Projects

Implemented by Unilever and PepsiCo, this program supports farmers in building the health of their soils while reducing nitrogen runoff.

Through a partnership with Practical Farmers of Iowa, these two Collaborative members are working to remove barriers to adoption through providing financial aid and technical support, while catalyzing scaled adoption by supporting shared learning among farmers.

In a partnership between Cargill and PepsiCo, farmers are provided with the data and economic analyses to demonstrate the economic opportunity of cover crop practice adoption, and Practical Farmers of Iowa provides producers with agronomic assistance and peer-to-peer networks.

This project’s model leverages the value of supply chain partners by training Cargill originators to provide outreach, improving scalability beyond direct program participants.

Collaborative members PepsiCo and The Nature Conservancy have teamed up with Precision Conservation Management and Bunge to enroll growers in a program that provides an economic analysis of options for soil health interventions, peer-to-peer networks, and access to cost share for first-time acres.

This program’s results have revealed a strong grower appetite for soil health-building interventions when the economic case for soil health is demonstrated, providing farmer benefit and enabling substantial greenhouse gas reductions.

Farmers and the broader public need a deeper understanding of the benefits of regenerative agriculture and the value it offers to farms, communities, and food and agricultural systems. Responding to this need, and with funding from the Walmart Foundation, MRCC members are embarking on a targeted media campaign to help increase acceptance of regenerative agriculture within farming communities.

This project will produce credible insights for those designing and implementing campaigns in food and agricultural systems on ways to positively engage farmers of varying crop types and adoption readiness levels, and will include recommendations on shared language, messaging approaches, and delivery strategies for use and benefit beyond MRCC’s membership.

In 2019, Kellogg and The Nature Conservancy launched the Supporting U.S. Farmers project to provide farmers producing corn, wheat, and rice with funds and technical assistance to improve their practices.

Through this partnership, Collaborative members expect to provide hundreds of farmers with funds and technical assistance to implement conversation practices such as cover crops, conservation tillage, nutrient management, vegetative buffers, irrigation efficiency, and wetland restoration, and demonstrate that agriculture can contribute significantly to improved environmental outcomes.

The U.S. Oats for Oatly program helps growers diversify their crop rotation by providing a stable market and support for growing milling oats with a legume cover crop.

In partnership with Practical Farmers of Iowa, Grain Millers, and the Sustainable Food Lab, Oatly provides cost share support, technical assistance, and coaching for farmers to add oats and legumes to their crop rotation. This extended rotation has many soil health benefits, including increases in soil carbon and reductions in pest pressure, nitrogen inputs, and nutrient loss—all impacts serving to support farms’ long-term resilience.

Beyond the goal of providing a stable market for small grains, this program will establish how to best encourage and support growers in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa as they implement diverse rotations.