Northern Plains
Unique regional context
Regenerative agriculture in the Northern Plains faces unique challenges due to its short growing season and cool climate. Farmers are innovating to maintain living plants and enhance diversity through practices like intercropping, no-till, and livestock integration on cropland.
Progress
We have invested in supply shed projects in this region since 2016. In 2024 we engaged over 200,000 acres in programming to advance regenerative agriculture.
How we’re supporting regenerative agriculture in this region
In the Canadian Prairies, we have partnered with the Soil Health Academy, Understanding Ag, and Collective Impact Carbon since 2019 to support regenerative agriculture education, one-to-one coaching, and peer learning for farmers. Alongside this program, we are piloting ecosystem service market payments through Eco-Harvest.
In 2022 we entered a partnership with ALUS, investing $2.3 million to establish the Growing Roots program that supports locally-led regenerative agriculture programming, and further expanded the partnership in 2024. Since 2016, we’ve also partnered with a group of farmers and agronomists in eastern Saskatchewan to engage farmers in regenerative agriculture starting from a foundation of basic and precision agronomy services, and evolving to practices like diverse cover crops and intercropping.
In Minnesota and North Dakota, we’ve supported several locally led programs through Soil & Water Conservation Districts to provide farmers financial resources and technical assistance with soil health practices, while also helping to build staffing capacity within local offices and other organizations providing farmer technical assistance, like Pheasants Forever and the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition.
In North Dakota we participate in a coalition of multiple food companies working to support a soil health training program for independent agronomists called the Trusted Advisor Partnership, where we also support cost-share payments for farmers working with these trained agronomists to help enable new practice adoption. By providing matching funds we helped unlock $20 million in federal funding to expand this program along with one of the locally led programs we support in Minnesota through a Regional Conservation Partnership Program grant from the United States Department of Agriculture.
Through our partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, as of 2023 we’ve supported seven projects across the region that are enabling regenerative agriculture adoption as well as improved habitats for wildlife on both crop and rangelands.
We also source organic wheat, oats, and the novel perennial grain Kernza® in this region. We support the Organic Agronomy Training Service program which trains agronomists and farmers interested in organic transition, and partner with the Rodale Institute to provide personalized coaching from trained agronomists to organic fruit, vegetable, wheat and oat supply chains – including 32 farmers managing over 25,000 acres in the regions from which we source organic wheat and oats in 2024.
Finally, we partner to study the impacts of regenerative agriculture in this region through on-farm and university-led research with the University of Minnesota, University of Manitoba, the Ecdysis Foundation, RES, Furman University, and the Soil Health Institute. We also work with the University of Maine and Trust in Food to research farmer adoption.
In 2022 we entered a partnership with ALUS, investing $2.3 million to establish the Growing Roots program that supports locally-led regenerative agriculture programming, and further expanded the partnership in 2024. Since 2016, we’ve also partnered with a group of farmers and agronomists in eastern Saskatchewan to engage farmers in regenerative agriculture starting from a foundation of basic and precision agronomy services, and evolving to practices like diverse cover crops and intercropping.
In Minnesota and North Dakota, we’ve supported several locally led programs through Soil & Water Conservation Districts to provide farmers financial resources and technical assistance with soil health practices, while also helping to build staffing capacity within local offices and other organizations providing farmer technical assistance, like Pheasants Forever and the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition.
In North Dakota we participate in a coalition of multiple food companies working to support a soil health training program for independent agronomists called the Trusted Advisor Partnership, where we also support cost-share payments for farmers working with these trained agronomists to help enable new practice adoption. By providing matching funds we helped unlock $20 million in federal funding to expand this program along with one of the locally led programs we support in Minnesota through a Regional Conservation Partnership Program grant from the United States Department of Agriculture.
Through our partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, as of 2023 we’ve supported seven projects across the region that are enabling regenerative agriculture adoption as well as improved habitats for wildlife on both crop and rangelands.
We also source organic wheat, oats, and the novel perennial grain Kernza® in this region. We support the Organic Agronomy Training Service program which trains agronomists and farmers interested in organic transition, and partner with the Rodale Institute to provide personalized coaching from trained agronomists to organic fruit, vegetable, wheat and oat supply chains – including 32 farmers managing over 25,000 acres in the regions from which we source organic wheat and oats in 2024.
Finally, we partner to study the impacts of regenerative agriculture in this region through on-farm and university-led research with the University of Minnesota, University of Manitoba, the Ecdysis Foundation, RES, Furman University, and the Soil Health Institute. We also work with the University of Maine and Trust in Food to research farmer adoption.
Ingredients grown
• Wheat
• Oats
• Sugar Beets
• Oats
• Sugar Beets
Relevant products
• Flour
• Cereal
• Snack Bars
• Cereal
• Snack Bars
Featured Partnerships
Explore other regions by clicking below
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