Food Supply Chains Can’t Cut Emissions Without Better Data Artwork

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Climate Confident - Practical Climate Solutions That Cut Emissions

Food Supply Chains Can’t Cut Emissions Without Better Data

December 24, 2025 • Tom Raftery • Season 1 • Episode 252

0:00 | 41:31

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What if the biggest lever for food-system decarbonisation isn’t factories or fleets, but soil you’ll never see on a corporate balance sheet?

In this episode, I’m joined by Rhyannon Galea and Kristjan Luha from eAgronom to unpack one of the hardest climate problems to solve: Scope 3 emissions in food and agriculture.

This conversation was originally recorded for my Resilient Supply Chain podcast and I’m republishing it here because it cuts straight to the heart of real-world climate action. Most food companies have 70–95% of their emissions sitting on farms they don’t own or control, while those same farms are increasingly exposed to climate shocks. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

You’ll hear why regenerative agriculture is less about ideology and more about resilience, profitability, and physics. We dig into how practices like reduced tillage and cover cropping can rebuild soil carbon, improve water retention, and cut emissions without wrecking yields.

We also get into the messy reality of data. Why averages and estimates won’t get companies to net zero, and how credible primary farm data changes everything. From satellite verification to machine-level data capture, this episode explores what trustworthy emissions data actually looks like on the ground.

You might be surprised by the incentive structures that work best with farmers, and why carbon credits alone are often the wrong starting point. We talk knowledge transfer, practice-based payments, and why 2030 is only “five harvests away” if you’re serious about emissions reduction in food systems.

🎙️ Listen now to hear how eAgronom is helping turn Scope 3 ambition into measurable climate action across Europe’s farms.

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