PepsiCo plans to expand regenerative farming practices across an additional 240,000 acres in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, it announced earlier this month. That would bring the number of regeneratively farmed acres it’s supporting in Canada to more than 500,000 by the end of the year.
WHY IT MATTERS: PepsiCo is one of several big food companies promoting regenerative agriculture as part of its sustainability push.
The expansion will help farmers adopt practices that restore soil health, conserve water, and reduce emissions while maintaining productivity, according to a press release sent out on Nov. 10. For participating farmers, the company says, it means more support for methods that can improve long-term resilience on their farms.
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“We’re expanding our regenerative agriculture program by 240,000 acres while supporting the farmers who grow the ingredients behind our most-loved brands. Together, we’re building resilience from the ground up,” said Cara Keating, CEO of PepsiCo Canada, in the release.
The company sources oats and potatoes from Canadian farms for products like Quaker Oats and Lay’s potato chips.
Perry Family Farm near Coaldale, Alta., won PepsiCo’s inaugural Global Farmer of the Year award in October.
The 5,000-plus acre, fourth-generation operation has supplied potatoes to Lay’s for more than 45 years. The farm uses composting, multi-species cover crops, and water-saving irrigation technology. An on-farm biogas plant converts organic waste into energy, producing nutrient-rich digestate that reduces the need for commercial fertilizer.
Testing what works on Prairie farms
The broader effort brings together farmers, research organizations, retailers, and policymakers, according to PepsiCo. One key partner is the South East Research Farm (SERF) near Redvers, Sask., a farmer-run research group testing regenerative techniques in real Prairie conditions.
The research farm has contributed insights such as novel intercrop mixes (for example, their chickpea-flax mix in the last decade, which suggested the practice could help lower risk of aschocyta) and field-scale trials with cover crops, among other practices. SERF’s funders include PepsiCo and the U.S. Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research.
The site is particularly noted for its mixed landscape of slopes and sloughs, high and low land, saline patches and rich topsoil, mirroring the range of what many Prairie farmers actually face.
For organizations like PepsiCo and local farmers, the research helps determine whether practices proven elsewhere will work in Western Canada’s climate and soil conditions.
For more than a year, SERF has also helped PepsiCo operate a program that rewards farmers for using beneficial management practices on their operations.
Growing support network
PepsiCo also partners with Agrinova in Quebec and New Brunswick, Co-op Regionale and the Northern Ontario Farm Innovation Alliance (NOFIA) in northern Ontario and the Ontario Soil Network in southern Ontario. These groups help recruit farmers, provide technical support, and host field demonstrations to share what practices work in local conditions.
PepsiCo has set a goal to support regenerative or protective practices across 10 million acres globally by 2030. As of 2024, the company said they had reached more than 3.5 million acres worldwide.
