Soil to Cereal with Dr. Steve Rosenzweig of General Mills

Soil Sense

Dr. Steve Rosenzweig is a soil scientist and the agriculture science lead at General Mills. General Mills is a leading American producer of consumer foods, especially flour, breakfast cereals, snacks, prepared mixes, and similar products. Along with co-host Dr. Abbey Wick, we discuss how General Mills is looking at soil health and regenerative agriculture, how they view their role in agricultural sustainability, and what insights they’ve learned from being involved in soil health initiatives for several years.

“We wanted to be out there helping to figure out how do we conduct on-farm research with farmers to really understand what they're learning and what they're seeing on their farms. So that's kind of where we started, was really on that research side. And then it's really just been about forming partnerships with folks that are in the communities that we are sourcing these ingredients from and really understand that local context.” - Dr. Steve Rosenzweig

Steve joined the company in 2017,after earning his Ph.D. in soil science at Colorado State University. He says his role is to help find scientifically-driven ways to increase adoption of soil health principles in the areas where they source key ingredients for their products. He also works on the science side to see how to measure things like soil health, biodiversity, water, and farm economics at scale.

“Our entire business is resting on the resilience and ability of farmers to keep farming essentially. So increasingly our leadership investors really want to make sure that we are investing to make sure that General Mills is going to be around for another 150 years… And really forming these kinds of partnerships and really helping to support farmers and increase their viability, longevity, and resilience is what we've realized is a business imperative. Their business is our business essentially.” - Dr. Steve Rosenzweig

This Week on Soil Sense:

• Continue the discussion and explore some of the support behind the Trusted Advisor Partnership program
• Meet Dr. Steve Rosenzweig, a soil scientist and the agriculture science lead at General Mills and learn about the purpose behind their involvement in the TAP program
• Explore the role General Mills will play and the initiatives they are taking to promote soil health
• Visit Trusted Advisor Partnership to learn more and sign up for more information