Peas
Wattie's began funding a pea breeding program in New Zealand in the 1980s. Since then, Heinz has contracted with 250 farmers to grow peas for Heinz products. The program has resulted in many positive outcomes in the areas of:
- Pea Seeds
- Soil
- Pesticides
- Water
Pea Seeds
Heinz is breeding pea seeds naturally for sustainable characteristics. These seeds have enabled our growers to increase yields with minimal inputs.
- Yields have improved significantly since 1990 from five metric tons/hectare to seven metric tons/hectare in 2009.
- None of today’s crops are being sprayed with pesticide to prevent two fungal diseases, compared with 100% in the 1990s, because our modern varieties have been selected for resistance to the fungi.
- Heinz has worked with growers to plant pea varieties that offer better harvesting efficiency, such as plants that stand more upright at harvest and those that burst more readily in the thresher.
- Our farmers are growing pea varieties that offer significant eating quality improvements. These advancements in color, flavor, size and texture have helped Heinz position our frozen peas as the best choice available.
Soil
Heinz encourages growers to use peas to rest land from cereal grains and break disease cycles. Peas are an excellent rotation crop for cereal grains, which are predominantly grown in our cropping areas. An added benefit for farmers is that pea residues left behind after harvest improve soil organic matter, soil structure and soil fertility, which ultimately helps them produce better cereal crops.
We are encouraging growers to reduce tillage (soil movement by overturning and ripping) in their cropping operations and even move to zero-tillage, which reduces energy consumption. We’re also teaching growers to eliminate unnecessary fertilizer use. In fact, Heinz-funded research (for the peas) showed, in most soils, no benefit in yield or quality from fertilizer applications.
Pesticides
Pea growers in New Zealand are fortunate because the need for pesticide spraying is minimal due to plant tolerance. Typically, less than 20% of crops are treated with fungicide at flowering to control ascochyta (plant disease). We are working on solving this complex disease with research and development so that spraying will be unnecessary in the future.
Water
Heinz has selected pea varieties that can better tolerate dry conditions, minimizing the need to apply water to crops.
Because New Zealand’s water levels may vary significantly based on seasonal rainfalls, farming groups are working with local authorities and other stakeholders to develop water storage systems so that some surplus water from rain or snowmelt is captured instead of flowing out to sea. The stored water would be shared among the community of users at times during the year when seasonal demand for water exceeds seasonal supply.
Organics
Watties started research on growing organic peas in 1990 and we are working with growers to help them produce a range of other organic vegetable crops. We now have a successful system for producing peas with zero synthetic fertilizer or pesticide inputs.
Carbon Footprint
Peas are a low-energy input crop. The improvements Heinz has fostered, including less or zero cultivation, less spraying of pesticides, zero fertilizer, less or zero irrigation and higher yields, are further reducing the carbon footprint. In addition, we plan to introduce biodiesel for harvest and transport in the future.