ADM and PepsiCo announced a groundbreaking 7.5-year strategic commercial agreement to closely collaborate on projects that aim to significantly expand regenerative agriculture across their shared North American supply chains. This strategic partnership is expected to reach up to 2 million acres by 2030, and represents a trailblazing effort by two global companies that share ambitious carbon reduction goals.
The companies’ capabilities span the food and agriculture value chains, creating a unique, large-scale platform to support farmers’ transition to regenerative agriculture, while building their resilience to climate change.
The long-term agreement will initially enroll corn, soy and wheat farmers across Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska with the portential for future expansion. The goal is to increase visibility across the value chain and integrate a range of multi-year farmer-first regenerative agriculture initiatives, including cover crops, reduced tillage, nutrient management, diverse rotations, and responsible pesticide use.
The companies plan to share resources and collaborate by providing participants with technical and financial assistance, offering access to peer regenerative farming networks, hosting educational field days, and tracking results using trusted, third-party measurement systems.
Reaching the strategic partnership’s goals could eliminate 1.4 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses – equivalent to the amount of electricity used to power 275,000 homes per year – at the farm level, while creating meaningful shared value directly for farmers.
“Building a better food system is essential to the future health of the earth and all of us,” said Jim Andrew, Chief Sustainability Officer, PepsiCo. “At its core, PepsiCo is an agricultural company, working to spread regenerative agriculture practices that restore the earth and reduce carbon emissions to 7 million acres by 2030.”
“Sustainability is fundamental to ADM: Our growth strategy is underpinned by demand for more sustainable products, and our culture compels us to act,” said ADM Chief Sustainability Officer Alison Taylor.”
Editor’s Take:
This may be a laudable objective, but it will require a lot of education, training and, honestly, hand-holding to bring these goals to fruition. All of that is not to mention the investment of time and money by all parties. Farmers are supportive of sustainability and have made great strides to improve carbon capture, develop improved management techniques for water and have generally done a great job of improving the environment. They have also made significant investments in technology that is incorporated into their operations and decision making. This new initiative will require even greater effort and focus by famers/ranchers, and we wish all parties much success!
