Charting a New Course for Food Production

At Cargill, we believe change starts where the food system begins – on the farm. Agriculture has a unique opportunity to address the global climate challenge and better the economic prospects for farmers, who are at the forefront of our food system.

We know that changes made at the grassroots of our supply chains can significantly impact reducing emissions and building the resilience of our soils for the next generation. Our vision is to make regenerative agriculture commonplace across our global supply chains–helping farmers to produce food more sustainably while increasing their profitability and resiliency.

Cargill is committed to working alongside farmers to help sustainably meet the demands of a growing population. This involves harnessing innovation to help farmers increase productivity and reduce costs, providing tools and training to manage risk, and connecting them to new markets. 

In 2020, we committed to advance regenerative agriculture practices across 10 million acres of North American farmland by 2030. We continue to make good progress against our commitment and have already advanced regenerative agriculture practices on 880,000 acres of North American farmland. 

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to regenerative agriculture, which is why providing farmers with options and flexibility can help scale up the adoption of these practices across geographies and supply chains. Cargill is working around the world to support farmers' and ranchers' transition to a more sustainable and resilient food system through a portfolio of regenerative agriculture programs.

One of the ways is through Cargill RegenConnect®, which connects farmers to the growing environmental marketplace by paying them for improved soil health and positive environmental outcomes. Farmers enrolled in the program can choose the practices best suited to their operation's unique growing conditions, including planting cover crops and implementing reduced- or no-till farming. Enrolled farmers also have access to agronomic experts who can provide customized guidance on how to implement and optimize regenerative agriculture practices.

“We know that the global agriculture industry will be forced to contend with the twin challenges of feeding a growing global population while reducing its overall carbon footprint”

Cargill RegenConnect has enrolled nearly 1 million acres across the U.S. and has since expanded to Europe for eligible farmers in Germany, Poland, Romania, and France. While it has been very successful across North America and Europe, we recognize that farming practices are not universal - what works in Wisconsin may not work in New South Wales. That’s why we launched Cargill SustainConnect™ to specifically support canola farmers in Australia, opening new revenue streams for growers to meet the rising demand from domestic and international customers.

Cargill SustainConnect builds on Cargill’s global efforts to make sustainable farming programs commonplace across its global supply chains. While Cargill RegenConnect looks to build soil carbon as a counter to climate change, Cargill SustainConnect aims to reduce non-organic inputs into the cropping system to optimize fertilizer, drive yield, get a lower emissions profile, and get value for the grower.

While we see our impact starting where the food system begins, we know it doesn’t end there. Regenerative agriculture practices are not limited to crops. Managing cattle movement, grazing time and intensity and a controlled approach to cattle roaming improves grassland soils and biodiversity and can help sequester carbon.  

One great example can be found in Cargill’s BeefUp Sustainability initiative. Through BeefUp, we collaborate with customers, farmers, ranchers, and nonprofits, combining traditional ranching practices with the latest agricultural technology to cultivate healthier soils, protect nature, and reduce the carbon footprint of the beef supply chain. In recognition that beef production accounts for an estimated 3 percent of GHG emissions in the U.S., we set a goal to reduce emissions from our North American beef supply chain by 30 percent by 2030.   

Our strategy focuses on four ways to help make beef production more sustainable: grazing management, feed production, innovation, and food waste reduction – working across the entire supply change to enact change. Over the next five years, we expect to advance sustainable grazing across five million acres of grasslands in the U.S. To date, BeefUp’s regenerative efforts are expected to impact roughly 5.2 million acres in the year 2030.

We know the global agriculture industry will be forced to contend with the twin challenges of feeding a growing global population while reducing its carbon footprint. Cargill is well-positioned to lead this change, but we can't do it alone - we will need partners across the food and agriculture sectors to join us. Charting this new course for food production is fundamental to our vision for reimagining how we grow and move food around the world more sustainably – nourishing people and protecting the planet.