Tyson – Elena Bell – 2023

Goals

Tyson Foods was selected as a tentative recipient of the USDA CSC program grant. As part of the grant proposal, Tyson aspires for 40% of the economic benefit of the USDA CSC grant to reach underserved producers. To help Tyson reach this goal, Elena focused on a strategy for producer outreach, enrollment, and reporting. 

Solutions

Elena used a three-phased approach to develop strategy recommendations and deliverables including an implementation manual. In phase 1, Elena researched and collected data via 25+ stakeholder interviews and desktop research. In phase 2, Elena iterated and tested assumptions by drafting final deliverables, returning to key stakeholders with deliverables to provide feedback on and continuing research.

In phase 3, the deliverables were finalized: implementation manual including (SMART goals, a RACI chart, baseline data, benchmarking of Tyson’s program, tracking/reporting requirements and outreach/enrollment materials), tracking system for producer outreach, a resource library, and strategy recommendations/next steps. 

Potential Impact

The underserved producer strategy supports Tyson in their aspiration of providing 40% of the economic benefit of their climate-smart commodities program to underserved producers. This work creates a process to reach more underserved producers to participate in the transition to climate-smart commodities, through compensation and training for practice change, and measuring, monitoring, reporting and verification of implementation of regenerative agriculture practices for commodities including soy, corn and beef.