The U.S.-based multinational food and beverage corporation PepsiCo has launched a pilot project that offers economic incentives to encourage farmers in the Cerrado, one of Brazil’s main breadbasket biomes, to practice regenerative agriculture. The Cerrado, a savanna just south of the country’s Amazon region, grows 60% of the soybeans in Brazil, which is the world’s largest soybean producer and exporter. The region also accounts for much of the corn grown in Brazil, the world’s third leading corn producer and top corn exporter. Experts say the Cerrado’s production of both crops makes it important to global food security. However, the Cerrado, a key source of the corn PepsiCo uses for its products, faces mounting threats from deforestation, soil degradation, and climate stress. PepsiCo executives say this makes the company’s three-year pilot program in the region strategically important. The pilot, launched in November, is being conducted in collaboration with Griffith... [Log in to read more]