McDonald’s, Cargill, Target Corp. and The Nature Conservancy are coming together to launch a new five-year, $8.5 million project aimed at working with Nebraska farmers to advance proven soil health practices to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and help farmers adapt to climate change. Overall, the effort has the potential to sequester 150,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide over the course of the project.

Nebraska is one of the top U.S. states for beef production and among the top three states for corn production. The project will work with interested farmers to reach 100,000 acres of land and provide them with the technical and financial assistance to scale the implementation of regenerative soil health practices, including cover cropping, reduced tillage and diversified crop rotation.

“Mitigating climate change is a top priority for our organizations. We know we cannot tackle this alone,” said Heather Tansey, sustainability leader for Cargill’s protein and animal health businesses. “I’m so proud of this effort to not only promote carbon sequestration in the beef feed supply chain but also support the resilience of agricultural communities.”

Implemented practices will help store carbon in the soil versus the atmosphere, revitalizing the health of agricultural lands, which benefits farmers and the environment. This work will help unlock one of agriculture’s greatest opportunities to mitigate climate change.

“We know that healthy cropland soils boost fertility, improve water quality and stabilize global climate,” said project director Dr. Hannah Birge, The Nature Conservancy’s director of agriculture in Nebraska. “This project will leverage private and public resources to amplify the good work of Nebraska farmers as they scale up beneficial soil practices.”

Ivanka Mamic, vice president of responsible sourcing and sustainability at Target, said collaborative efforts like this will help create and drive the change needed across the industry. “We’re excited to begin this work, supporting farmers with proven soil health practices to help mitigate climate change together,” Mamic said.

As an Ecosystem Services Market Consortium pilot, the program works to connect farmers to private-sector payments for societal climate and water benefits.

“Big companies are looking to improve their environmental footprints in measurable ways,” Ecosystem Services Market Consortium director Debbie Reed said. “Farmers who adopt soil health practices can provide those improvements. The consortium connects the two and creates a way to pay farmers for beneficial environmental outcomes.”

This connection, along with $4.4 million in support from a grant through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service , provides a way to further scale adoption of regenerative agriculture.

The project is also part of Cargill’s BeefUp Sustainability initiative, which seeks a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions throughout the company’s beef supply chain by 2030, measured on a per pound of beef basis against a 2017 baseline. Earlier this summer, Cargill launched a grassland restoration effort to support this goal.

Similarly, this program is another step toward Target’s climate goals -- approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative -- to reduce carbon emissions 30% below the 2017 baseline by 2030.

This investment also furthers McDonald’s progress toward meeting its Science Based Targets Initiative-approved goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain 31% (per ton of food and packaging) by 2030 versus 2015 levels. Through projects like this and other actions, McDonald’s expects to prevent 150 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from being released into the atmosphere by 2030. This is the equivalent of taking 32 million passenger cars off the road for an entire year or planting 3.8 billion trees and growing them for 10 years.

“We are proud to partner with the Nebraska farming community to scale regenerative agricultural practices, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the sustainability of food for future generations.” said Marion Gross, senior vice president, chief supply chain officer, McDonald’s North America. “This initiative will ultimately help mitigate impacts of climate change in the beef supply chain -- a goal central to McDonald’s and our continued efforts to meet our science-based climate target.”