Albert Heijn uses permanent grassland to combat CO2

Albert Heijn will be capturing CO2 in the soil together with A-ware and Deltamilk. The 450 dairy farmers who participate in the 'Beter voor Natuur & Boer' (Beter for Nature & Farmers) program contribute to this through permanent grassland rich in herbs, which sequester carbon in the soil.

Permanent grassland is a scientifically based way of reducing CO2 emissions. According to the parties, it also has a positive effect on soil fertility. The project covers more than 20.000 hectares of permanent grassland. This has not been plowed since 2020 and research shows that it contains twice as much carbon black than non-permanent grassland.

Albert Heijn wants to have reduced CO2030 emissions by 2% by 45 compared to 2018. The long-term aim is a climate-neutral dairy chain. The permanent grassland project, in which the dairy farmers participate, makes an important contribution in their own words. Albert Heijn says that the dairy farmers are compensated for the CO2 sequestration they provide. When asked, A-ware informs us that the compensation for capturing CO2 is currently still being discussed. 

A-ware dairy farmers who participate in the Albert Heijn concept currently receive a supplement of €5 on top of the meadow milk price. This makes them the best-paid dairy farmers in our country, according to the Milk price comparator Boerenbusiness.

Wouter Job

Wouter Baan is editor-in-chief of Boerenbusiness. He also focuses on dairy, pig and meat markets. He also follows (business) developments within agribusiness and interviews CEOs and policymakers.

w.baan@boerenbusiness. Nl

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