Agrifood corporates McCain Foods, McDonald’s, and Waitrose & Partners will participate in a new regenerative farming pilot launched by King Charles III’s Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) nonprofit.
“Routes to Regen” will provide support for UK farmers transitioning to regenerative agriculture practices. In the process, SMI and these corporates aim to “demonstrate a new model for how industries can unite to drive sustainable change on a global scale,” according to SMI CEO Jennifer Jordan-Saifi.
Financial institutions Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest, Barclays, Aon, Tokio Marine Kiln will work together with those agrifood corporates on the project.
SMI, which helps various industries in the UK transition to sustainable practices, launched its Agribusiness Hub in 2020 to focus on increasing adoption of regenerative agriculture practices. As such, the Hub has identified in its research that financial risk and “a fragmented support system” are key barriers to farmer adoption, according to Jordan-Saifi.
“Routes to Regen” will address both barriers by providing various supports. Participating farmers will be able to access financial, technical, and “peer-to-peer” support such as events where they can swap knowledge with other farmers.
An ‘easy-to-access’ regen ag package
The work will be based on findings from SMI’s 2022 “action plan” to scale regenerative agriculture, as well as a recently published “practical guide” that outlines near- and long-term recommendations for both the public and private sectors around the regen ag transition.
Central to both of those things as well as to the new pilot are five areas SMI has identified as critical for a successful transition:
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Agree common metrics for environmental outcomes
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Build farmers’ income from environmental outcomes such as carbon reduction and removal
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Create mechanisms to share the cost of transition with farmers
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Ensure government policy enables and rewards farmers for transition
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Develop new sourcing models to spread the cost of transition
The Royal Countryside Fund will manage the program, which will take place in the East of England throughout 2025, with the help of Ceres Rural, which will offer on-farm advice to farmers.
Other supporting companies and initiatives include ADM, British Sugar, the Soil Association Exchange, and Wildfarmed.
Farming in a sustainable way quickly gets “overwhelming for busy farmers who are facing relentless social, environmental and economic challenges,” noted Keith Halstead, executive director at The Royal Countryside Fund.
The new program, he added, is about “making regenerative farming practices feel more achievable by bringing together resources and rewards from industry-leading businesses into one, easy-to-access package, which will be discussed on farm.”
Corporate regen at a glance
All of the agrifood corporates involved in new pilot have previously dabbled in regenerative agriculture to varying degrees.
McDonald’s runs the Flagship Farmers program that aims to help farmers share knowledge with one another around sustainable farming.
Potato grower McCain has publicly committed to implementing regenerative agriculture practices across 100% of the acreage used to grow its potatoes by 2030. It also recently launched a “regen fries” initiative aimed at boosting consumer awareness.
Waitrose has said it will reach net zero across all of its UK farms by 2035, an effort that will involve transitioning farmers to regenerative practices. The supermarket chain also has partnerships with regen-focused companies such as Land App and Wildfarmed.
