Nestlé is going to invest about $1.29 billion over the next five years to support and accelerate the transition to regenerative agriculture across its global supply chain. The company will work with its network of more than 500,000 farmers and 150,000 suppliers to endorse practices that improve biodiversity, soil conservation, and regeneration of water cycles and integration of livestock.
With such a large proportion of its emissions coming from the farms that cultivate its raw ingredients, it is no surprise that Nestlé is looking to tackle farming first as it seeks to halve emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050.
Regenerative agriculture is a farming technique that aims to protect natural resources and restore farmland while drawing down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture accounts for nearly two-thirds of Nestlé’s total emissions.
In its announcement, the world’s largest food company noted it was investing in R&D to develop higher-yielding coffee and cocoa varieties that also have a lower environmental impact.
The technique has become one of the most popular ways for large food companies to tackle their environmental footprint, with PepsiCo, General Mills and Cargill among those to announce regenerative agriculture initiatives.
Nestlé actually is not alone in looking to regenerative agriculture to incorporate sustainability practices into its operations to address environmental, social and governance issues that increasingly are important to consumers. Cargill recently announced it will pay farmers about $20 for each metric ton of carbon they sequester using regenerative agricultural practices such as no-till or the use of cover crops as part of its new RegenConnect program.
In April, PepsiCo announced it would restore about 7 million acres of farmland through regenerative agriculture by 2030 — the equivalent of how much land it uses to grow the ingredients for its products. This move would cut at least 3 million tons of emissions by the end of the decade.