Growing our commitment to support regenerative agriculture.

Regenerative Agriculture and McCain.

In 2018, McCain undertook a study to examine the expected impacts of climate change on McCain’s operations up to 2050, including risks to harvests, such as: volatility of rainfall, temperature, pests, disease, all of which can affect potato yield and quality.

The study found that while we are accustomed to dealing with adverse climate events every 10-15 years, there are now multiple per year.

We understand that agriculture plays a significant role in climate change.

The food system contributes to a third of global greenhouse gas emissions¹, deforestation², biodiversity loss³ and soil degradation⁴.

With temperatures rising and populations rapidly growing, we at McCain believe that shifting to a more sustainable agriculture system is essential.

While agriculture may be part of the problem, regenerative agriculture can help reduce some of the impacts that agriculture has on our environment, over time.

Transforming the way that we produce food will mean significant but achievable changes to how we farm.

This new approach can broadly be called regenerative agriculture.

Regenerative agriculture offers a holistic approach to farming that aims to address environmental, economic and social challenges.

But what exactly is regenerative agriculture?

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all definition across the industry, but McCain defines regenerative agriculture as an ecosystem-based approach to farming that aims, over time, to improve farm resilience, yield and quality by improving soil health and water quality, optimizing water use, enhancing biodiversity, and reducing the impact of synthetic inputs.

What could the adoption of regenerative practices actually mean for the land and for our farmers?

For the land…

The land can benefit from improved soil health through increased organic matter, enhanced microbial diversity, and better nutrient cycling. Healthy soils are also potentially more resilient to erosion, drought, and extreme weather events.

Regenerative agriculture aims to promote biodiversity and habitat restoration which, over time, help to make the land more resilient to environmental changes, benefit pollinators and improve water use efficiency and retention.

For our farmers…

Farmers can benefit from cost savings through the reduced need for synthetic inputs and robust yields which, over time, can lead to more profitability.

Diversified crops and healthier soils may, over time, make farmers more resilient to market fluctuations and extreme weather.

With our roots on the farm, we believe agriculture can and must be a core part of the solution for the way we grow food.

We are aiming to put sustainability at 
the heart of our operations to help strengthen food and agriculture 
systems with a view to the future.

At McCain, taking action means seeking to reduce environmental impact in the way we grow our raw agricultural ingredients and products. This process starts with our commitment to regenerative agriculture.

McCain has committed to partnering with its farmers worldwide to implement regenerative agriculture practices across 100 per cent of their potato acreage used to grow McCain potatoes by 2030.