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Dive Brief:
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The Campbell's Company will work with potato farmers to implement regenerative agriculture practices for the production of soups and potato chips as part of a pilot with East Coast grocery chain Ahold Delhaize.
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The companies will support three potato farms in North Carolina, New York and Michigan in their adoption of practices that improve soil health and reduce carbon emissions.
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Campbell's will combine the harvested potatoes with conventionally grown crops to produce Kettle Brand chips, Cape Cod chips and Campbell's soups, which Ahold Delhaize will then sell in its U.S. stores.
Dive Insight:
This is Ahold Delhaize's third partnership with a major CPG to accelerate regenerative agriculture practices in food supply chains, adding to pilots with Kellanova and General Mills announced earlier this year.
The partnerships are a unique effort to reduce emissions across the food value chain while expanding consumer knowledge around regenerative agriculture. Consumers have little knowledge of the term, studies show, and tying partnerships to big name snacking brands like Kettle chips or Cheez Itz could increase awareness.
“Collaborations like this help connect our customers and consumers to the farmers who grow key ingredients in the food we make while actively helping to measure and advance sustainability and regenerative agricultural practices in our supply chain," Campbell’s Chief Sustainability Officer Stewart Lindsay said in a statement.
While Ahold Delhaize's previous partnerships largely centered around wheat, the pilot with Campbell's is unique in that it focuses on potatoes. Participating farms will work to improve nutrient management and implement practices such as cover cropping, compost application and conversion of farm equipment to renewable energy sources, according to a release.
The pilot covers 1,000 acres across the three farms, representing the amount of land needed to grow potatoes for Campbell's products in Ahold Delhaize's U.S. store brands including Food Lion, Stop & Shop and Giant Food. The companies said they will work with farmers to measure soil health and emissions impacts.
Campbell's has previously leveraged regenerative agriculture in tomatoes, launching a grant program to offset the costs of trialing sustainable practices. The company announced it received $3.4 million in October from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to further increase the adoption of these practices.