Carlsberg is the latest drinks company to detail plans of how it wants to use regenerative barley in the production of its products.

The company said it wants to use regenerative barley across its brands in the UK, Finland and France.

In a statement, it said that it is on a journey “towards regenerative agricultural practices by 2040”.

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It has a new zero farming footprint ambition and has committed to sourcing 30% of its raw materials from agriculture from regenerative and sustainable sources around the world by 2030 and the plan is to bring this figure to 100% by 2040.

Commitment

Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company has made a commitment to use 100% regenerative barley for Carlsberg Danish Pilsner by 2027 and for all UK brands by 2031.

The company, along with ADM (a food processing company which also trades grain), has contracted 7,000t of barley from 23 farmers for the 2023 harvest.

They are partnering with Ceres Rural and a regenerative agriculture protocol has been developed.

It is not clear how the farmers will be rewarded as part of the programme.

Regenerative agricultural programmes

The programme is one of many being advertised by drinks companies at present. Diageo has recently released results from the first year of its pilot project. However, reward for the farmers is not clear in that project either.

These programmes look great to the consumer, but they must be good for the producer as well and while moving to regenerative agricultural practices can help to improve soil health and have many other benefits, it is a big step to take and one which may result in yield losses, particularly when starting out on the journey.

Farmers will need to be rewarded for the time, effort and risk involved in these programmes.