NFWF will manage a competitive grant program that will enable nonprofit conservation groups

Sysco and Cargill, two of the world’s largest food companies, have announced a major new partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) that will help ranchers in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas and Colorado tackle the impacts of climate change and improve grasslands and wildlife habitat by creating one of the largest sustainable beef cattle grazing efforts in the nation.

Through a public-private partnership, $5 million in funding from Sysco and Cargill will accelerate the implementation of sustainable grazing practices over the next five years across 1 million acres in the Southern Great Plains, an area responsible for approximately 30% of the beef produced in the United States. With the commitments from Sysco and Cargill today, the Southern Plains Grassland Program has the potential to sequester up to 360,000 metric tons of carbon per year or the equivalent of removing 78,000 passenger vehicles from the road in one year.

NFWF will manage a competitive grant program that will enable nonprofit conservation groups, ranching collaboratives/associations, and agencies at the state and local level to engage with ranchers at a scale not seen before in the region, a successful model utilized by NFWF in landscapes across the country.

The sustainable grazing practices implemented by ranchers with support from this program will have far-reaching impact by:

• Improving soil health and protecting from erosion and compaction
• Promoting biodiversity
• Increasing carbon storage
• Safeguarding the livelihoods of ranchers and rural communities in the region