Agribusiness Task Force

Accelerating Regenerative Agriculture

At the invitation of The former Prince of Wales, executives from some of the industry’s largest agribusiness companies and organisations have come together as members of the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Agribusiness Task Force (ATF), designed to accelerate regenerative agriculture into becoming the predominant agricultural system in the world.

Outgoing Mars, Inc. CEO, Grant F. Reid chairs the Task Force. In 2022, ATF Members collaborated to identify what actions the private sector could take to make farming regeneratively a 'no-brainer' for farmers and develop scalable value chain blueprints to speed up the adoption of regenerative systems.

What Business Can Do to Drive Change

Despite clear long-term benefits, the rate of farmers adopting regenerative agriculture is too slow to make a significant difference to climate change and biodiversity loss in the near future. According to sustainability analysts Systemiq, regenerative farming is growing but the rate must triple to deliver against the planet’s need to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees.

The Agribusiness Task Force has so far focused its attention on three case study value chains (US wheat, UK potatoes and Indian Basmati rice) from which to identify learnings transferable to other crops and geographies. The findings are captured in its report - Scaling Regenerative Farming: An Action Plan - which details five key areas which it believes require urgent action to make the economics of regenerative farming more appealing to farmers. These are:

• Agree common metrics for environmental outcomes

• Build farmers’ income from environmental outcomes such as carbon reduction and removal

• Create mechanisms to share the cost of transition with farmers

• Ensure government policy enables and rewards farmers for transition

• Develop new sourcing models to spread the cost of transition

The Action Plan also includes a guide outlining the actions each sector of the value chain can take now along with key insights for successful implementation.

The Task Force is set to continue its work into 2023 to drive the implementation of the report’s Big 5 recommendations.

Letter of Intent

See the full Letter of Intent

The SMI Agribusiness Task Force recognises the vital role it has to play in uncovering what actions are needed from each part of the value chain to make regenerative agriculture the best business decision for farmers. Together, the Members are united by a common ambition to harness the unique capabilities and influence of the Task Force to enable regenerative agriculture to become mainstream, by encouraging and supporting farmers to change the way they farm.

In line with these commitments, the Agribusiness Task Force has published Scaling Regenerative Farming: An Action Plan, which includes scalable value chain blueprints, the learnings of which can be transferred to different crops more widely, to help transition value chains and unlock greater adoption of regenerative systems.

Wheat, potatoes, and rice were the strategic food crops examined by the Task Force. These crops and geographies (US, UK and India respectively) were identified based on the environmental impact of their production, the Task Force’s sourcing footprint and influence, the transferability of learnings to other crops and geographies, and the ease of establishing a route to engage farmers.

Membership Composition

The Agribusiness Task Force operates as an industry sub-group of the SMI and is chaired by Grant F. Reid, CEO of Mars, Incorporated. The Task Force is comprised of leaders from the Agribusiness industry, including:

Further Information

For roundtable and Task Force enquiries please contact:

Email: info@sustainable-markets.org