Public policy for the greater good
Bringing our mission to life through public policy engagement
We uphold a long history of public engagement, from helping President Eisenhower launch the President’s Fitness Challenge to developing a food safety process for astronauts.
Committed to transparency
We want you to know and understand how and why we engage in policy.
As one of the world's largest food companies, General Mills plays an important role in the everyday lives of people around the world. One way we do this is by engaging in the public sphere, adding our voice to discussions on public policies to improve the lives of our consumers.
Our public engagement for the greater good is focused in five key areas:
- Protecting and Preserving our Agricultural Lands
- Ensuring Safe Food
- Delivering Nutrition
- Increasing Food Security and Strengthening Communities
- Informing Consumers and Increasing Awareness
Read more about each below.
Protecting and Preserving our Agricultural Lands
General Mills is committed to being a force for good. Our focus areas include advancing regenerative agriculture, supporting strong organic standards, advancing watershed stewardship and reducing waste. We engage in public policy discussions to advance these priorities, including the following actions:
Leading on Regenerative Agriculture and Soil Health
- General Mills is leading the charge on regenerative agriculture, investing to support farmers as they shift agriculture in North America towards more sustainable practices.
- Our Farm Bill 2023 priorities focus on supporting voluntary implementation of regenerative practices via federal conservation programs, partnerships, and technical assistance. We also support research to advance regenerative practices and a strong organic standard.
- We are strong supporters of the Foundation for Food and Ag Research (FFAR), a critical facilitator of public private partnerships between industry and farmers.
- We applauded the passage of the bipartisan Growing Climate Solutions Act of 2022 which will provide farmers with much-needed technical assistance to be able to participate in voluntary carbon markets.
- We helped establish the Ecosystem Service Market Consortium (ESMC) and Eco-Harvest, which quantifies the benefits of sustainable agricultural practices so farmers can be paid for providing them.
- We have supported state investments in the University of Minnesota Forever Green crop research initiative and Pheasants Forever’s efforts to expand farmer access to technical assistance.
Supporting Strong Organic Standards
- We’re proud of our long history of engagement to develop strong, national U.S. organic standards, and have fought to promote and protect the integrity of the standard and advance its continuous improvement.
- General Mills executive and first sustainability officer, Gene Kahn, was a founding member of the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) which wrote the first standards for certified organic food production in the U.S.
- Today we support efforts to increase U.S. organic acreage and strengthen the USDA organic label.
- General Mills engaged with trade association partners including the Organic Trade Association the International Dairy Foods Association and the North American Millers’ Association in advocacy supporting the National Organic Program (NOP); Strengthening Organic Enforcement final rule. The rule protects the integrity of the organic supply chain and builds consumer and industry trust in the USDA organic label.
- Annie’s, Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen joined a letter to Congress in 2018 urging support for funding the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), which seeks to address issues, priorities, or problems in organic agriculture through the integration of research, education, and extension activities.
Advancing Water Stewardship
- As a global food company, water is critical to our business. We take a broad approach to water stewardship, looking beyond our company’s walls to the phases of our value chain that drive overall use.
- We also engage policy makers to drive more sustainable water practices. Examples include our membership in the California Water Action Collaborative, a platform for diverse stakeholders to pursue projects to improve water security in California for people, business, agriculture and nature, and Connect the Drops, which educates California lawmakers and advocates for policy solutions.
Addressing Packaging and Food Waste
- General Mills promotes policies to increase packaging recycling rates and reduce food waste — you can read more about our global packaging ambitions here.
- In the United States, we are a leader in AMERIPEN — the American Institute for Packaging and the Environment — which conducts research and advocates for policy changes at the state and federal level.
- In 2024, we joined aligned companies and trade associations in urging the passage of two bills, The Recycling Infrastructure Accessibility Act (RIAA), and the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act (RCAA), which would increase access to recycling services and improve tracking of recycled material.
- We are also a founding member of the Circular Action Alliance, a nonprofit organization approved to implement Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws in U.S. states. CAA aims to deliver best-in-class harmonized compliance services, scale, and innovation; and build systems that help both companies and consumers waste less and recycle more.
- General Mills signed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s America Recycles Pledge to build on our efforts and to identify solutions that create a more resilient materials economy and protect the environment.
- At the community level, General Mills’ investment alongside others through the MBOLD Coalition brought a new recycling plant for flexible films and packaging materials to the Upper Midwest. General Mills and other supporting companies will evaluate how we can use its recycled materials in product applications.
- General Mills was named as a 2030 Food Waste and Loss Champion by the United States Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration.
- We support the nonprofit organization, ReFED (“Re-think Food Waste through Economics and Data”), which works to recover surplus food by aligning and mobilizing cross-sector coalitions.
- We are a founding partner with Feeding America. Recently, General Mills was Feeding America’s leading partner in developing their logistics network and Meal Connect, an app that connects local food banks to excess food. Our partnership includes food donations, promotional marketing, and local volunteerism. To date, we've been able to rescue over five billion pounds of food.
Ensuring Safe Food
Leading with safety — in the workplace and the food we make — is a key operating principle at General Mills. We invested US $16.6 million in food safety in fiscal 2022; equal to 10.7% of our total essential supply chain capital investment for the year.
We have a long history in food safety leadership. More than 50 years ago, we developed the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) process with NASA for ensuring food safety. The HACCP approach identifies key stages in production where food safety risks can be minimized or eliminated. Today, HACCP has become the food industry’s gold standard and the backbone of many countries’ food safety regulations around the world.
Food safety leadership is a differentiator for General Mills, but not an area of competition. We freely share our best practices and collaborate with peers and regulators to raise standards industrywide.
We engage in public policy discussions to ensure safe food, including the following actions:
- We strongly support the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the largest revamp of U.S. food safety laws in decades, and its goal of raising up food safety standards across the food value chain. We supported the originating legislation for FSMA and the regulations for its implementation and have consistently called on Congress to maintain adequate funding for FSMA implementation.
Delivering Nutrition
Our goal is to provide a diverse portfolio including nutrient-dense products that contribute to the well-being of consumers and meet a variety of needs.
Annually, we share results on the variety and nutritional characteristics of our product portfolio. We are proud to report that in fiscal 2023, 41% of General Mills global volume met our criteria as “Nutrition-Forward Foods." Learn more about our global health reporting.
Our marketing policies ensure that our child-directed advertising promotes only lower-calorie, nutrient dense products. We take particular care around the content and nature of advertising directed to children — including pre-screening of our ads by the Better Business Bureau’s Children’s Advertising Review Unit.
We advocate for policies that support increased consumption of nutrient dense products to meet dietary requirements, including the following actions:
- As the (WIC Program) faced funding shortfalls in 2024, General Mills signed on to a letter to Congress with peer companies and trade associations in support of additional funding to ensure access to WIC for all in FY2024. Read the letter here.
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, we supported efforts to keep children and families from experiencing hunger.
- We supported flexibilities in USDA food and nutrition programs to ensure full benefit access to WIC, School Lunch, Breakfast and SNAP.
- In January 2022 and February 2021, General Mills partnered with hunger organizations and peers in a letter to Congressional leadership expressing support for food security and nutrition provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Access the 2022 letter here and the 2021 letter here.
- In August 2020, General Mills and corporate partners of No Kid Hungry wrote to the USDA expressing support for USDA to continue flexibilities. The flexibilities were extended through June 2021. Access the letter here.
- In March 2020, General Mills employees came together to ensure WIC consumers had access to the food they needed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our facilities prioritized making foods that are approved and popular among WIC participants. We also reached out to State WIC agencies to provide a list of General Mills WIC-eligible products that qualified for USDA's WIC Food Package Substitution Waiver.
- Supporting strong Dietary Guidelines for Americans (see our recommendations to the Advisory Committee for the 2020-2025 DGAs in July 2019 here & here and in January 2020 here).
- Supporting voluntary sodium reduction efforts. See our comments here.
- Supporting strong U.S. school nutrition standards, including encouraging USDA to balance meal program flexibility and efficiency while ensuring Dietary Guidelines recommendations are followed, especially related to whole grain-rich offerings.
- Supporting the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and WIC consumer access to a variety of fortified ready-to-eat whole grain breakfast cereals and yogurt. Our nutritionists and staff work directly with scientific communities and USDA, who are charged with developing recommendations for the “WIC Food Basket.”
- Working with other ready-to-eat cereal makers, we annually celebrate National Cereal Day and share information about the nutritional benefits and affordability of ready-to-eat cereal.
Learn more about our Nutrition and Food Safety Partnerships and Collaborations
Increasing Food Security and Strengthening Communities
General Mills works to ensure all members of a community have access to nutritious and sufficient food through strategic initiatives, grants, food donations and knowledge sharing. We are a founding partner with Feeding America.
- General Mills has donated $2.6 billion to charitable causes since 1954. In fiscal 2023 alone, General Mills gave $112.5 million to charitable causes.
- In fiscal 2023, 48 million meals were enabled by donations of General Mills food worldwide.
- Together with our philanthropic partners, we helped enable 7.1 billion meals worldwide in fiscal 2023 and 42.6 billion meals since 2019.
- We partnered with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation to publish the Prioritizing Food Security Solutions toolkit and the Alliance to End Hunger to publish a Self-Assessment Workbook for the Hunger Free Communities Network. These assets help local communities identify their own unique needs and assets to tackle food insecurity.
We engage in public policy discussions to increase food security and strengthen communities, including the following actions:
Increasing Food Security
- At the federal level, we are a longtime supporter of The Congressional Hunger Center and its Emerson Hunger Fellowship Program which works to make hunger a priority to U.S. policymakers and to raise a new generation of leaders to fight against hunger and poverty.
- General Mills is proud to have received the Corporate Partner Hunger Leadership Award from The Congressional Hunger Center, for centering food security, sustainable agriculture, and strengthening hometown communities in our philanthropic strategy.
- We work with several initiatives at the state level to increase food security, including:
- The Healthy Hunger Free Schools coalition, which successfully campaigned for universal school meals in Minnesota in 2022-2023, and Michigan’s investment in school meals for the 2023-2024 school year (see here and here).
- Share Our Strength, which leads the No Kid Hungry campaign to expand food access. We’ve weighed in to support such legislation in states like New York (here and here), Maryland and Tennessee.
- No Kid Hungry's work to obtain and expand USDA Child Nutrition Waivers to help K-12 students access school meals during COVID-19.
- The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), which aids public policy efforts to expand food access by developing research and statistics that demonstrate hunger's impact in every community.
Strengthening our Communities
- General Mills has a long history of supporting employees’ civic engagement. We regularly host informational webinars and offer nonpartisan voting information and resources to our employees.
- We develop community partnerships that drive economic growth and increase connectedness. For example, we played a catalyst role in our hometown in the formation of both Greater MSP — the Minneapolis St. Paul Regional Economic Development Partnership, and MBOLD, which mobilizes Minnesota's globally leading food and agriculture sector to develop practical solutions to global challenges.
- General Mills responded to a request from the State of Minnesota to help residents struggling to afford nutritious food during the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with the state we developed a digital marketing platform for the campaign, www.mnfoodhelper.org, to increase awareness of SNAP. The announcement can be found here.
Informing Consumers and Increasing Awareness
We are committed to increasing transparency and helping you understand what's in your food. That's why we are putting more information in more places, including the following initiatives:
- For over 10 years, General Mills has voluntarily shared additional nutrition information about our products through the “Facts Up Front” labeling system. This system is on thousands of food products across the country and increases consumer awareness of product nutrition.
- General Mills is the first major food company to introduce Recycle Check on our packages. Through an on-pack QR code, Recycle Check gives consumers a clear yes or no on whether they can recycle the item in their own community.
- General Mills pioneered food allergen labeling in the 1990s, and our leadership continues today. We voluntarily included sesame as a labeled allergen and supported industry efforts that led to the passage of the FASTER Act, which labels sesame as an allergen in the U.S. Learn more about allergen labeling here.
- We answer common questions about our products, our ingredients and our company at AskGeneralMills.com.
- Many of our products carry a link to SmartLabel™, which offers U.S. product information in a consistent, easy-to-access digital format.
- Hundreds of our products are Non-GMO Project Verified.