Hops are Green … But Are They Sustainable?
If You Believe Everything You Read on the Internet, They Are.
Propaganda
Edward Bernays’ 1928 book Propaganda[1] outlined the methods by which behavior are influenced en masse. He was quite successful! While consulting for The American Tobacco Company, Bernays increased the female market for cigarettes by transforming them into a symbol of power and equality for women. As a consultant for a meat packing company, he encouraged physicians to endorse a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs and the American breakfast was born[2]. Rather than creating marketing (i.e., public relations or propaganda) campaigns that attempted to increase sales by describing a product’s virtues, he influenced consumers indirectly. His targets were not aware their behavior was influenced[3]. Is this happening in the hop industry today?
What is Sustainable?
The environmentally friendly part of the definition sounds familiar, “a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged”[4]. The legal definition of sustainable agriculture as adopted by the U.S. Congress includes two more components not often discussed[5]. They are the “…economic viability of farm operations” (i.e., a farm is profitable) and “… enhance the quality of life for farmers” (i.e., farmers are comfortable, happy and healthy[6]). Those seem logical. A farmer should make money and be content to continue doing what he does.
From the WSU Cost of Production Surveys I discussed in an earlier article called, “How Much Do U.S. Hops Really Cost?” it was possible to infer that hop farmers were not profitable. My opinion as a recovering hop merchant is that this is not true since acreage has been growing and there appears to be plenty of money for infrastructure investments. In that respect, the hop industry appears to be sustainable. The most common critique of sustainability, however, is that it is too vague. That’s part of the problem. Sustainability is a buzzword for something ‘green’, but it doesn’t add anything of substance to the conversation[7].
Green is the new Black
A 2020 research study by the Capegemini Group[8] found “A significant majority of consumers (79%) are changing their purchase preferences based on sustainability.” Their findings showed that the perception of sustainability affected purchase decisions at more than twice the rate of the perception of “social or environmental” impact. Therein lies the problem. There is a financial incentive to present oneself as sustainable. The report highlighted missed revenue opportunities for organizations that do not create the perception of sustainability. Most companies today prepare a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report. Companies in the hop industry are no different (links to several of these reports appear in the footnotes)[9][10][11][12][13][14]. It’s not just the hop industry. The malt industry is now more sustainable than ever[15]. Even Bayer, owner of Monsanto (maker of Roundup) and Maersk, the largest cargo shipping company in the world, have sustainability reports[16][17][18].
Transparency
The former CEO of one U.S. hop merchant company gave a TEDx talk in 2019. The presentation, called, “Creating value through transparency in the hop supply chain” is worth watching if you’ve not seen it already. You can watch it by clicking here. At the 13:00 minute mark, Steve talks about a program that facilitates grower communication to reduce water and carbon footprints. At the 14:30 minute mark, he talks about the concern of consumers about sustainability. I was happy to hear about his support for transparency in the hop industry. These articles are my contribution toward that goal.
I am not criticizing any of the hop companies touting their sustainability. In my earlier life as a hop merchant, or when I was director of Hop Growers of America, I would have done the same if I could. If all your competitors are claiming sustainability, can any company afford not to? But how green are hops?
Net Zero
The ambiguity of terms associated with sustainability appears to be the key to understanding the movement. One of the key terms to look for is “Net Zero” emissions. According to the World Economic Forum, to attain “net zero” status, a company must remove an equal amount of CO2 from the environment as they create[19]. That’s relevant with regards to hops as they require significant amounts of fertilizer, water, labor, pesticides, and energy to produce. That gets them to harvest. Post-harvest, hops require further processing, storage and transport creating a still larger carbon footprint.
Greenwashing
Organizations everywhere are under pressure to create a more environmentally friendly image. Consumers say that’s they want. Claims of sustainability, however, are unchallenged. Voilà … bankers, farmers, and businesses everywhere are green and meeting environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets. Not all the claims made are true. Greenwashing is when an organization presents itself as green when, in fact, they are not. This 2021 Reuters report explains some of the more common methods of greenwashing and the extent to which it occurs.
Those guilty of greenwashing want to capitalize on the latest trend. The fossil fuel industry’s claims of sustainability are the ultimate irony, but they too are green. ExxonMobil has a sustainability report. They claim they are, “committed to improving quality of life by meeting the needs of society”. Any company can do it. Plans for net zero status by some distant date is the first step to justify the proclamation of sustainable status. The investment of a fraction of their efforts into green solutions ensures their claims are not blatant lies. Meanwhile, most of their business operates under the status quo[20].
What was once called propaganda is now public relations or marketing. The late George Carlin had a great bit on the soft language[21] marketers use to influence consumer perception. If you haven’t seen it, you’ll enjoy it.
Agriculture has its soft language all its own. Crop Protectant is a pleasant euphemism for pesticides. Undocumented individual is a sanitary term for illegal aliens. Vague words like “transparency” and terms like “environmental stewardship” and even “sustainable” are soft terms. Soft language is ambiguous by design. Brands use words like “ethical”, “organic”, and “conscious” to present a green image to consumers … Sometimes, they are not so green[22].
You might notice these examples more often now due to the availability heuristic, a term coined by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in 1973[23]. I’ve noticed a few on the web sites of hop industry companies I’ve visited over the past couple weeks. I have no way to determine the degree to which those claims are true. That’s part of the problem … nobody can. We must take each company at their word that in 2022 their claims that they are green, sustainable, transparent, conscious stewards of the environment are all true. When the companies making sustainability claims have a financial incentive to do so, that raises a red flag in my mind. It should in yours too. As I mentioned before though, I like a good conspiracy, but OK, let’s assume all the claims are true.
The Hidden Carbon Footprint of Hops
During my decade as a hop merchant, I shipped a lot of hops from the Pacific Northwest to Europe and from Europe to the Pacific Northwest (PNW). That means I contributed to a lot of CO2 emissions. Sorry about that.
For fun … Let’s estimate how much CO2 I generated from one of my shipments of a 40-foot container full of hops from Yakima to Europe. Typically, we shipped outgoing hops by rail across North America from Seattle to Montreal during the winter months. That trip from across North America was 4,769 kilometers. A full 40-foot container generates 1,057 kilograms of CO2e[24]. After reaching Montreal, my container took a transatlantic cruise of 5,494 kilometers (3,290 miles) to Rotterdam. That generated an additional 1,684 kilograms of CO2 [25]. My container traveled by diesel truck from the port to points across Europe. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) climate portal, delivering those hops the “last mile[26]” generates 100 times more CO2 than a cargo ship to carry our container the same distance[27]. We’ll leave those calculations out of this thought experiment to keep it simple.
Worldwide exports of U.S. hops are equivalent to 1,000 40-foot containers each year. The 10 largest countries to which the U.S. exports hops (figure 1) except Canada and Mexico should generate CO2 emissions like my container. There are countries from which the U.S. also imports hops (figure 2). If we extrapolate the CO2 emission data my container generated to total U.S. hop exports for 2021 of 41.4 million pounds (18,789 MT), worldwide U.S. hop exports generated 2,710 MT of CO2 [28][29]. The average U.S. citizen has an annual carbon footprint of 16 tons (the global average is four tons)[30]. The shipping portion alone of worldwide hop exports in 2021 represented the annual carbon footprint of 677.5 people. Imports represented another 173 people as they were 25.6% of exports in 2021[31]. That’s 850 people … and that’s just the carbon footprint for the international shipping!!
Whose responsibility are the carbon emissions from shipping? I didn’t see them mentioned in any farm, merchant or brewer CSRs I read. Do they belong to the shipping industry? A carbon footprint for a company must include the total amount of all the greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted directly … or indirectly … through its activities[32]. Shipping hops around the world should fall under what the Greenhouse Gas Protocol[33] calls a “Scope 3” target. Scope 3 emissions are the most difficult to account for. In fact, they are often omitted from calculations[34]. Without Scope 3 emissions, are claims of sustainability greenwashing? That question might spark a debate about intentions. Discuss.
Figure 1: Exports of U.S. hops 2017-2021[35][36].
Belgians Love Hops
The numbers in figure 1 don’t count re-exports. The position of Belgium-Luxembourg at the top of the list is not likely due to Belgium’s and Luxembourg’s massive beer production. Belgium produced 5.8% of European beer production in 2020[37]. I imagine a significant part of U.S. exports to Belgium-Luxembourg is due in part to Yakima Chief Hops using the country as a base of operations for the region. According to a December 2021 press release, the company built a 6,600 m2 (71,041.81 square feet) distribution center there. That’s enough cold storage for 8,800 pallets of hops according to the press release. From my experience, one pallet typically holds 880 pounds (400 kg.) of pelleted product. They may stack their hops different. The capacity of such a building if each pallet holds 880 pounds of pellets would be 7.7 million pounds (3,512 MT). That represents 19.25% of the 40 million pounds (18,143 MT) Yakima Chief Hops sold in 2019 according to this Forbes article[38].
From our carbon footprint calculations above, 7.7 million pounds of pellets would require approximately 193 40-foot containers. If that quantity of pelleted hops traveled from the U.S., they would generate at least 529 tons of CO2 [39]. I will be the first to admit I have no idea what types of hops anybody stores in their facility or in what form they store them. That’s confidential. The company offers varieties from the world’s hop producing countries[40]. We can assume therefore that Belgium facility is not filled with American varieties. Some of the hops stored there would have generated fewer CO2emissions during their travels. If you’re in the area, there’s also a taproom and a visitor center where you can learn about hops and sample beers using YCH products[41].
Figure 2: U.S. Hop Imports 2017-2021[42][43]
How Green is Sustainable?
Do those young beer drinkers mentioned at the end of the TEDx presentation linked above care about the accuracy of a company’s sustainability claims? Or are they comfortable continuing their lifestyles so long as the pollution is Not In My Backyard (NIMBY)[44]? The mobile phones in our pockets suggest that consumer actions don’t match their words[45][46]. The iPhone in my pocket isn’t very green[47]. Apple, as you might imagine, is committed to transparency[48].
Several hop companies have invested in solar panels to offset traditional energy usage[49][50]. Solar panel construction, however, is not a very green process[51]. It requires toxic chemicals like sodium hydroxide and hydrofluoric acid[52]. The process creates greenhouse gases and wastewater while requiring significant amounts electricity. It can take at least three years of electricity production for a solar panel to compensate for its own carbon footprint[53]. Solar panels last 20-30 years before they will be recycled[54].
Complicating things still further is the fact that China controls over 80% of solar panel manufacturing[55]. That work is done by Muslim slave labor in the Xinjiang region[56]. The Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act has hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Chinese solar panels stuck in American ports right now[57][58]. It's possible to source solar panels from producers that do not use slave labor. Let’s hope the hop companies that use solar for a greener future made the effort to source their solar panels from sustainable suppliers.
Indirect Environmental Expenses
Indirect environmental expenses are not limited to shipping, but also things like fertilizers and pesticides. For decades Ann George ensured farmers had the pesticides they needed to produce a high-quality crop each year as chair of the U.S. Hop Protection Plant Committee[59]. In 2019, she received the Second Order of the Hop from the U.S. hop industry at the 57th Congress of the International Hop Growers Convention (IHGC) in recognition of her decades of service to the industry[60].
If you are interested in the pesticides used on hops, and you’ve not seen the US Hop Industry Plant Protection Committee MRL Tracking Chart, you could download it for yourself (Table 1). I was never very interested in the pesticides except as their use applied to importing or exporting product. Farmers do what they must do to produce a high-quality crop every year. It seems to me (as somebody unfamiliar with pesticides) that they have plenty from which to choose, but I don’t know how this list compares with other industries.
Table 1. Active Ingredient List
It might be tempting for an average beer drinker to see that list and think HOLY COW! … that’s a lot of chemicals! The average beer drinker probably won’t ever find that list. There’s not THAT much transparency in the hop industry yet. The list looks a little scary to me too, but as I mentioned … I don’t know much about pesticides other than what I’ve read. I started to research the known health consequences for those chemicals. I decided not to open that can of worms for this article … maybe in the future.
According to the 2020 WSU cost of production survey, fertilizers and pesticides represents 11.8% of the total cost of production for conventional hops and 22.8% for organic hops[61]. I was surprised by that too! The hop farmers I have known over the years sprayed as few pesticides as necessary to maintain the high quality demanded by their customers. Pesticides and fertilizers are expensive. There were several interesting papers from the 2022 IHGC Scientific Commission held in Spain exploring possible the reduced reliance pesticides [62].
Back to the point of mentioning pesticides in this discussion … There are ways to calculate the energy impact and therefore the carbon footprint of pesticides and fertilizers. Field to Market[63] has calculated the following values[64]:
But wait, there’s more …
Buildings are made of concrete and steel, both of which, according to this article by Bill Gates, produce substantial emissions. Did you know buildings are bad for the environment. The emissions happen not only while they’re being made, but while they’re being heated and cooled throughout their lifetime. We don’t have practical ways to make steel and concrete without releasing carbon dioxide. The way to reduce emissions for energy intensive products with no alternative methods of production is to use less. Those two materials account for around 10 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse gases. In many newer American hop picking facilities, you will see a lot of steel and concrete in the kilns, picking machines and baling rooms. Should the carbon emissions required to build them be included in Scope 3 totals?
Demanding Times
The Agenda 2030 goals driving much of the regulations regarding sustainability are admirable, but they are demanding on the hop industry[65]. For some, the copious certifications themselves are the prize to gain a competitive advantage and increase sales. For others change is a necessary evil. That’s not hyperbole. They don’t discuss it publicly, but I’ve had conversations with farmers who shared their bitterness over the need to change and the costs associated with those changes. Others looked forward to the process. It’s a reminder that money is what drives the industry … which brings us back to the definition of sustainability we discussed earlier.
American hop production, the way it has developed during the past 30-40 years, requires massive inputs of seasonal human labor. Without the application of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, yields would be much lower. For the time being, there is no other way to dry hops without the intensive usage of energy during the 30-40 day picking window. Until cultural practices evolve, those are facts.
Today, brewers want the hops they buy to address climate change[66]. A generation ago, when macro brewers enjoyed an oligopsony[67], several farmers complained to me because one brewery required them to install magnets to remove metal from the hops as they passed by on a conveyor. That seemed like a reasonable request to me. Farmers felt they were not reimbursed for the $5,000 magnets. By contrast, at the 2015 Hop Growers of America convention, a brewer from the Hop Quality Group[68] suggested the idea of netting hop fields to prevent birds from nesting at the top of the trellis in front of an audience of hundreds of people. By 2015, market dynamics had changed. Farmers had power. One farmer told me, “If brewers are willing to pay for us to put nets up over the fields, we’ll do it.” In my humble opinion as a recovering hop merchant, that’s a paradigm shift brought about by the dominance of proprietary varieties empowering farmers.
Hop farmers do an amazing job given the demands placed upon them. So long as brewers need hops, the intensive use of resources by hop farmers during the growing season will be a necessary evil. The quantity of high-quality hops they produce and harvest in such a short period of time is nothing short of miraculous. What merchants do following harvest is no less remarkable. From the pelleting to storage and shipment, hops require substantial energy resources. They do it all using the minimum amount of resources possible to remain sustainable (i.e., make a profit).
Maybe It’s OK
Maybe it’s ok if hop production is not the most sustainable process on the planet. The carbon footprint they create are a necessary evil so long as brewers continue to use hops. When I was a hop merchant, if sustainability had been so important to consumers, I would have advertised the more sustainable aspects of the company … while not mentioning anything that didn’t support the sustainability narrative. Rather than greenwashing or gaslighting customers by creating the image that hops are produced with little or no consequence to the environment, wouldn’t it be good for the world’s brewers and beer drinkers to understand the realities of hop production … in the interest of transparency.
Sustainability has become a marketing strategy many companies use to make their customers feel good[69][70][71]. The fundamental methods of hop production have not changed significantly for decades. Maybe farmers can’t change the more controversial aspects of hop production today without compromising quality or increasing price. So long as they’re doing everything they can, and it seems they are, maybe that’s OK.
I hope you found something of value in what I’ve written here. If so, I would appreciate it if you could please share it with somebody else who might find it interesting.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Propaganda-Edward-Bernays/dp/0970312598
[2] https://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/12/consumer
[3] https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/original-influencer
[4] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sustainable
[5] https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&height=800&iframe=true&def_id=7-USC-1953509518-2138631982&term_occur=999&term_src=title:7:chapter:64:subchapter:I:section:3103
[6] https://www.britannica.com/topic/quality-of-life
[7] https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/transnational-environmental-law/article/sustainable-development-and-its-discontents/3913449EEF56F22F4928645115E7141F
[8] https://www.capgemini.com/gb-en/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/05/Final-Web-Report-Sustainability-In-CPRD-1.pdf
[9] Yakima Chief Hops sustainability report: https://www.yakimachief.com/media/documents/CSR_Report_2021_Web.pdf
[10] HopSteiner: https://www.hopsteiner.com/a-focus-on-sustainability/
[11] Crosby Hops: https://www.crosbyhops.com/why-crosby/greenforgood
[12] Roy Farms: http://royfarms.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2018_RF_CSR.pdf
[13] HVG Hops Sustainability Report: https://cms.hvg-germany.de/wp-content/uploads/HVG-Corporate-Social-Report-EN.pdf
[14] BarthHaas sustainability report: https://www.barthhaas.com/en/company/sustainability-report
[15] Viking Malt CSR: https://www.vikingmalt.com/csr/
[16] In 2020, Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, agreed to an $11 Billion settlement to approximately 100,000 lawsuits
[17] https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/bayer-winning-streak-roundup-litigation-after-huge-initial-losses-2022-09-02/
[18] https://www.bayer.com/en/sustainability/sustainability-reports
[19] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/11/net-zero-emissions-cop26-climate-change/
[20] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/18/greenwashing-pr-advertising-oil-firms-exxon-chevron-shell-bp
[21] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=soft%20language
[22] https://www.inverse.com/input/style/h-m-hm-greenwashing-lawsuit-false-sustainability
[23] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0010028573900339
[24] https://www.carboncare.org/en/co2-emissions-calculator.html
[25] https://8billiontrees.com/carbon-offsets-credits/carbon-ecological-footprint-calculators/air-freight-vs-sea-freight-carbon-footprint/
[26] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lastmile.asp
[27] https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-can-carbon-emissions-freight-be-reduced
[28] For this example, we will assume the hops are pellets form to simplify our example and that each 40-foot container contains 19MT (41,887 pounds).
[29] https://www.usahops.org/img/blog_pdf/405.pdf
[30] https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator/
[31] https://www.usahops.org/img/blog_pdf/405.pdf
[32] https://www.climatepartner.com/en/climate-action-insights/five-key-steps-for-your-companys-net-zero-journey
https://ghgprotocol.org
[34] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/18/apple-amazon-exxon-and-the-toughest-carbon-emissions-to-capture.html
[35] https://www.usahops.org/img/blog_pdf/405.pdf
[36] Notes: Total of top 10 countries to which U.S. hops were exported = 15,713 MT = 34.6 million pounds. The total of worldwide exports = 18,789.1 MT = 41.4 million pounds (i.e., 35% of the 116.5 million pounds of hops produced in the U.S. in 2021 according to 2021 HGA stat pack).
[37] https://brewersofeurope.org/site/countries/key-facts-figures.php
[38] https://www.forbes.com/sites/kennygould/2019/10/25/learn-about-hops-with-steve-carpenter-5th-generation-farmer-and-former-yakima-chief-hops-ceo/?sh=6110a80e73cb
[39] This is the maximum volume of CO2 that might be generated by filling the facility. Shipment of extracts would be much more efficient. Also noteworthy is that annual CO2 emission figures due to shipping are likely much lower. It was my experience as a hop merchant that a warehouse is seldom empty. The amount shipped annually would likely be significantly lower than the total capacity. Also, Yakima Chief Hops is undoubtedly not the only company importing hops into Belgium. This seems obvious, but I must clarify so as not to create a false impression of the CO2 emissions created by the hops shipped by any one company.
https://www.yakimachief.com
[41] From the web site: “The Belgium facility was also designed with sustainability in mind, as it supports an 1800 panel solar array, producing 750 MW of energy, or about half of the building’s total consumption. The green construction, design and operation plan centers around waste diversion, water conservation and healthfulness of interior spaces. The building runs on renewable energy and uses higher efficiency fixtures that reduce overall energy and water consumption.” That’s an impressive feat for such an energy intensive operation. Kudos to the team at Yakima Chief Hops!
[42] https://www.usahops.org/img/blog_pdf/405.pdf
[43] Total of top 10 countries from which the U.S. imports hops = 4,783 MT in 2021 = 10.5 million pounds. Total worldwide hop imports to the U.S. were 4,811 MT in 2021 = 10.6 million pounds.
[44] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/nimby
[45] https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/10/09/apple-environmental-report-demystified---what-it-all-means-to-the-consumer
[46] https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/iphone-x-apple-environment-pollution-smartphones-k/
[47] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-apples-new-iphone-is-bad-for-the-environment-2017-09-12
[48] https://investor.apple.com/esg/default.aspx
[49] https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/with-help-from-incentives-yakima-valley-small-businesses-look-to-solar-power/article_536546fe-561e-11e6-882b-67e35894c28c.html
[50] https://www.brewbound.com/news/hop-supplier-yakima-chief-hops-installs-largest-solar-array-in-washington/
[51] https://www.euronews.com/green/2021/04/22/dirty-secrets-of-renewable-energy-revealed-as-bright-green-lies
[52] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/141111-solar-panel-manufacturing-sustainability-ranking
[53] https://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/solar-panels/how-eco-friendly-are-they
[54] https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/how-long-do-solar-panels-last/
[55] https://www.iea.org/news/the-world-needs-more-diverse-solar-panel-supply-chains-to-ensure-a-secure-transition-to-net-zero-emissions
[56] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/forced-labor-xinjiang-solar
[57] The EU has also proposed a similar ban on products from Xinjiang but has not implemented one.
[58] https://www.reuters.com/world/china/exclusive-us-blocks-more-than-1000-solar-shipments-over-chinese-slave-labor-2022-11-11/
[59] https://www.usahops.org/growers/plant-protection.html
[60] http://www.hmelj-giz.si/ihgc/doc/2019%20AUG%20IHGC%20GA%20Report.pdf
[61] https://www.usahops.org/cabinet/data/Hop%20Enterprise%20Budget%202020_Draft.pdf
[62] http://stc-galiza-2022.proepla.com/docs/Proceedings_IHGC_STC_Lugo_2022_online%20monitor.pdf
[63] https://fieldtomarket.org/our-members/
[64] https://fieldtomarket.org/national-indicators-report/energy-use/
[65] https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda
[66] https://crosscut.com/environment/2021/10/hop-growers-balance-demands-craft-beers-climate-concerns
[67] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/oligopsony.asp
https://www.hopqualitygroup.com
[69] https://www.inverse.com/input/style/h-m-hm-greenwashing-lawsuit-false-sustainability
[70] https://truthinadvertising.org/articles/six-companies-accused-greenwashing/
[71] https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna30334853