2026 Highlights
18.5%
Reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions from our 2020 baseline
152 billion
Liters of water restored in water-stressed regions
3.2 million
Acres engaged in regenerative agriculture practices across North America since 2020
8.2 million
Farmer trainings delivered since 2017
$95 million
Invested in local communities around the world
580,000+
People reached with improved access to safe drinking water and sanitation since 2020
¹ All information covers Cargill’s fiscal year 2026 (June 1, 2025 – May 31, 2026), unless otherwise noted.
Strategy
As a company that sits at the center of the global food system, Cargill plays a unique role in connecting farmers, food producers, and consumers. This vantage point makes it clear that the future of food depends on a system that is productive, sustainable, and resilient.
Our sustainability strategy reflects how growing food impacts natural resources; how it moves from where it’s grown; and how we partner to expand access to nutrition, improve farmer and community livelihoods, and accelerate our customers’ progress on sustainability. The three focus areas where we believe we can make the greatest impact in creating a more resilient food system are Climate, Land and Water, and People.
Climate
Climate change and food security are inextricably linked. As weather patterns shift and extreme events become more frequent, farmers, communities, and food systems face increasing pressure. Building a more resilient food system requires reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while strengthening the practices, infrastructure, and partnerships that can help agriculture adapt to climate-related disruptions.
At Cargill, we work alongside customers and farmers to advance practical solutions for growing, making, and moving food, supporting efforts to reduce emissions, strengthen supply chain resilience, and support food security. For customers, this work can support more resilient supply chains, better product-level emissions data, and practical pathways for addressing Scope 3 emissions across shared value chains.
How we’re working to reduce methane emissions from livestock
Methane accounts for a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions from beef and dairy production. Reducing these emissions requires more practical solutions that fit how farms, ranches, and feedlots operate — while supporting animal health, productivity, and producer livelihoods.
Cargill is working with customers, farmers, ranchers, feedlot operators, and academic research partners to advance research and development of methane reduction solutions tailored to different production systems, including precision nutrition, feed additives, research, and data and digital tools.
Bringing the solutions together: Cargill’s Feedlot Sustainability program brings together feedlot operators, customers, and solution providers to help improve cattle-feeding efficiency and reduce associated methane and manure-related emissions. The program combines data management, technical guidance, producer incentives, and nutrition strategies tailored to participating feedlots.
One example is Cargill's BeefMAX™2 pilot with Cobalt Cattle, which involved four feedyards and approximately 210,000 cattle. Based on the independently verified BeefMAX™ pilot results, participating feedyards generated an estimated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction3 of approximately 15,500 metric tons of CO2e.
2 Inset verification for the Cargill Animal Nutrition & Health - Cobalt BeefMAX Pilot was completed by external verifier Brightspot in January 2026. The pilot ran January 1, 2025 – July 31, 2025, with a resulting GHG emissions reduction of approximately 15,500 metric tons CO2e. Cargill continues to track outcomes for the contract scope.
3 These externally verified, project-level estimates may inform participating companies’ Scope 3 emissions reduction efforts, subject to applicable GHG accounting methodologies, allocation rules, and any additional company-level assurance or reporting requirements.
Turning sunflower hulls into energy
As part of a $150 million upgrade to our sunflower oil processing facility in Saint-Nazaire, France, Cargill is installing a biomass boiler that will generate energy from sunflower hulls.
Testing lower-carbon fuels for global shipping
Piloting innovation is critical to our longer-term progress. This year we chartered the maiden voyage of Brave Pioneer, our first dry bulk vessel fueled in part by green methanol4, reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
4 Green methanol is methanol produced from renewable or recycled carbon sources that delivers materially lower life cycle GHG emissions than conventional marine fossil fuels, measured well-to-wake, and verified under recognized regulatory or certification frameworks.
Land and Water
The future of food depends on the health and resilience of natural resources, from productive farmland to healthy forests and clean, available water. Across our operations and supply chains, we are working to reduce pressure on land and water resources; improve water availability, quality, and access; and support the long-term productivity and resilience of agricultural landscapes, now and for generations to come.
Our work is grounded in science and shaped by local context, with a focus on outcomes that support farmers, communities, and more resilient food supply chains. We drive progress through collaboration across the value chain, strategic partnerships, data and technology, and practices that support both environmental and economic outcomes, creating shared value across food and agricultural systems.
Translating regenerative agriculture into water outcomes
Cargill works with customers, farmers, and partners to support regenerative agriculture practices that can improve soil health, reduce runoff, and increase water retention in water-stressed regions. Cargill RegenConnect™ is one of several programs in which we are working to advance these practices and connect them to more measurable environmental outcomes in shared agricultural supply chains, supporting customers’ sustainability goals and farmer resilience.
In the Mississippi River Basin, one of the most important agricultural regions in the U.S., Cargill is working with The Coca‑Cola Company and its bottling partners to support adoption of regenerative agriculture practices across our shared corn supply chain. Farmers enrolled in the program receive financial incentives and agronomic guidance to implement practices such as cover crops and conservation tillage across participating acres.
In the 2025 crop year, we partnered to support regenerative agriculture practices across 30,000 acres in the basin, restoring an estimated 1.67 billion liters of water, meaning more water stayed in the landscape and less was lost to surface runoff. The partnership is expected to expand to 60,000 acres in crop year 2026.
Investing in research to support the adoption of regenerative agriculture
Cargill supports research to better understand agronomic, environmental, and economic performance across different farming systems. This includes partnering with the Argentine Association of Regional Agriculture Experimentation Consortia (CREA), Wageningen University and Research, and more.
Expanding access to safe water and sanitation in communities where we live and work
In early 2026, we completed a two-year project with Water.org that provided more than 321,000 people in Indonesia and the Philippines with access to safe water and sanitation. Cargill contributed $2.1 million to help enable Water.org to deploy $18.3 million in affordable loans for water-related projects and improvements.
People
At Cargill, we are powered by people, from the employees who run our operations to the farmers and suppliers who help grow, make, and move food; the customers we serve; and the communities where we live and work. We focus on health and safety, employee growth and well-being, respect for human rights, and farmer livelihoods. Together, this work supports safer operations, responsible sourcing, and more resilient supply chains for our customers and partners.
Supporting farmer resilience alongside our customers
Cargill works with customers and local partners to tailor our farmer-facing programs through a combination of financial incentives, agronomic guidance, digital tools, and training. Our work with PepsiCo across the U.S., France, and Türkiye shows how this can look in practice. In each market, the collaboration is designed around local farmer conditions while aiming to support farmer resilience and shared sustainability priorities.
In the U.S., we are working with Practical Farmers of Iowa on regenerative agriculture projects that feed into PepsiCo’s corn supply chains in Iowa and Nebraska. In 2025, approximately 280,000 acres were enrolled in PFI’s cover crop cost-share program through our collaboration, which provides financial incentives to growers for implementing cover crops.
In France, a five-year collaboration among Cargill, PepsiCo, and cooperative La Tricherie is providing financial incentives and tailored agronomic support to help La Tricherie’s growers implement cover cropping, reduced tillage, and precision fertilization. So far, 60 farmers have implemented regenerative practices on more than 3,580 hectares growing sunflower, corn, and canola.
In Türkiye, Cargill and PepsiCo are collaborating through the 1000 Farmers Endless Prosperity program to help farmers build resilience through regenerative agriculture practices, digital tools, and technical training. Launched in 2019 by Cargill, the broader program now reaches more than 7,000 corn, sunflower, canola, and olive producers across more than 100,000 hectares in 27 provinces. Farmer yields are up more than 20% on average since inception and profitability increased up to 39% in the 2024 to 2025 harvest period.
Creating pathways for current and future talent
Cargill’s Thriving Communities program in Brazil piloted a youth workforce development model in 2025, continuing the program in 2026. The program offers structured professional training to young adults ages 17 to 24 across 12 municipalities where we operate.
Helping farming communities build economic resilience
For more than 65 years, Cargill and CARE have partnered with agricultural communities around the world. From September 2022 to August 2025, that partnership included PROSPER III, a three-year, $15.7 million initiative across 11 countries where Cargill operates.
Community Impact
Cargill's operations are part of communities around the world, places where our employees live, our facilities operate, and strong local relationships matter. We invest in these communities by working with partners, customers, and employees to support locally tailored programs that address community needs and expand opportunity.
Responsible Business
Cargill's stakeholders count on us to uphold high ethical standards across our business practices, decision-making, and culture. Through our policies, programs, training, and due diligence, we aim to communicate clear expectations, strengthen transparency, support accountability, and build trust with our stakeholders.
FAQs
What is Cargill’s 2026 Impact Report about?
Cargill’s 2026 Impact Report provides an overview of the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and describes how these efforts support a more resilient food and agriculture system. It covers progress across three sustainability focus areas – Climate, Land and Water, and People – as well as other ESG-related matters across Cargill’s operations, supply chains and communities.
What is the reporting period for Cargill’s 2026 Impact Report?
The report covers Cargill’s fiscal year 2026, from June 1, 2025, to May 31, 2026, unless otherwise noted.
How is Cargill helping customers achieve their sustainability goals?
Cargill works with customers to identify practical ways to advance shared priorities across agricultural supply chains, from reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving water stewardship to supporting regenerative agriculture and strengthening traceability. Our relationships with farmers and ranchers, supply chain expertise and technical capabilities help us develop programs and solutions that fit customers’ needs and support progress toward their goals.
What are Cargill’s climate goals, and what progress has it made?
Cargill aims to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2035 from a 2020 baseline. The company also aims to reduce absolute Scope 3 emissions from Categories 1, 4 and 9 by 25% over the same period. As of fiscal year 2026, Cargill had reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 18.5% and emissions within its Scope 3 goal boundary by 0.1% from the 2020 baseline.
How is Cargill progressing against its Scope 3 goal?
Our emissions have remained flat since 2020 while our business has continued to grow. This reflects a reduction in emissions intensity, a first step toward our absolute goal. Scope 3 inventories are inherently complex, particularly across global agricultural supply chains. Over the past several years, we have continued to refine our methodology as the quality and availability of sourcing data have improved and as guidance on accounting for land use change (LUC) has evolved. These refinements help strengthen our understanding of our emissions footprint, improve our ability to measure progress over time, and serve as the foundation for our reduction plans going forward.
What is Cargill doing to achieve its deforestation-free (DF) and deforestation-and conversion-free (DCF) goals?
Traceability is foundational to achieving our DCF goals. Cargill uses geospatial capabilities, artificial intelligence, and verified ground-level data where available to improve traceability across priority supply chains. Our proprietary platform supports mapping, monitoring, and risk identification across priority supply chains where data are available. Traceability remains complex, particularly where sourcing involves farmers, mills, refiners, and traders with whom Cargill works indirectly, but it is providing Cargill and our customers greater visibility into sourcing areas and supports progress toward our shared sustainability goals.
Our collaboration with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), research institutions, and farmers is foundational to this work. Through targeted programs and partnerships, we work to connect farmers to tools, training, incentives, and market opportunities that can support more sustainable production practices and advance DF supply chains.
Commodity-specific progress, including traceability, supplier engagement, grievance processes, and detailed performance related to our priority supply chains of cocoa, soy, and palm oil, is reported in the separate Supply Chain Sustainability chapters.
How do Cargill’s sustainability efforts support farmer livelihoods?
Cargill works with farmers to strengthen resilience and expand economic opportunities through regenerative agriculture, agronomic training, technical resources, livestock management and improved access to finance and markets. These efforts can help farmers strengthen their own operations while also supporting more resilient agricultural supply chains and communities. Since 2017, Cargill has delivered 8.2 million farmer trainings in sustainable agricultural practices.
How is Cargill investing in the communities where its employees live and work?
Cargill supports education, food security, farmer training and local opportunity through employee volunteering and strategic community partnerships. Over the past year, Cargill contributed more than $95 million and more than 50,000 volunteer hours, helping expand access to education, provide millions of meals and strengthen farming communities around the world.
How does Cargill manage human rights and environmental risks in its supply chains?
Cargill’s Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence process involves a four-step approach intended to identify and assess, act, track, and report human rights and environmental risks. In prioritized regions and supply chains, we begin by identifying risks tied to geography, commodity, and industry. Based on that analysis, we conduct deeper assessments to evaluate specific supplier and operational risks. These results inform how we develop action plans with suppliers, address potential issues in our own operations, define preventative strategies, and maintain high standards of safety, sustainability, and compliance.
We continue to enhance our approach to meet evolving expectations, working closely with suppliers, customers, and partners to strengthen responsible practices, raise standards, and build supplier capabilities.
Is Cargill’s sustainability performance independently verified?
Cargill uses external assurance and third-party verification for specified sustainability data and programs included in our 2026 Impact Report. KPMG LLP, an independent third-party accountant, provided limited assurance for specified fiscal years 2020 and 2026 Scope 1 and 2 market-based and location-based greenhouse gas emissions and fiscal years 2020 and 2026 Scope 3 Category 1 emissions, while Control Union provided assurance for selected cocoa performance indicators. The scope of assurance varies by metric and is described in the Impact Report Appendix.
Hear from our leaders
“For decades, Cargill has integrated sustainability into our operations and supply chains. In doing the work, we’ve learned that lasting progress is only possible when our ambitions are matched with practical approaches, sustained investment, and measurable results.”
Brian Sikes
Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer
“We will continue working across Cargill and alongside our customers, farmers, and partners to turn shared sustainability priorities into practical solutions that create value, accelerate progress, and build a more resilient food and agriculture system for the future.”
Rishi Varma
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal, Compliance and Corporate Affairs Officer and Corporate Secretary
Build your own report
Introduction
Focus Areas
Responsible Business
Sustainable Supply Chains
Appendix
Generating and downloading your custom report.Last updated November 9, 2026