PepsiCo today announced the continuation of its second round of projects funded by global agriculture accelerator, the Positive Agriculture Outcomes (PAO) Fund, by granting 14 business projects through 11 countries funding to focus on some of the most obstinate challenges confronting agriculture today.
‘‘We are in a race to reach the world’s 1.5-degree target and, to do our part’’, said Rob Meyers, Vice President, Sustainable Agriculture, Global Sustainability at PepsiCo
The American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation has set a range of ambitious PepsiCo positive goals, including expanding regenerative agriculture practices, and building the resilience of those in their agricultural supply chain by preparing them for a changing climate, said Rob Meyers, Vice President, of Sustainable Agriculture, Global Sustainability at PepsiCo.
Meyers added reaching PepsiCo’s and the planet’s goals would require fresh thinking and innovation from its agriculture teams and partners from across the globe, that being the case the PAO Fund was created to make it a bit simpler for great ideas to set in motion.
The PAO Fund
Introduced in August 2021, the PAO Fund offers PepsiCo market groups co-investment to fast-track distinct and innovative Positive Agriculture projects. The investments are premeditated to ‘‘de-risk’’ promising initiatives while accelerating the advancement of innovative technologies and methodologies that can support size up the adoption of regenerative agriculture methods.
In 2022, the PAO Fund is making investments in projects that span a range of commodities, supply chains, time horizons, and PepsiCo business units, but all are focused on either testing new regenerative technology or approach, helping farmers build climate resilience, or developing new sustainable ‘‘environments.’’ Through 2021 and 2022, the PAO Fund catalysed PepsiCo investments in more than 20 different projects, projected to over-all more than $ 27 million across 2026.
Haseeb Malik, Senior Manager of Agriculture AMESA, PepsiCo said that with assistance from the PAO Fund, the company has been able to create much more engagement and innovation both at the farm level and through a closer partnership with their global teams.
Malik added that this work is not only helping to advance their pep+ goals in the market, but its also profoundly improving the lives of the farmers, the company is working with.
Projects from The PAO Fund’s inaugural investment are the focus of PepsiCo’s latest, four-part digital video series, “Growing Our Future.” The series looks at how the American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation is working with farmers in Thailand to help them acclimatize to climate change, how farmers in Greece are accepting more efficient irrigation systems to adapt to increased drought, how the American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation has amalgamated with farmers in Punjab, India to develop kilns that can turn their agricultural waste into fertilizer, and how the American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation is supporting research in Brazil to assist potato farmers to improve soil well-being.
Positive Agriculture which is one of the pillars of the company’s pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) agenda, aims to source crops and ingredients in an approach that speeds up regenerative agriculture and reinforces farming communities. It consists of 2030 goals to spread the adoption of regenerative farming practices through 7 million acres, enhance the livelihoods of over 250,000 people in its agricultural supply chain, and sustainably source its key ingredients.
About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are appreciated by consumers more than one billion times each day in more than 200 countries and territories across the globe. PepsiCo generated more than $79 billion in net revenue in 2021, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods portfolio that includes Doritos, Lay’s, Pepsi-Cola, Cheetos, Gatorade, Quaker, Mountain Dew, and SodaStream. The American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation’s product portfolio comprises a wide range of pleasant foods and beverages, including many iconic brands that bring about more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.
Guiding PepsiCo is their vision to ‘‘Be the Global Leader in Beverages and Convenient Foods’’ by Winning with pep+ (PepsiCo Positive). PepsiCo Positive is their strategic end-to-end transformation that puts sustainability and human capital at the focal point of how it would create value and growth by operating within planetary boundaries and inspiring positive change for the planet and society.