Agrifood giants PepsiCo, Mars, and ADM are launching a regenerative agriculture program in Poland aimed specifically at farmers practicing rotational growing.
The program will provide technical and financial assistance to farmers that incorporate regenerative agriculture practices into rotational agriculture, where cereals, legumes, and other crops are alternated each season to restore nutrients and soil structure as well as control weeds and pests.
Crop rotation as a practice dates back millennia. Of late, it’s received a fair bit of attention thanks to more knowledge around the ecological drawbacks of mono-cropping and more large agrifood companies outlining regenerative agriculture plans.
PepsiCo, Mars, and ADM see this latest joint effort as a way to help farmers adopt more climate-smart practices over a longer time frame and across multiple crop types and harvests, said Paul Gardner, lead global commercial VP, Mars Incorporated, and VP, global pet nutrition commercial. That in turn “can help enhance soil health, reduce emissions and build farm resilience,” he added.
Ensuring ‘long-term resilience’
The project will start small: just 24 farmers in Poland will integrate regen practices like no till and cover cropping into their crop rotations.
The initiative will span 5,454 hectares in total. Mars will support regenerative wheat across 3,359 hectares for its pet care brands, while PepsiCo will focus on rapeseed cultivation on 2,160 hectares for its Lay’s and Doritos brands.
“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,” noted PepsiCo Europe chief sustainability officer Archana Jagannathan.
She added that the project also helps PepsiCo with its goal to have “regenerative, restorative, or protective practices” on more than 10 million acres by 2030. And while small in scope now, the project could, she said, 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.”
Participating farmers will receive training on practices that improve soil health and water retention, in addition to reducing reliance on chemical inputs. Farmers will receive financial incentives based the regenerative agriculture-focused practices they choose to implement.
ADM will contribute both financial and technical support to the farmers.
Earlier this week, ADM released its 2025 sustainability report, which includes the company’s goals and progress in expanding its re:generations regenerative agriculture program. In 2024, ADM partnered
with more than 28,000 growers and delivered more than 5 million regenerative acres globally, surpassing the company’s original goal and achieving its 2025 target a year early, according to the new report.
