September 20, 2025

Spotlight Stories

Spotlight 1 – Kellanova and ADM give an update on their regenerative agriculture partnership. Check it out, here.

Spotlight 2 – The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition does a deep dive on the USDA staffing crisis and its impacts on data and research. Read the story, here.

Spotlight 3 – The World Business Council for Sustainable Development publishes a new report on how companies can credibly assess and scale solutions that reduce emissions across the agriculture and food value chain. Take a read, here.

Industry Updates

Corteva Inc. may be looking to split its chemical and seed businesses into separate companies, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Indianapolis-based company, which has a market value of about $50 billion, could be considering a split to help protect the seeds business from any future liabilities related to their production and sale of crop protection products, according to the report. Corteva reported $16.9 billion in sales in 2024, of which $9.5 billion was from its seed sales unit and nearly $7.4 billion was from its crop protection division. [link]

Tyson Foods said it would stop using high-fructose corn syrup in branded products by the end of the year, the latest company to change recipes as the Trump administration takes aim at ingredients used in processed foods. The Arkansas-based meatpacking giant that owns brands such as Jimmy Dean, Ball Park and Hillshire said it would also stop using the artificial sweetener sucralose, the preservative BHA/BHT and titanium dioxide, a food coloring. Tyson, which processes one-fifth of all chicken, beef and pork sold in the U.S., said its goal was to stop using high-fructose corn syrup and the other ingredients in its U.S. branded products by the end of the year. [link]

McDonalds USA unveiled its largest investment in regenerative agriculture to date with the launch of the Grassland Resilience and Conservation Initiative, along with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as well as key McDonald's U.S. suppliers. The initiative will invest more than $200 million over the next seven years to help promote and accelerate regenerative grazing practices, habitat restoration, water and wildlife conservation on cattle ranches spanning 4 million acres across up to 38 states. Participating ranchers will have the opportunity to leverage tools and resources to help them improve wildlife habitats, conserve water, and enhance soil health. McDonald's USA also believes that this initiative will help boost its U.S. supply chain resilience, including by providing participating ranchers economic returns such as incentive payments. Certain McDonald's USA suppliers, including Cargill, Golden State Foods, Lopez Foods, OSI and The Coca-Cola Company have elected to provide funds to NFWF alongside McDonald's USA. [link]

A newly funded project, “Replenishing the Beings, the Soil Beneath our Feet,” is working through a partnership with Michigan State University Extension and Michigan Inter-Tribal Land Grant Extension System (MILES) educators, community partners, technical assistance networks, U.S. Department of Agriculture staff, and Natural Resources Conservation Service tribal liaisons to assist Indigenous farmers with soil health sampling. The project seeks to understand how soil health and Indigenous farming practices interact and influence soils’ capacity to grow food, enhance fertility and withstand weather extremes. This work is supported by the American Rescue Plan Technical Assistance Initiative program and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. [link]

A new study led by the University of Surrey in the UK has found that while vertical farms dramatically increase lettuce yields and use far less water, the carbon footprint still exceeds traditional lettuce farming. The study, published in Food and Energy Security, is believed to be the first to fully account for soil emissions from field farming while comparing them to crops grown in a commercial vertical farm in the UK. Results showed that vertical farms can deliver more than 20 times the yield of field farms, however vertically farmed lettuce produced about 0.93 kilograms of greenhouse gases for every kilogram grown compared with 0.57 kilograms for UK field farms. [link]

The Savanna Institute and the University of Illinois Extension will host a workshop and field tour on Tuesday, September 30th from 8am – 4pm at 4-H Memorial Camp near Allerton Park in Monticello, IL. The tour and workshop will focus on how agroforestry practices can be used to provide wildlife habitat for pollinators, birds, and game species including whitetail deer. Interest is growing in agroforestry, or the use of trees and woody plants in cropping or livestock management. In the 2022 Census of Agriculture, over 30,000 US farms reported using agroforestry practices such as alley cropping, silvopasture, forest farming, riparian forest buffers or windbreaks, a 6% increase from the previous census. This event is intended for Illinois farmers, landowners, conservationists, hunters, birders, and natural resource professionals. [link]

North Dakota State University Extension and the University of Minnesota Extension are partnering to present a collaborative 2026 Soil Management Summit (SMS) and Dakota Innovation and Research Technology (DIRT) Conference. The conference will take place Jan. 14-15, 2026, at the Delta Marriott Hotel in Fargo, North Dakota and will also offer a virtual option. Attendees of the SMS and DIRT Conference will have the opportunity to learn about many aspects of soil health from 18 concurrent sessions on cover crop management, reduced and alternative tillage practices, understanding and harnessing soil biology, economics of soil management practices, integrating crop and livestock systems and more. [link]

Kenya has rolled-out two landmark initiatives aimed at accelerating ecosystem restoration and promoting agroforestry as part of its climate resilience and sustainable land management agenda. The Agroforestry Strategy sets out a 10-year plan to mainstream agroforestry in farms and rangelands. It seeks to establish five million acres of woodlots in drylands, modernize the charcoal value chain, promote youth-led briquette enterprises, strengthen value chains and markets, and contribute to Kenya’s goal of 30% tree cover by 2032 under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA). The Strategy was developed in partnership with the Council of Governors and supported by international and local partners including FAO, JICA, CIFOR-ICRAF, Vi Agroforestry, and PELUM Kenya. [link]

Producers in the Southern Great Plains looking to boost soil health on their lands while earning added income from livestock grazing can now access new guidance from Texas A&M AgriLife experts. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service specialists and Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists developed four new fact sheets that walk farmers through the basics of growing cover crops for grazing, from selecting species and assessing biomass to evaluating grazing economics and animal safety risks. Grazing cover crops can boost soil health and provide a valuable forage source, but only if there is enough biomass to support livestock production and still protect the soil. [link]

Impact credit firm Mad Capital has closed its Perennial Fund II (PFII) at $78.4 million, which the firm says is more than 7x its $10 million Fund I, which closed in 2021, bringing its total assets under management (AUM) to $100 million. The fund provides US farmers with loans to help them transition to regenerative-organic farming practices and simultaneously boost farms’ long-term profitability. Early commitments came from The Rockefeller Foundation, impact investment platform Builders Vision, and the Schmidt Family Foundation. These helped attract additional investment from Social Finance, Innovaciones Alumbra, the New Mexico Finance Authority, Bedari Collective, the McConnell Foundation, and others, totaling 111 investors. [link]

PepsiCo, Unilever and other major retail and food and beverage companies have launched STEP up for Ag (Supporting Trusted Engagement and Partnership (STEP) up for Agriculture), a pre-competitive initiative designed to strengthen the capacity and sustainability of farmer-facing support organizations across North America. The new organization also is launching its first European pilot with the farmer-led cooperative Garlan that will design its own regenerative agriculture program to offer to farmers in Spain, building on earlier engagements in Türkiye. Through STEP up for Ag, a range of corporate and philanthropic partners will provide funding and strategic support to help farm support organizations: Develop robust business and strategic plans to boost profitability and local economies; Expand staffing and training to better equip farmers with the tools of the future; Establish measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) systems to track sustainable progress against goals; Enhance implementation capabilities to support scalability; and Access new revenue streams and partnerships to grow support for farmers over time. [link]

In Case You Missed It…

In late March this year, McCain Foods, McDonald’s, and Waitrose & Partners announced that they would participate in a new regenerative farming pilot launched by King Charles III’s Sustainable Markets Initiative nonprofit. See more, here.