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Illinois farmers and PepsiCo working to reduce CO2 emissions

PepsiCo has partnered with Illinois farmers to reduce carbon emissions and build a more sustainable food system.

Travis Deppe helps with the partnership though the Illinois Corn Growers Association’s Precision Conservation Management program. He tells Brownfield in two years they have created partnerships with 63 farmers.

“They have essentially created emission reductions equal to 1,762 cars being taken off the road, which us 8,155 metric tons of equivalent carbon.”

Deppe says more than half of those farmers have planted cover crops where they were not grown before to capture carbon and improve soil health.

“The grower can see an increase in return on investment while having some cost share introduced from Pepsi and it creates a really excellent relationship from top to bottom throughout the supply chain.”

He says other practices farmers have implemented include nutrient management, integrating variable rate technology and reducing tillage.

Deppe says they hope to reach their goal of pairing PepsiCo with 100 farmers by the end of 2020.