After 10 years of supporting wheat growers in the UK, pladis, which makes Jacob’s, McVitie’s and Carr’s biscuits and snacks, is now working with Frontier Agriculture to expand its Back to Farm wheat programme, supporting growers to move to more regenerative and sustainable farming practices.
The scheme is an addition to pladis’ current programme and, in its first year, will see over 4,000 hectares of land being farmed using sustainable practices, producing 36,000 tonnes of grain. This is equivalent to the entire UK production of McVitie’s Original Digestives – over 50 million packets of biscuits – with the long-term aim to eventually cover enough wheat for all of the McVitie’s range.
With technical expertise from Frontier’s sustainable crop production team, the growers will receive support to adopt more practices focused on soil health, biodiversity and nutrient management. The choice of actions within the programme is purposefully broad enough to ensure growers can adapt their crop production programmes in line with the natural conditions of their own farming environment, ensuring they have the flexibility to do what is best for their business and overall land management goals.
Jennifer Parise, director of procurement and sustainability for pladis UK&I comments, “Building a sustainable future is a shared responsibility for us all. We know growers are looking at regenerative farming, but it’s a big ask for them to transition without additional support, especially given ongoing reductions in subsidies for farmers.
“By expanding our successful Back to Farm programme we hope that we’ll be able to continue building partnerships with growers, to better understand and help them address the challenges they face, as we all seek to make food production more sustainable.”
Related news:
