This holiday season, even moreso than last, consumer packaged goods companies and consumers alike are feeling the strain of supply chain and climate change challenges on the food industry. Droughts, extreme rainfall and other climate impacts have been limiting supply and driving up prices for some grocery items for some time now. For consumers, this has meant that seasonal items, like ingredients for baking pies, were at risk of being out of stock. Fortunately, that is less of a threat this year. However, consumers reaching for vanilla, cloves, nutmeg and more will notice higher prices for these spice-cabinet staples. Food prices were up 11.2 percent in September over last year, according to data recently released¹ by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 

With continued supply chain stresses and climate-change impacts on the food industry, it is more important than ever to solve for the social and environmental factors threatening our global food supply — and the people behind its production. At Frontier Co-op, we’re working to directly improve the livelihoods of our employees and growers at source in countries like India, Madagascar, and Guatemala, leading projects supporting our partners through climate setbacks, offering education in sustainable agriculture and organic certification, and ensuring fair prices for organic, sustainably grown crops.

 

A few ways we’re protecting the flavors of the holiday season include:

• Clove and ginger: Kerala, India, where we source spices like ginger, clove, peppercorn and turmeric, has experienced a few catastrophic years of flooding, landslides and droughts in recent times. Together with our partner Peermade Development Society Organic Spices (PDS), we supported an organic agricultural training program to rebuild farms with drought- and flood-resistant plant varieties.

• Vanilla: We’ve always been committed to improving the livelihoods of vanilla farmers in Madagascar, the world’s largest vanilla-producing country. As one of the founding members of the Sustainable Vanilla Initiative, we’re working collaboratively to promote the long-term stable supply of high-quality, natural vanilla that is produced in a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable way.

• Allspice and cardamom: As part of a collaboration between Frontier Co-op and Fedecovera Cooperative, a Frontier Co-op Well Earth partner based in Guatemala, we’re helping provide access to dental and general medicine services to thousands of growers and their families, who live in remote mountainous regions without easy access to these important services.

 

From cultivation to culinary use, Frontier Co-op’s natural and organic spices, herbs and botanical products are grown with care by people who are paid a fair wage in a supportive environment. When you season your dishes with Frontier Co-op® spices, you can feel good knowing that every pinch is doing good for people, and for our planet.

 

¹The BLS updates its Consumer Price Index Summary each month.