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PepsiCo Iowa Sustainable Sourcing for High Fructose Corn Supply Chain and Climate Smart Project

A sustainability impact project to make progress in reducing absolute green house gas emmissions in PepsiCo’s value chain by 20% by 2030 . PepsiCo and Cargill aim to partner with local farmers to deliver sustainable growth and positive impact through partnerships, education programs and best practice sharing. In this project; PepsiCo and Cargill are working with a local NGO on a sustainable sourcing program that involves recruiting farmers who sell corn to Cargill at Cargill’s facility in Eddyville, Iowa to plant cover crops on any cropland. The objectives of the partnership are to increase farmer’s adoption of winter cover crops through which farmers better manage nutrients, build soil health, control weeds, reduce soil erosion and improve water quality for a more resilient sourcing-shed on Midwest farms resulting in more than 1.2 mil t CO2-eq/year through reduced GHG source emissions.

Active
Insight

Engagement Targets

Growers

Chart shows new, retained and total number of growers enrolled in each year of the project. Per the project registration, this project has a target of 200 unique growers.

Acres

Chart shows entered and enrolled acres in each year of the project. Per the project registration, this project has a target of 25000 enrolled acres.

Notes: (1) Minor fluctuations in the number of retained growers is expected from year to year. These fluctuations may be due to year-over-year crop rotation effects or other factors beyond the control of the project. Enrolled acres represent the total number of acres on an individual farm in a specific year. The ability to report enrolled acres is based on the Fieldprint Project Standard requirement that individual growers enrolled in projects enter at least 10% of the acres managed for a specific crop. (2) Entered acres represent the actual number of enrolled acres for which data is entered in the Fieldprint Platform for analysis.

Objectives

Cover Crop Adoption
Increase farmer’s adoption of winter cover crops on approximately 12k acres annually through which farmers better manage nutrients, build soil health, control weeds, reduce soil erosion and improve water quality for a more resilient sourcing-shed on Midwest farms resulting in more than 1.2 mil t CO2-eq/year through reduced GHG source emissions through 2027.
2023
Second Party Verified
  • PFI paid on 29,000 cover crops acres from farmers selling corn into the Eddyville, Iowa supply chain, surpassing our target for 2023 by 8%. In 2023 we recruited 214 farmers between June and December who sold into the Eddyville and Blair supply chains. Of those, 197 farmers were paid for their cover crops.
  • In 2023, we once again saw our intervention treatment, cover crops, trending slightly higher, on average, in greenhouse gas emissions per acre than our baseline of no cover crops. Due to the large amount of variation that we see across our sample population in emissions (see figure where bar level indicates average and dots indicate field-level data), we cannot report that the differences between average emissions are due to cover crops alone. However, when we consider an estimate of carbon sequestration, roughly 1100 lbs. of CO2e per acre, then we do see that cover crops significantly benefit emissions.
2024
Second Party Verified
  • Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) continued its cover crop cost-share program with Cargill and PepsiCo as funding partners in 2024. Recruitment goals for the program have remained the same as prior years with 29,000 paid cover crop acres for farmers selling corn into Eddyville, Iowa supply chain.
  • In 2024 we recruited 133 farmers between June and December who sold into the Eddyville supply chain. Of those, 123 farmers were paid for their cover crops. The most common reason why farmers did not complete the program was that they did not plant cover crops in fall 2024 or they decided to enroll in a different carbon program.  Total acres funded are slightly over target, given the higher-than-normal program. Eddyville acres came in near target with 29,046 acres of cover crops.
  • Three farmers were new to the program in 2024, illustrating that the vast majority of participants were alumni of the PepsiCo-Cargill cost-share. This program continues to attract and retain experienced cover croppers: only 3 of the 180 paid participants (2%) had one year or less experience with cover crops.  
  • Though we typically report biometrics together for Cargill’s and PepsiCo projects for the Blair, Nebraska and Eddyville, IA supply chains, this year we saw different results in the Eddyville vs the Blair supply sheds. In Eddyville (central and southeast Iowa primarily) we saw lower overall emissions and higher corn yields with cover crops (although neither was statistically significant). There were also statistically improved biodiversity scores, soil carbon and soil conservation indices. In the Blair (western IA and eastern NE) supply chain, on the other hand, we saw higher emissions and yields on the corn fields without cover crops (emissions, again, were not statistically significant).  Interestingly, the emissions for both regions were in the same ballpark (3,430 – 3,570 lbs. CO2e per acre). Emissions are closely tied to fertilizer. In the Eddyville region we saw lower fertilizer put on cover cropped fields, while the opposite is true with Blair.

Participants

Project Lead Organization

PepsiCoFull
CargillFull

Implementation Partner

Practical Farmers of IowaFull

Project Details

Status
Active
Pathway
Insight
Primary Crops
Corn (grain)
Natural Resource Concern
Counties the project is located in:

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