There is growing concern that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may have an adverse impact on global temperatures, weather patterns, and the frequency and severity of extreme weather and natural disasters. In the event that such climate change has a negative effect on agricultural productivity, we may be subject to decreased availability or less favorable pricing for certain commodities that are necessary for our products, such as wheat, tomatoes, and a wide array of vegetables. Adverse weather conditions and natural disasters can reduce crop size and crop quality, which in turn could reduce our supplies of raw materials, lower recoveries of usable raw materials, increase the prices of our raw materials, increase our cost of transporting and storing raw materials, or disrupt our production schedules.
We may also be subjected to decreased availability or less favorable pricing for water as a result of such change, which could impact our manufacturing and distribution operations. In addition, natural disasters and extreme weather conditions may disrupt the productivity of our facilities or the operation of our supply chain. The increasing concern over climate change also may result in more regional, federal, and/or global legal and regulatory requirements including changes to energy policies, increased mandatory disclosure, carbon pricing regulations or carbon taxes. In the event that such additional regulations are enacted and are more aggressive than the climate risk mitigation measures that we are currently undertaking to monitor our emissions and improve our energy efficiency, we may experience significant increases in our costs of operation and delivery. In particular, increasing regulation of fuel emissions could substantially increase the distribution and supply chain costs associated with our products. As a result, climate change could negatively affect our business and operations.
While we continue to take important steps to strive toward mitigation of climate risk and the impact of climate change, transitioning our business to adapt to and comply with evolving policy, legal, and regulatory changes may impose substantial operational and compliance burdens. Additionally, we may incur increased costs if such regulatory actions are modified or reversed resulting in continued elevated compliance costs. As a result, mitigation and compliance efforts relating to climate change could negatively affect our business and operations. Collecting, measuring and analyzing information relating to such matters can be costly, time-consuming, dependent on third-party cooperation and unreliable. Furthermore, methodologies for measuring, tracking and reporting on such matters continue to change over time, which requires our processes and controls for such data to evolve as well. Additionally, we may face increased pressure from customers, consumers, investors, activists and other stakeholders to modify our products or operations away from ingredients or activities that are considered to have a higher impact on climate change. Such changes to methodologies or lack of progress (whether actual or perceived) could adversely affect our business, operations, and reputation, and increase risk of litigation.
From time to time, we establish strategies and expectations related to climate change and other environmental matters. Our ability to achieve any such strategies or expectations is subject to numerous factors and conditions, many of which are outside of our control. Examples of such factors include evolving regulatory and other standards, processes, and assumptions, the pace of scientific and technological developments, increased costs and the availability of requisite financing, market trends that may alter business opportunities, the conduct of third-party manufacturers and suppliers, constraint or disruptions to our supply chain, and changes in carbon markets or carbon taxes. We may be required to expend significant resources to achieve these strategies and expectations, which could significantly increase our operational costs. There can be no assurance of the extent to which any of our strategies or expectations will be achieved, or that any future investments we make will meet stakeholder expectations. Failures or delays (whether actual or perceived) in achieving our strategies or expectations related to climate change and other environmental matters could adversely affect our business, operations, and reputation, and increase risk of litigation.