Crop-Specific vs Universal Metrics in Food & Beverage

The sustainability impacts of cocoa farming in West Africa look vastly different from those of soybean production in Brazil. Yet in today’s interconnected food system, should we measure these diverse agricultural enterprises by the same standard? This question lies at the heart of one of sustainability reporting’s most pressing challenges in the food and beverage industry – the tension between crop-specific metrics and universal food sector indicators.

The Two Schools of Thought

Crop-specific metrics are tailored to capture the unique sustainability challenges and opportunities within particular agricultural commodities. For example:

  • Cocoa producers track deforestation impacts and smallholder farmer livelihoods
  • Corn growers measure soil nitrogen levels and water consumption per hectare
  • Soybean farmers monitor land use change and pesticide application rates

Universal food and beverage sector metrics, conversely, seek to establish common ground across all agricultural supply chains. These typically include Scope 3 emissions from farming operations; Farm worker rights and safety; Food safety and traceability systems; Supply chain transparency, and Sustainable sourcing certifications.

The Reporting Challenge

Companies in the food and beverage sector face several key obstacles when navigating these different approaches:

  1. Multi-Crop Operations: Many modern food companies source multiple agricultural commodities. A chocolate manufacturer using cocoa, sugar, and vanilla must reconcile metrics across different farming systems and regions.
  2. Benchmarking Complexity: When companies use different crop-specific metrics, meaningful comparison becomes difficult, particularly for investors seeking to evaluate sustainability performance across their food and agriculture portfolios.
  3. Resource Constraints: Maintaining parallel reporting systems for both universal food sector metrics and crop-specific indicators can strain sustainability teams and supplier relationships.
  4. Framework Alignment: Different reporting frameworks like the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform, Field to Market, and commodity-specific standards often have conflicting views on which metrics should be universal versus crop-specific.


Emerging Solutions

Forward-thinking food and beverage companies are developing innovative approaches to bridge this divide:

  1. Hybrid Reporting Models: Combining core food sector metrics with crop-specific supplements to provide both comparability and relevance. For example, measuring overall agricultural GHG emissions while also tracking specific soil carbon sequestration potential for different crops and regions.
  2. Materiality-Based Selection: Using robust materiality assessments to determine which metrics – whether universal food sector or crop-specific – are most relevant to stakeholders and local farming contexts.
  3. Industry Collaboration: Working with commodity-specific platforms and roundtables to standardize crop metrics while maintaining alignment with broader food sector frameworks.
  4. Technology Integration: Leveraging advanced tech solutions to efficiently collect and manage multiple metric sets from diverse agricultural supply chains.


The Path Forward

As sustainability reporting in the food and beverage sector continues to mature, the solution likely lies not in choosing between crop-specific and universal metrics, but in thoughtfully combining both approaches. Organizations that successfully navigate this challenge will be better positioned to:

  • Provide meaningful comparability across agricultural supply chains where appropriate
  • Capture crop-specific nuances that drive sustainability performance in different farming systems
  • Meet the diverse needs of different stakeholder groups, from farmers to consumers
  • Contribute to the evolution of more effective agricultural sustainability standards


By embracing both universal food sector standards and crop-specific insights, companies can create sustainability reports that offer both the broad perspective needed for industry-wide progress and the detailed understanding required to support sustainable farming practices at the local level.