Follow #LookDownToo on LinkedIn to learn more about the importance of regenerative agriculture and healthy soils.
Earthworm Foundation Supports McDonald's on New Project
2-minute read
Earthworm Foundation’s Living Soils initiative is supporting McDonald’s France and wheat farmers in its supply chain in a regenerative agriculture and agroforestry pilot project.
From 2022, more than 20,000 trees or linear meters of hedgerows will be planted across 60 wheat producers in three years. The brand aims to plant 230,000 by 2030 in French farms across different sectors that supply it.
The pilot brings together McDonald’s and its bread roll supplier BimboQSR, its mills, and two cooperatives — Oxyane, located in the Lyon basin, and Valfrance, situated in Ile-de-France and Hauts-de-France in the north of the country.
The aim is to tackle soil erosion taking place during periods of heavy rain, as well as sequestering carbon. This is part of a wider strategy to preserve and develop natural carbon sinks in farms that produce McDonald’s flagship ingredients.
The fast-food outlet aims to achieve a 35 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across its entire scope of activity between 2005 and 2030.
The objectives of the pilot project are to:
- Support farmers, cooperatives and suppliers of McDonald’s in transforming their practices by
- implementing agricultural practices promoting living soils;
- planting trees and hedgerows, and managing them sustainably.
- Measure the impacts of changes in practices, particularly carbon reduction and sequestration.
- Study the positive effects on farmers and biodiversity, and the cost of implementation.
- Understand the obstacles and levers related to these practices, in order to identify conditions for success and replicate them in the coming years across other farmers and sectors.
