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Global Food Companies Are Struggling to Deliver Methane Progress

Starbucks, Kraft Heinz and others are slow to address the potent emissions in their supply chains.

A cow in a feeding pasture with a herd in Rockwall, Texas.

Photographer: Delaney Allen for Bloomberg Businessweek

In December 2023, some of the world’s largest food companies made a splashy pledge to slash one of the planet’s fiercest heat-trapping gases. As part of the newly formed Dairy Methane Action Alliance, Bel Group, Danone, General Mills, Kraft Heinz, Lactalis USA and Nestlé—with Clover Sonoma and Starbucks joining soon after—pledged to reduce the powerful gas emanating from their sprawling dairy supply chains. The companies promised to publish emissions data and action plans by the end of 2024.

So far the results have been lackluster. As of May 2025, seven of the companies have at least partially disclosed their dairy methane emissions. But only three have rolled out action plans that meet the alliance’s guidelines, and just one has set a specific target to shrink its dairy methane footprint. Meanwhile, the deadline for publishing their emissions figures and plans has been pushed to the end of this year.