Shaping the future of sustainable farming.
McCain works with over 3,900 farmers, across six continents, harvesting over 6.5 million tons of potatoes every year.
We have worked side-by-side with our farmers for generations and will continue with them on this journey to provide support that can de-risk both the transition period and the longer-term business model.
Hear from one of our farmers…
We operate two Farms of the Future: one in Canada, focused on Northern hemisphere practices, and one in South Africa, exploring Southern hemisphere practices.
These bring together scientists, agronomists, and experts in advanced farming technology to test, embed, and showcase best practices in smart and regenerative farming.
We are currently planning our third Farm of the Future, to be announced later in 2025.
At these farms, we welcome our farmers onsite and aim to scale learnings through information sharing to groups including government, customers, suppliers and non-governmental organizations.
Farms of the Future: Canada
The flagship of McCain Foods’ Farm of the Future project is situated on 500 acres near the company’s hometown of Florenceville, New Brunswick.
As of 2025, Farm of the Future Canada has reached the Advanced Level or higher for five of the seven indicators in our Framework, meaning it is categorized as Advanced under our Regenerative Agriculture Framework:
Armoured Soils, Preferably with Living Plants
Enhanced Farm and Ecosystem Biodiversity
Enhanced Crop Biodiversity
As of 2025, Farm of the Future Canada has reached the Advanced Level or higher for five of the seven indicators in our Framework, meaning it is categorized as Advanced under our Regenerative Agriculture Framework:
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Armoured Soils, Preferably with Living Plants |
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Enhanced Farm and Ecosystem Biodiversity |
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Enhanced Crop Biodiversity |
To read more about our progress at Farm of the Future Canada, read our Year Three report, and click here for Year One and Year Two to see our progression over time.
Hear from one of our farmers…
Farms of the Future: Africa
Regenerative agriculture principles must be adapted to the local context.
The work underway at our Farm of the Future Africa is crucial for generating knowledge around how these principles come to life in the Southern hemisphere in countries such as South Africa, Argentina, Australia, Colombia and New Zealand.
In South Africa, cover crops play a vital role in armouring the soil to help protect against extreme heat and drought. The cover crops we select at Farm of the Future Africa aim to, over time, limit erosion, increase water infiltration and retention and provide natural fumigation of soil-borne pests.
Farm of the Future Africa regularly experiences hot and extreme weather conditions and is often operating under water stress. This makes our regenerative agriculture principle of optimizing water use even more vital.
The Farm has now met the Leading criteria of our Regenerative Agriculture Framework for the indicators of enhanced crop diversity and armoured soils.
Training, knowledge and technology transfer to farmers
Transitioning to regenerative agriculture is not always easy, with each region facing its own unique challenges based on the local geography, type of soil, and climate.
We aim to empower our farmers to make the transition profitably and sustainably by offering expert-led training to help them understand the benefits of regenerative agriculture and equip them to overcome challenges.
Training follows an annual cycle, with formal training taking place in winter months through interactive farmer meetings, while summer months are dedicated to field tours and on-farm demonstrations, which sometimes take place at our Innovation Hubs and Flagship Farms. These are commercial farms where we test and showcase regenerative agriculture practices, with learnings shared across our regions.
Farmers representing 71% of the potato acreage used to grow McCain potatoes have now received training on regenerative agriculture practices.
Innovation Hubs and Flagship Farms
Ensuring that our farmers can access findings from our experimental farms is critical as we continue to transition our farms to regenerative agriculture practices.
In addition to our Farms of the Future, significant progress is being made with our Innovation Hubs and Flagship Farms.
McCain developed the Innovation Hub concept to be a local, regionally accessible extension of its Farms of the Future project.
We’ve established Innovation Hubs across North America, including Alberta, Manitoba, Idaho, Washington, Wisconsin, and Maine.
In 2024, projects at our North American Hubs covered fertilizer management, pesticide reduction, cover crop establishment and termination, tillage reduction, and water use efficiency.
We also have Innovation Hubs operating in the UK, and Flagship Farms (the European version of our Innovation Hubs) operating across Continental Europe.
In 2025, we plan to establish new Flagship Farms to demonstrate advanced regenerative practices in Poland, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, India, and Brazil.
Demonstration Days
The potato crop is particularly sensitive to the changing climate.
McCain’s farmers are regularly invited to ‘demonstration days’, where they can discuss and learn about technical and on-farm solutions to help prepare for a future focused on resiliency and regenerative agriculture.
These events provide practical demonstrations in the field with displays of machinery, equipment, review of new practices in trial plots, showcasing the latest advances in crop nutrition, fertilizer management, harvesting and storage. The days include knowledge exchange on ways to aim to enhance soil health and biodiversity on the farm.
Hear what McCain Farmers have experienced while implementing regenerative agriculture practices:
Partnering to provide training to our farmers
In North America, McCain is collaborating with The Soil Health Institute on regenerative agriculture education for growers.
The Soil Health Institute is a global non-profit with a mission to safeguard and enhance the vitality and productivity of soil through scientific research and advancement.
McCain has worked with the Soil Health Institute since 2021 to deliver regenerative agriculture training, virtual soil health training, Soil Health Listening Sessions, Soil Health Field Days, the launch of a regenerative agriculture peer network, and ongoing grower office hours.
In France, McCain continues to work with the Earthworm Foundation on its Living Soils initiative that aims to measure soil health and kickstart the regeneration of soils.
At the heart of this strategy is the development of research and technical partnerships to further advance good practices in soil health.
Working closely with pilot farms, Earthworm and its technical partners work with farmers and McCain’s agronomy team to train, coach, measure and support the transition to regenerative agriculture practices.
In North America, McCain is collaborating with The Soil Health Institute on regenerative agriculture education for growers.
The Soil Health Institute is a global non-profit with a mission to safeguard and enhance the vitality and productivity of soil through scientific research and advancement.
McCain has worked with the Soil Health Institute since 2021 to deliver regenerative agriculture training, virtual soil health training, Soil Health Listening Sessions, Soil Health Field Days, the launch of a regenerative agriculture peer network, and ongoing grower office hours.
In France, McCain continues to work with the Earthworm Foundation on its Living Soils initiative that aims to measure soil health and kickstart the regeneration of soils.
At the heart of this strategy is the development of research and technical partnerships to further advance good practices in soil health.
Working closely with pilot farms, Earthworm and its technical partners work with farmers and McCain’s agronomy team to train, coach, measure and support the transition to regenerative agriculture practices.
It’s all about relationships
We talk to our farmers regularly to understand their level of adoption of regenerative agriculture.
Ultimately, it is all about relationships – understanding how we can work collaboratively as we aim to support their resilience, while bringing people the products they know and love.
It is through collaboration, as well as determination, that we will be able to unlock progress and the transformation to a more sustainable food system.
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