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Corn is a staple in the U.S. food system, but it doesn’t always show up on your plate in obvious ways. Most of the corn grown in the U.S. isn’t sweet corn consumed directly by humans. Instead, it’s feed corn—used to produce corn syrup, to create ethanol, or to feed livestock that support the broader food supply chain.

Tracing the path of this feed corn through the food system reveals a hidden story about our agricultural supply chain and its environmental impacts. Despite its central role, there is no comprehensive, publicly available dataset tracking the flow of feed corn through its many uses. This gap highlights a larger issue: the upstream agricultural supply chain, where most environmental impacts occur, remains largely invisible. Without clear data on these early stages, organizations downstream face challenges in assessing and addressing their environmental footprints.

This seemingly simple, yet complex, feed corn system sparked the idea for the Food System Supply Chain Sustainability model (FoodS³), a U.S-based transport model that tracks the flow of crops and livestock, linking the beginnings and ends of the agricultural supply chain. 

Led by Jennifer Schmitt, Institute on the Environment senior research scientist in sustainability, FoodS³ models the distribution of crop outputs from their counties of production to their final destinations of consumption. 

The model enables organizations to trace the carbon footprint of their food supply chains, providing insights to help them make data-driven decisions towards greater sustainability. FoodS³ expands beyond just corn, examining the supply chain impacts of wheat, soy, alfalfa, poultry, livestock, and dairy production.

What began in 2015 has evolved into a group of interdisciplinary researchers housed inside the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment. Schmitt collaborates with Rylie Pelton, research scientist in industrial ecology, who leads the life cycle analysis and greenhouse gas emission components of the model; Nathaniel Springer, research scientist in economics and sustainability, who directs the supply chain and data science aspects; a team of IonE postdoctoral fellows, including Aurup Ratan Dhar, Mo Ollenburger, and Will Lockhart; and various research assistants.

Each of these researchers tackles different aspects of the supply chain, integrating data from various sources to create a comprehensive map of environmental impacts. The team recognizes that understanding the various supply chain inputs is essential for consumer-facing companies to assess the environmental impact of their products, as the most significant impacts are often embedded in the crop and animal stages of production. 

Schmitt breaks it down: “When you’re in the food and beverage space, most of your greenhouse gas emissions—when you look at them from the cradle-to-grave lifecycle—are upstream in the agricultural process, not in your stores. That’s why we built a model to assess those impacts.”

The FoodS³  team works to build partnerships with the downstream organizations that care about this data, including non-governmental organizations, consumer-facing companies, environmental organizations, and more. 

Every partner receives a personalized assessment of their supply chain, since no two organizations have the same impact. Schmitt works with each partner to understand what decisions or impact they are trying to make, creating individualized project plans at the intersection of the partners’ needs and FoodS³ team capabilities. 

Schmitt emphasizes the importance of partnerships over customers in the FoodS³ model, recognizing that relationships are key to the process of filling knowledge gaps. “We want to build something that is addressing those knowledge gaps, so we need to hear from the people connected to the decisions we care about impacting,” she says. 

Further, the team acknowledges that understanding the upstream impacts is essential for downstream organizations to make environmental commitments with concrete, actionable solutions. 

“If we can get resources upstream to the crop farmers and animal ranchers to make sustainability improvements, then maybe the system gets better,” Schmitt says. “To me, FoodS³ provides a valuable tool for engaging along the supply chain and facilitating those connections.”

FoodS³ is supported by funding from various donors, including federal grants, University funds, private companies, and foundations. These funding sources allow them to continue expanding their model, while creating lasting partnerships with other environmental organizations like The Nature Conservancy.

Looking ahead, the FoodS³ team is eager to continue working with partners to increase transparency of the agricultural supply chain. They aim to help partners set more accurate carbon goals and provide insights that drive tangible changes in sustainability practices. The team plans to expand their reach by working with other like-minded organizations that can serve as “multipliers” of their work, Schmitt says.

Schmitt summarizes her strategic vision for FoodS³ simply, stating, “Partnership is our model of growth.”

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