PepsiCo, Mars and ADM Support Sustainable Sourcing Practices
Global food brands PepsiCo, Mars and ADM have teamed up to support regenerative agriculture practices.
Across 5,454 hectares of Polish farmland, these companies are putting theory into practice, giving 24 farmers the tools and knowledge to change how crops are grown, soils are managed and emissions are cut.
Mars takes the lead on regenerative wheat for pet food brands such as WHISKAS and PEDIGREE, covering 3,359 hectares. PepsiCo works across 2,160 hectares of rapeseed fields, feeding into its well-known snacks including Lay’s and Doritos.
Shared responsibility between three companies
"Regenerative agriculture is a vital tool for enhancing soil health, strengthening farm resilience and reducing agricultural emissions, which can ultimately benefit farmers and their livelihoods," says Archana Jagannathan, Chief Sustainability Officer for PepsiCo in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
"To drive meaningful impact at scale requires collaboration up and down the value chain. PepsiCo has been partnering with Polish farmers for more than 30 years, and this initiative with Mars, ADM and local farmers takes an integrated, systems-level approach that embeds regenerative practices across different crop rotations and supply chains."
She adds that this collaboration contributes to PepsiCo’s wider environmental goals: "It also contributes to our global ambition to implement regenerative, restorative or protective practices over 10 million acres of land by 2030 and has the potential to generate learnings that can be lifted and scaled beyond a single country or region to help ensure the long-term resilience of the global food system."
Regenerative farming describes practices that repair and improve soil health rather than deplete it. These include rotating crops, reducing synthetic fertiliser use and planting cover crops to prevent erosion. The knock-on benefits are healthier soil, better water retention and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Poland as a test case for broader impact
The trio is using Poland as a testing ground for its regenerative efforts.
To measure results, the project uses the Cool Farm Tool (CFT), a calculator that helps farmers measure and manage their greenhouse gas emissions.
On the ground in western Poland, the approach steps away from single-crop solutions and instead looks across whole farms.
The use of rotational systems - alternating cereals, legumes and cover crop blends on the same field across different seasons - helps replenish nutrients, break pest and disease cycles and improve the structure of the soil.
Paul Gardner, Incorporated Lead Commercial VP and Chief Procurement Officer at Mars Pet Nutrition, says: "Through this pre-competitive collaboration, Mars, PepsiCo and ADM are working together to help tackle the climate impacts of the agricultural supply chain."
He continues: "Working across shared crop rotations in this way, we can empower farmers to adopt more climate-smart practices over the long term and across multiple crop types and harvests that can help enhance soil health, reduce emissions and build farm resilience.
"This partnership model marks an important step toward a more sustainable food industry."
Support on the ground, benefits across the board
Farmers taking part in the programme get financial and technical backing from ADM, which acts as an implementation partner.
This support comes with practical training led by specialists including Biospheres, which focuses on techniques like conservation tillage and cover cropping.
Katherine Pickus, Chief Sustainability Officer at ADM, highlights the broader supply chain importance: "We are proud to support farmers through this partnership and enhance the resilience of the supply chain, which is crucial to the future of agriculture.
"This initiative represents an exciting opportunity to help standardise and accelerate the implementation of regenerative farming methods, paving the way for a more resilient agricultural system."
Financial incentives are offered to help speed up adoption, which vary based on the techniques used.
Through shared land, crops and data, PepsiCo, Mars and ADM offer a practical model for what future food production can look like: fairer, more resilient and built on healthy soil.
