PepsiCo Clinton IA Sustainable Sourcing and Climate Smart Project
PepsiCo and Practical Farmers of Iowa are working together to help farmers adopt cover crops in their Eastern, IA supply chain. These acres will count towards PepsiCo's great goal of reducing GHGs in their supply chain by 2030.
Engagement Targets
Notes: (1) Minor fluctuations in the number of retained growers is expected from year to year. These fluctuations may be due to year-over-year crop rotation effects or other factors beyond the control of the project. Enrolled acres represent the total number of acres on an individual farm in a specific year. The ability to report enrolled acres is based on the Fieldprint Project Standard requirement that individual growers enrolled in projects enter at least 10% of the acres managed for a specific crop. (2) Entered acres represent the actual number of enrolled acres for which data is entered in the Fieldprint Platform for analysis.
Objectives
- In 2023, PFI aimed to help implement cover crops on 12,500 acres. We were able to surpass our goal, paying out 18,609 acres of cover crops to farmers selling crops into PepsiCo’s Eastern IA supply chain.
- In 2024, PFI paid out 18,615 acres of cover crops to farmers selling crops into PepsiCo’s Eastern IA supply chain.
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In 2025, PFI recruited 2,890 farmers between June and December who sold into the PepsiCo supply chains. Of those, 2,408 farmers completed the program and were paid for their cover crops, which is 89% of the farmers who received a contract. Specifically, 312 farmers in the Clinton, IA supply chain planted 17,250 acres of cover crops.
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Overall PepsiCo supply chain farmers, 426 were new to the program in 2025, illustrating that the vast majority of participants were alumni of the 2024 cost-share. In the wrap-up survey, 93% of respondents indicated that they are very likely or somewhat likely to refer the program to a friend or fellow farmer. 1,320 farmers are already re-enrolled for 2026 due to their long-term agreements, which will expire in March 2027. Of the remaining participants, the overwhelming majority of farmers (1,066) expressed interest in the next-year's program and asked to be contacted in Spring 2026. In total, over 99% of participants indicated that they would be interested in participating again in the Cover Crop Cost-Share.
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Total acres funded are below the goal, due in part to a shorter recruitment period following the loss of federal funding. Farmers reported planting an average of 60% of their farmed acres to cover crops this year, an increase of nearly 10% from last year. Twenty-two percent of program participants reported an increase in cover crop acreage as a result of the PFI cost-share program. Mean cover crop acres per contract was 348, but the median was 198 acres due to a few very large contracts raising the mean.