A new regenerative corn farming program has been launched in France

Food production accounts for around one third of global greenhouse gas emissions, while feeding a growing global population requires increasing volumes of food. Reducing the climate impact across the entire value chain is therefore essential to addressing the climate crisis.

Tate & Lyle has expanded its regenerative agriculture program to Europe, supporting corn suppliers in France as they transition to more sustainable farming practices. The global food ingredients company developed the program in partnership with agricultural cooperatives and representative organizations, as well as Regrow Ag, a platform focused on advancing agricultural sustainability.

The Regrow Ag platform enables companies to measure, model, and accelerate regenerative agriculture outcomes across global supply chains, while helping farmers understand the impact of adopting regenerative agronomic practices.

Tate & Lyle will track the results of the environmental improvement measures it supports across thousands of hectares of corn fields used to produce many of its branded ingredients. The company is supporting farmers’ efforts to increase resilience to climate change through agreements with three of its largest agricultural partners — Armbruster Grande Cultures, Euralis Groupe Coopératif, and Groupe Coopératif Maïsadour — which represent agricultural producers in northeastern and southwestern France.

The program prioritizes soil health practices, including low- and no-till farming to minimize soil disturbance; cover crops to promote soil health; and nitrogen management to reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers.

The company and its partners will use the AI-powered Regrow software platform to quantify environmental impacts and monitor trends on participating farms. Regrow and local agronomists will work together to support farmers with data input and analysis, enabling farm planning and the integration of this data into Tate & Lyle’s environmental reporting, as well as that of its customers.

The French initiative builds on Tate & Lyle’s other regenerative agriculture programs, which support corn growers in the United States and stevia producers in China. The company says that, through its regenerative agriculture programs, it supports an area equivalent to the volume of corn it purchases annually.

Nick Hampton, Chief Executive Officer of Tate & Lyle, said:
“Regenerative agriculture is at the heart of our sustainability approach, because helping farmers build resilience to the increasing impacts of climate change also enables our customers to help feed a growing population — it’s a win-win solution. For businesses operating across the food chain, floods, droughts, and extreme temperatures that affect crops and natural resource use are a shared challenge. Through our more advanced, science- and technology-led regenerative agriculture programs in the U.S. and China, we have demonstrated that these programs can significantly improve crop yields and quality for farmers and the businesses they supply. This new program in France is designed to support farmers, and it also makes business sense by helping to make our supply chain more resilient.”

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