PepsiCo investing $216M for ‘climate-smart agriculture practices’

Purchase-headquartered PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) has announced a $216 million multi-year investment in long-term, strategic partnership agreements with three farmer-facing organizations ”“ Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), Soil and Water Outcomes Fund (SWOF), and the Illinois Corn Growers Association (ICGA).

According to a statement from the company, in investment is designed to “support the accelerated uptake of regenerative practices on more than three million acres and deliver approximately three million metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions and removals by 2030.” Through these partnerships, PepsiCo will work on a 2030 deadline with PFI to reach approximately 1.5 million acres, with the SWOF to reach nearly 1 million acres, and with the ICGA to reach approximately 600,000 acres.

“As the climate crisis continues to escalate, the threat to our food system increases as well,” said Jim Andrew, chief sustainability officer at PepsiCo. “It’s critically important to partner, for the long term, with organizations that have earned the trust of farmers as they make the transition to adopt climate-smart agriculture practices. We intend to be shoulder-to-shoulder with farmers as they work to make soil healthier, sequester carbon, improve watershed health and biodiversity, and improve their livelihoods.”