing the story of agriculture’s vital role — including the industry’s ability to capture carbon and implement technologies that increase production efficiency and sustainability.
A strategic research alliance with Archbold (Lake Placid, Florida, USA) brought together scientists from two different disciplines — ecologists from Archbold and ruminant nutritionists and researchers from Alltech — to gain a better understanding of how cattle production at Archbold’s Buck Island Ranch impacts the ecosystem and its ability to sequester carbon. Over the past five years, the research alliance has created a model for estimating the ranch’s carbon footprint — and the results have been astounding. On average, Buck Island Ranch sequesters more carbon each year than it emits. It is a net-carbon sink.
Research like this illustrates agriculture’s incredible ability to not only reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions, but to capture and sequester emissions that have been released by other industries. The potential to capture carbon in the soil presents an amazing opportunity for the agri-food community to embrace its critical role in solving climate change while also improving soil health, increasing crop productivity and promoting biodiversity.
We highlight agriculture’s critical role in nourishing the world and nurturing the planet by:
- Featuring sustainability stories on our Working Together for a Planet of Plenty website, as well as podcasts, video series and blogs.
- Producing the Alltech Sustainability Insights Report, the Alltech Sustainability Report, Agri-Food Outlook, Harvest Analysis, Import Risk Analysis and others.
- Uniting changemakers and thought leaders to examine trends in agriculture, business, health and nutrition at our Alltech ONE Conference and the inaugural Alltech ONE World Tour, as well as sharing our research at hundreds of other events all over the world.
In 2024, we will release our first feature-length documentary, World Without Cows, which examines the true impact of cattle on our world through interviews with dozens of experts in agriculture and environmental science.
“Our goal is to challenge the prevailing narrative and start an important conversation about the role of cattle in our world by encouraging viewers to examine the science,” Dr. Lyons said. “We also want to show our industry that we can tell this story in an effective way. We can bring about change. Agriculture is vital to solving the world’s climate
change challenges.”
Through all these endeavors, Alltech is advocating for agri-food in a proactive and compelling way.
“Through the power of storytelling, real opportunities to effect change in our industry and our world lie before us. This industry is the industry that is going to save the planet. We just have to keep telling the story, because it takes a while for it to sink in.” —Dr. Mark Lyons
2023 highlights
