Water
Agriculture is a major water user, accounting for 70 percent of all water withdrawals globally. As the world's population increases, so does the demand for food and freshwater. Bunge and other companies in the food production chain have a stake in improving the efficiency of water use in agricultural production and in their industrial operations.
Assessing Water Use at Bunge Facilities
Bunge uses water at its facilities to process grains and oilseeds into feed and value-added food ingredients and biofuels. In 2010, Bunge undertook the first phase of a global assessment of facility water use.
Bunge has determined that 17 facilities among its processing plants, oil facilities and sugarcane, corn and wheat mills are located in or immediately adjacent to areas with some degree of water stress. These approximate findings are based on data and maps provided by the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Corporate Water Tool.
Bunge originates crops from farmers around the world. Some of our origination activity occurs in areas of water stress as indicated by WBCSD data. These areas include parts of Argentina, the western U.S., India and Australia.
Bunge operates in three countries where less than 91 percent of the population has access to improved water sources (China, India and Romania) and eight countries in which less than 91 percent of the population has access to improved sanitation (Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Vietnam), according to data from the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
Water-Saving Initiatives
Bunge's corn dry mill in Crete, Nebraska, is located on the Ogallala Aquifer, a massive underground reservoir that is vital to agricultural production in the Great Plains region of the U.S. Part of the dry corn milling process involves "cleaning" the corn by removing the cob, stalk, immature kernels, dirt, dust and other extraneous elements. The Crete mill had been using well water to wash the corn. By switching to a dry sifting process, the Crete facility has reduced its annual water use by 16 million gallons, or more than 80 percent.