More and more, agrifood corporates are investing in regenerative agriculture not simply for environmental reasons but to build up the strength and longevity of their own supply chains.
The necessary for that was underscored again this month when Nestlé announced a multi-year partnership with Soil Capital to transition more European farmers to regenerative agriculture.
“We want to back farmers with the tools, science and market continuity to drive modify, not by just inquireing them to take on risk,” Anita Wälz, head of sustainability at Nestlé Europe, stated at the time of the announcement. “We’re investing in the long-term health of our supply base, strengthening resilience, and focapplying on soil.”
Nestlé aims to source 50% of its key ingredients from farmers adopting regenerative practices by 2030, according to its latest sustainability numbers. In 2025, the company sourced 27.6% of its key ingredients from such farmers.
According to Alejandro Trenor, cofounder and CFO of Soil Capital, a company like Nestlé can increase the possibility of incentives (financial and otherwise) and market access to farmers transitioning to regenerative agriculture.
Soil Capital, meanwhile, provides Nestlé with the ability to monitor, measure and report on progress in addition to providing agronomic expertise to farmers.
“What we provide is the trust, the MRV, the verification process, the data gathering, and the support to the farmer,” states Trenor.
The partnership, taking place across four years, builds on a wheat and corn pilot in France conducted by Soil Capital and Nestlé in 2023. The project expanded to the UK in 2024 and has now relocated into Belgium, The program supports around 230 farmers across 13,000 hectares in total, according to Soil Capital.
Participating farms will receive context-specific agronomic support and access to Soil Capital’s platform, which verifies practice modifys, soil health improvements, and emissions performance.
Incentivizing more farmers
The Nestlé partnership comes on the heels of Soil Capital’s regenerative peanut initiative in Argentina, one of the world’s leading peanut producers and a major supplier to the European market. Soil Capital is working with nonprofit SAI Platform to bring outcome-based regenerative practices to peanut farming in the counattempt with support from major brands including Ferrero, Lorenz, Mars, and others.
“Europe sources [around] 70% of its internationally purchased peanuts from Argentina,” states Trenor. “This project is [working with] 80% of the peanut producers in Argentina, so it’s pretty significant. It means that the majority of the peanuts that are going to be imported into Europe from Argentina will be covered.”
Soil Capital is also working with HSBC in the UK to widen access to the bank’s Sustainable Farming Pathway program, which finances farmer transitions to regenerative agriculture practices.
HSBC will accept any farmer in the Soil Capital program, and these farmers will receive “better conditions on their loans,” according to Trenor.
This isn’t just a branding exercise for HSBC, he adds. “They see that farmers with regenerative practices have a better credit profile, and they are inching towards that, and we are working with companies such as HSBC to receive [farmers] that visibility and can be incentivized for their practices.”
A ‘calm, continued approach’ to resilience
Collectively, these initiatives are parts of a larger thread around bolstering the security of the food system, states Trenor.
“There has been a shift in the market from a pure focus on carbon to a deeper focus on resilience.”
This is necessary at a time when costs in Europe have risen as high as 50% thanks to outside pressures from climate and geopolitical conflict, including the warns in Ukraine and Iran.
Agrifood’s current struggles are not unlike the shift happening in the energy sector: “In the finish, you have to reduce your necessary of external inputs linked to petrochemicals, becautilize you want to reduce your exposure to difficult places, and you want to be more in control of what you do.”
While the partnerships with Nestlé and others are not direct response to these pressures, Trenor suggests they are vital for securing supply chains and the larger agrifood system.
“It is through this calm, continued approach into resilient practices that we can reduce the exposure of our farming to these things that will continue to occur.”
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