by Bridget Christenson

Nourishing Lives. At General Mills, this is our mission. Every day this mission comes to life through the work we do to benefit people and communities around the world. This includes the farmers that grow the crops our business relies upon to make the products our consumers know and trust.

Today, General Mills and our Häagen-Dazs business announced a new vanilla sourcing program that aligns with our Nourishing Lives mission. Additionally, it builds on the company’s century-long history of working closely with farmers around the world to promote sustainable agriculture.

The new program will provide access to training and education to several hundred small vanilla farmers in Madagascar to help them produce a more sustainable and higher quality vanilla crop. Through training, farmers will learn how to add value to their crop at the farm level. This includes learning the vanilla curing process, which will let vanilla growers significantly increase their i