PepsiCo, Mars and ADM, global leaders in food, drinks, and pet care, have partnered to launch a regenerative agriculture program in Poland, supporting 24 farmers in adopting sustainable practices across their crop rotations. The initiative covers 5,454 hectares in total, with Mars supporting regenerative wheat across 3,359 hectares for pet care brands such as WHISKAS and PEDIGREE, and PepsiCo advancing sustainable rapeseed cultivation across 2,160 hectares for some of its iconic brands such as Lay’s and Doritos.

In Western Poland, the initiative moves beyond single-crop sustainability efforts, instead focusing on a holistic, farm-wide approach that strengthens soil health, improves water management, and enhances long-term agricultural resilience.

In a pre-competitive collaboration to help address the environmental impact of the agricultural supply chain, PepsiCo and Mars will work with some of the same farmers to integrate regenerative practices into rotational agriculture - a farming approach that systematically alternates different crops, such as cereals, legumes and cover crop blends, on the same land each season to help naturally replenish nutrients, break pest and disease cycles, and improve soil structure.[1] ADM, as an implementation partner, will play a key role by contributing both financial and technical resources to support the farmers transitioning to regenerative agriculture practices.

Farmers will also be equipped with the latest agricultural expertise, receiving hands-on training and guidance from technical specialists such as Biospheres. These practices not only improve soil structure and water retention but also reduce reliance on synthetic inputs, helping farms adapt to climate-related stresses. To accelerate this program and support carbon sequestration efforts, farmers will receive financial incentives based on the dedicated practices they implement - such as adopting conservation tillage and cover cropping.

“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,” said Archana Jagannathan, Chief Sustainability Officer at PepsiCo 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 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.”

“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.” Said Paul Gardner, Lead Global Commercial VP, Mars Incorporated, and VP, Global Pet Nutrition Commercial.

"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,” said Katherine Pickus, Chief Sustainability Officer, ADM. “This initiative represents an exciting opportunity to help standardize and accelerate the implementation of regenerative farming methods, paving the way for a more resilient agricultural system."

Poland is a key local benchmark for regenerative agriculture, an in-depth initiative in a region where sustainable practices are at different stages of maturity. By leveraging detailed data collection and rigorous impact measurement through the Cool Farm Tool (CFT), a sustainability calculator that helps farmers assess and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, this effort will generate valuable insights that can inform future expansion in other markets.

[1] https://library.farmersclick.com/knowledge-base/crop-rotation-and-soil-health-management-key-practices-for-sustainable-agriculture/, https://www.eea.europa.eu/help/glossary/eea-glossary/crop-rotation