PepsiCo is expanding regenerative agriculture efforts across key crop supply chains to prioritize resilience, soil health, and long-term farmer viability, with implications for sugar crops like beets and cane, vegetables like potatoes, and should affect end products across the company’s vast portfolio of packaged food and beverages. The goal is to show how farmers can strengthen the economic and environmental health of their farms with regenerative practices that are focused on resilience, according to VP of Sustainability, Margaret Henry.
As a global business, PepsiCo’s team is working to spread regenerative, restorative, and protective farming practices across 10 million acres, according to Margaret Henry, who told Expana in an interview that the company already claims they’ve helped farmers change practices across 4.7 million acres to date.
“It’s not so much a nice-to-do anymore,” Henry said, pointing to the need for healthy soils and reliable crop production for sugar beets, oats, and potatoes which are critical to the company’s future.
The push for regenerative agriculture comes at a time when the need for better environmental practices can impact the bottom line for players in the food and beverage supply chain, from farmers to end consumers buying potato chips or soda.
“These changes will impact and, in many cases, improve the economic prosperity of farmers, work towards traceability and limit deforestation, reduce severity of climate impacts on agriculture, limit fertilizer use, and promote adaptability,” said Henry.
The next phase of PepsiCo’s plan goes beyond agronomy and intends to build support systems around farmers who adopt regenerative agriculture practices, over monocrop farming practices which have been said to degrade soil health, necessitate more chemical fertilizer and pesticide use, and been found to threaten yields in the long term.
PepsiCo’s team is also linking farm operations with financiers and insurers who align with the vision for regenerative agriculture. For example, Henry pointed to better leasing options for no-till drills and other farm equipment necessary to carry out regenerative farming practices which may have otherwise been neglected due to farmers’ financing difficulties.
“The next phase is building a system of actors who care,” said Henry. “You take a brand and find the financial players and other actors who care about farm resilience to help limit disruptions farmers face and help with finances.”
Farming with the Environment
In the interview, weather volatility, water stress, and soil degradation were mentioned as factors that can directly affect yields, crop quality, and ingredient pricing. So, farmers using more resilient practices are better able to withstand heat, cold, drought, and floods, according to Henry who cited both anecdotal evidence and research trends.
In their efforts, PepsiCo’s team is also introducing farmers to local organizations who can provide region-specific farming information and assistance. In North Dakota, Henry’s crew has worked with other companies like Anheuser-Busch on landscape-level programs covering crops grown alongside potatoes and sugar beets like barley and wheat (used in American beer production).
“We create ways for rural communities to be supporting farmers,” said Henry. “Whether it’s the city downstream of farms providing investment for farmers who are adding cover crops… We need less individual actors and more working together. We work with North Dakota’s Trusted Advisors who are founding members of our separate initiative called STEP Up for Ag… Farmers need locally relevant, independent advice and/or connections with other local farmers.”
So, Henry and her counterparts at PepsiCo are working to create a tighter network across the vast swaths of farmland from which they source products. Like in Brazil as well, where the focus includes corn and sugarcane farming practices tied to soil health and worker outcomes. Or in India, the focus may be drought, water stress, and drip irrigation. While in Poland, the company has supported on-farm trials and crop rotation discussions, including interseeding practices involving fava beans and canola.
“In Canada too on a canola or sugar beet farm, PepsiCo can support via connections, on-site farm demos, and trials to show farmers what works in that situation,” said Henry.
In Iowa, PepsiCo and Cargill officials said in 2025 they would support regenerative practices across 240,000 acres in a shared corn supply chain by 2030.
From Expana’s conversation with PepsiCo’s Henry, it seems that regenerative agriculture is increasingly becoming part of procurement strategy as food manufacturers try to reduce supply risk in a more volatile production environment.
Thus far, PepsiCo said 70% of its key ingredients are now sourced in line with its sustainable sourcing guidelines, with a 2030 target of 90%. The company also said it has supported about 224,000 livelihoods since 2021, nearing its goal to positively impact more than 250,000 people by 2030, according to a company release.
Image source: Pepsico
Written by Ryan Gallagher
