A new effort led by the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF), national farm groups and other food system stakeholders connected with the Center for Food Integrity (CFI) is helping food manufacturers, retailers and restaurant chains make more informed decisions as they face pressure from activists to be more sustainable.

The goal of the effort, said Charlie Arnot, CFI founder and CEO, is to help the companies establish sustainability priorities and evaluate sustainability tradeoffs. The effort is also designed to help companies develop action plans to deal with requests from activists, he said.

Activist groups have been very successful in pressuring food brands by focusing on a single practice or a single...