Cover Crop Strategies editors encounter a variety of articles, social media posts, podcasts and videos that offer a unique look at various aspects of our great agricultural industry. Here is our favorite content from the past week. The Best of the Web This Week series is brought to you by Salford Group.
In this article from Reuters, Oliver Balch writes, "PepsiCo is known for many things: soda pop, Super Bowl ads, its decades-long rivalry with The Coca-Cola Company, to name but a few. Now the $235 billion valued company has a challenge of a different order of magnitude on its hands."
The long-term agreement will initially enroll corn, soy and wheat farmers across Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska, with the opportunity for future expansion, to increase visibility across the value chain and integrate a range of multi-year farmer-first regenerative agriculture initiatives, including cover crops, reduced tillage, nutrient management, diverse rotations, and responsible pesticide use.
An alliance of conservationists, farmers and cattle ranchers in Chiapas, Mexico, is working to incorporate 6.2 million acres of land into sustainable management schemes, focusing on soil health and aiming to restore and reforest 3.5 million acres.
General Mills, Inc. and Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) unveiled a multi-year roadmap to scale Eco-Harvest, ESMC’s market program that rewards farmers for beneficial environmental outcomes from regenerative agriculture.
In 2021, PepsiCo set a 2030 target goal of adopting regenerative agriculture practices across 7 million acres, which is about equal to all of the land PepsiCo uses globally to grow crops and ingredients for its products.
Collectively, Hormel Foods and Target will provide $1.7 million for farmers to participate in the pilot and adopt practices such as cover cropping, reduced tillage and nutrient management. The goal is to enroll up to 50,000 acres.
For this episode of the Cover Crop Strategies podcast, brought to you by La Crosse Seed, contributing editor Martha Mintz chats with Dave about some of those benefits as well as the lessons he’s learned in his 45 years of using cover crops.
This week’s podcast, brought to you by Montag Manufacturing, contributing editor Martha Mintz chats with first generation farmer Russell Hedrick from Hickory, N.C., about how he has used conservation practices like cover crops and no-till to stop erosion, improve soil function and build soil aggregation by about an inch each year.
The National No-Tillage Conference returns January 6-9, 2026!Build and refine your no-till system with dozens of new ideas and connections at the 34th Annual National No-Tillage Conference in St. Louis, Jan. 6-9, 2026. Experience an energizing 4-day agenda featuring inspiring general session speakers, expert-led No-Till Classrooms and collaborative No-Till Roundtables. Plus, Certified Crop Adviser credits will be offered.
More than 650 farm advisors from across the U.S. participated in a survey on cover crops, shining light on how they advise growers on cover crops. A report on the survey was released this week by the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC), USDA SARE Program, and the American Seed Trade Association.