McCain Foods has published its 2025 Global Sustainability Report, in which it announced a milestone in its ‘Farms of the Future’ initiative.
The potato products manufacturer had pledged to establish three Farms of the Future – research and innovation sites to scale regenerative agriculture – by 2025, a target it reached with the opening of a 202-hectare site in North Yorkshire.
Developed in partnership with the University of Leeds, the site will apply and advance practices such as controlled traffic farming, year-round soil cover, and biodiversity building, McCain said, adding that it will be the first Farm of the Future to pilot a circular nutrient system using pig manure to enrich soils, reduce waste, and improve biodiversity.
‘An important step’
“Farm of the Future UK marks an important step in how we are scaling regenerative agriculture across our global Farms of the Future effort,” commented Max Koeune, president and CEO of McCain Foods.
“Each site helps us test real solutions with farmers, understand what works, and share that knowledge across our grower network. This is how we strengthen the resilience of our farms, support our partners, and build a more sustainable food system for the long term.”
The Farms of the Future initiative sits within McCain’s broader objective of implementing regenerative agriculture across all potato acreage by 2030. As the company noted, some 70% of its global acerage has already been onboarded to the company’s regenerative agriculture framework.
Emissions reduction
In addition, McCain has achieved a reduction of absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 28% since 2017, and now sources 60% of its electricity from renewable sources.
Other achievements highlighted in the report include that almost all McCain-owned facilities (98%) and tier 1 ingredient supplier facilities (99%) have achieved GFSI-recognised certification, and that the company has achieved a 6% reduction in sales-weighted average sodium in its McCain branded appetiser products since 2018.
It also donated some 34.4 million meals to food banks in 2025, contributing to a total of 226.7 million meals donated since 2017.
The road ahead
“As we look to 2030 and beyond, we recognise the years ahead will bring challenges and the journey will not be easy,” added Charlie Angelakos, vice president, external affairs and sustainability, McCain Foods.
“We must build on our lessons learned as well as deep partnership and collaboration with our partners across the value chain to ensure we deliver sustainable progress and create a resilient business.” Read more here.
