Guinness maker Diageo has launched two regenerative agriculture programmes across its tequila brands in Mexico and scotch brands in Scotland.
As well as driving additional benefits for farmers, the programmes are focused on reducing the carbon emissions of farming barley and wheat for scotch whisky and agave for tequila.
Both pilots look to drive positive outcomes of enhanced biodiversity, improved water stewardship, carbon reduction and better soil health management, and will look at locally adapted practices such as cover crops, reduced cultivations and crop rotations.
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The programme for tequila will build the local knowledge pool of agave regenerative practices and investiagte how the plant holds carbon over a six to seven year growth cycle, spanning across Diageo managed farms and producers of the agave for brands incuding Don Julio, Casamigos, DeLeon and Astral.
Meanwhile, the first phase of the scotch programme will focus on 20 farms in three key barley and wheat souring regions in Scotland for brands including Johnnie Walker, Talisker and The Singleton.
Farmers will also be provided with greater resilience and knowledge on how to farm and adapt their practices in response to climate change.
Diageo president of global supply chain and procurement, and chief sustainability officer, Ewan Andrew, said: “As we commit to continued investment in long term business growth, we’re excited to expand our regenerative farming work more formally beyond our current Guinness programme in Ireland.
“The scotch whisky and tequila brands have such a strong connection to their local communities, and as we build increased resilience and productivity across our end-to-end supply chains, we are building broader partnerships to enhance the impact of regenerative farming practices at scale.”
