Danone North America is expanding its regenerative farming program – currently the most comprehensive regenerative agriculture dairy program in the US. 

The company unveiled its year three results from its multi-year, multi-million-dollar soil health research program. 

The soil health initiative, which was launched in 2017, brings together experts and academics to build best-in-class soil health programs to benefit farms and communities across the Danone North America portfolio. 

Now completing its third year, the research program has nearly tripled to more than 82,000 acres, including 28,000 organic acres, across the US and Canada, and has recently expanded into almond orchards in the central valley of California.

Tackling climate change
Nicholas Camu, vice president of agriculture at Danone North America, says: “We believe that regenerative agriculture – a series of innovative farming practices that help to lock carbon in the ground wher it belongs – is a key solution to tackling climate change.”

“We hope our work inspires others to join and drive an even bigger impact.”

The goal of Danone’s soil health initiative is to improve the organic matter in soils leading to increased carbon sequestration and improved yields, reduce chemical use, restore biodiversity, and enhance soil water holding capacity, leading to improved farm economic resilience over the long-term. 

In year three of the five-year soil health program, Danone North America evaluated progress with a focus on five key areas of regenerative agriculture: Soil Health, Biodiversity, Water, Carbon and Economy & Productivity. 

The company has partnered with Sustainable Environmental Consultants and its EcoPractices platform to conduct an in-depth field-level sustainability analysis and reporting on soil health and related goals leading to continuous improvement on enrolled farms. The year three assessment revealed key performance updates for the following environmental impact areas:

• Protecting and restoring soil: On the third year of the program journey to enhance organic matter in soils, farmer partners plant cover crops on 64 percent of the Program acreage versus the national average of 5 percent. Ninety-three percent of the program’s fields had a positive Soil Conditioning Index value in the third year of the program.
• Fostering biodiversity with species, varieties and wildlife: To support wildlife habitat and pollinators, like bees and butterflies, critical to agriculture – and ensure a more resilient and sustainable supply for farmer partners.
• Preserving and protecting water systems: Enhancing soil water holding capacity through improved soil health management and protecting water supply through technologies such as soil moisture probes, filter strips and saturated buffers.
• Reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions and sequestering carbon: Danone North America’s soil health program has reduced over 80,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and sequestered more than 20,000 tons of carbon through regenerative soil health practices, progressing efforts toward its global net-zero carbon by 2050 goal.
• Ensuring ongoing viability: The program monitors improved yields and efficiency and supports the farmer’s economic value proposition, achieving lower input costs and supporting farm economic resiliency due to regenerative agriculture practices.

In 2020, the program has grown by 64 percent and enables Danone North America to continue supporting farmers in implementing innovative farm management practices. 

Over the next two years, the company aims to establish goals with farmer partners collaboratively, pilot innovative technologies to drive change, launch industry-leading tools and programs to encourage greater regenerative management adoption, finance projects to accelerate more impact, and achieve enrollment of 100,000 acres under the regenerative agriculture program.

“We’re now three years into our five-year soil health research program and have established a solid foundation of research and data down to the individual field level,” says Ariel Wildenauer Desmarais, senior director of agricultural sourcing. 

“Our farmer partners are very receptive and engaged in our program, and this year we welcomed several new farmer partners to the program with the expansion into almond orchards and increasing our acres with organic dairies.”

Over the next two years, Danone looks forward to taking its findings, quantitative outcomes and improvement plans, to increase regenerative agriculture practices in the field. 

In addition, it seeks to launch a comprehensive financial investment and impact model that will support farmers and their partners, confirming lasting impact – both economically and environmentally, concludes Desmarais.