How PepsiCo, Mars and ADM are Scaling Regenerative Farming
PepsiCo, Mars and ADM put regenerative agriculture to work in Poland by backing 24 farmers as they shift to more sustainable and long-term crop systems.
Together they support 5,454 hectares of land, with Mars focusing on wheat for pet food brands like WHISKAS and PEDIGREE, while PepsiCo steers rapeseed cultivation for snack staples including Lay's and Doritos.
The initiative anchors regenerative practices into the supply chain by prioritising soil health, water management and lower emissions.
Regenerative farming meets supply chain strategy
Regenerative agriculture refers to a set of farming practices aimed at restoring soil health, improving biodiversity and strengthening ecosystems. It goes further than sustainable farming by working to reverse environmental damage rather than just limiting it.
Archana Jagannathan, Chief Sustainability Officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at PepsiCo, says it is "a vital tool for enhancing soil health, strengthening farm resilience and reducing agricultural emissions, which can ultimately benefit farmers and their livelihoods."
PepsiCo, Mars and ADM embed these goals directly into how they source materials. In Poland, crop rotations are key. This means rotating cereals, legumes and cover crops through the same land across seasons. Doing this naturally boosts soil fertility, breaks cycles of pests and disease and reduces the need for synthetic inputs like fertiliser or pesticide.
Archana adds: "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.
"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."
Poland as a pilot for data-led transformation
Farms across Poland are shifting from single-crop approaches to diversified systems. This tackles soil degradation while also protecting water sources and buffering against climate variability.
To measure progress, the project uses the Cool Farm Tool (CFT), a digital calculator that helps assess and cut greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture. The data produced will help build scalable models for other countries and regions.
Paul Gardner, Incorporated Lead Commercial VP & 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.
"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. These sessions focus on techniques like conservation tillage, which involves minimal soil disruption, and cover cropping, where specific plants are grown to protect and enrich the soil.
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 partnership with ADM, Mars and PepsiCo aims to harness insights and data from the project to drive the widespread adoption of regenerative agriculture practices across the wider Polish agricultural system.
"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."
These methods not only improve land quality but can also help farms store more carbon in the soil. To support this, farmers receive financial incentives tied to their specific practices, creating a direct link between environmental effort and economic reward.
By aligning regenerative practices with long-term sourcing strategies, Mars, PepsiCo and ADM show how climate-smart farming can fit directly into global supply chains, which benefits both the environment and business continuity.
