The powerhouse behind brands we all know such as Quaker, Gatorade and Lay’s is finally giving a push to it’s sustainable practices that the company had promised since 2020. PepsiCo announced a large-scale project to promote regenerative farming practices in the 60 countries where it produces.
But what is regenerative farming, exactly? Regenerative farming or regenerative agriculture is a holistic approach towards farming that has a particular focus on restoring and rehabilitating soil. It’s been known to improve the water cycle for crops, reduce carbon emissions and overall mitigate several effects of climate change. Proponents of regenerative farming promote crop rotation, minimizing soil disturbance, using less pesticides and composting.
PepsiCo has set on a mission to reduce carbon emissions, improve water management and improve the lives of the +250,000 agricultural workers and communities with these regenerative agricultural practices. The food giant has said that they will drive the project on five outcomes; “building soil health and fertility; sequestering carbon and reducing emissions; enhancing watershed health; increasing biodiversity; and improving farmer livelihoods”.
According to their press releases, these efforts will lead to a reduction of at least 3 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. And PepsiCo has walked the walk. Since 2020, Walkers —the potato chip manufacturer in the UK— has implemented sustainable farming practices. PepsiCo teamed with CCm Technologies in order to create a carbon-capture technology to transform leftover potato peelings into low-carbon fertilizers. This organic fertilizer is currently used in the farms that produce the chips and aims to reduce their carbon emissions by 70%.
This initiative is a step in the right direction and goes a long way in demonstrating that innovation can be found anywhere, like in a small potato.
