Nestlé reported 26% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and 25% reduction in methane emissions across its dairy supply chain since 2018, demonstrating measurable progress through partnerships with producers implementing regenerative agriculture practices. However, representatives from Nestlé, Louis Dreyfus Company, Royal Dairy Farming, and California Dairies Inc. acknowledged during Climate Week that scaling adoption across an industrial food system requires practical solutions addressing financing, data collection, and supply chain alignment that extend beyond individual corporate initiatives.
“We need technical support. We need data, and we need the right conditions, policy, enabling policies, and as as well value chain collaboration with our peers,” said Katja Seidenschnur, global head of sustainability for nutrition and health at Nestlé.
Financing Barriers and Farmer Investment Horizons
Finance represents the primary barrier to scaling regenerative agriculture adoption among farming partners, according to Austin Allred, owner of Royal Dairy Farming — a 7,000-cow industrial and regenerative operation supplying Nestlé in Washington. The farm measures carbon reductions, waste upcycling, and soil health improvements through regenerative practices, yet capital constraints limit expansion potential.
“Farmers don’t have capital to put into long investments,” Allred said. “The return on our investment needs to be like six days, maybe six weeks if we’re having a really good year and if diesel’s prices come down, we can do like three months.”
The mismatch between farmer capital availability and investment timelines required for regenerative transitions creates structural barrier requiring creative financing solutions. Nestlé and California Dairies Inc.—a cooperative of nearly 300 independent farms supplying approximately 17 billion pounds of milk annually to Nestlé — are testing partnership models where “farmers are directly supported and rewarded for those investments,” according to Dixie Martinho, sustainability manager at California Dairies Inc.
Data Collection and Farm-Specific Design
Standardized data collection remains a persistent challenge despite technological advancement. “Collecting high-quality farm data in a way that’s practical and trusted and useful still does remain a challenge,” Martinho said, emphasizing that “sustainability practices cannot be one-size-fits-all because not all dairies are a one-size-fits-all operation.”
The diversity of farm scales, geographies, and operational contexts creates requirement for flexible program design rather than uniform mandates. Data infrastructure enabling collection, verification, and comparison across diverse farming systems remains underdeveloped at scale.
Axelle Bodoy, global head of regenerative agriculture at Louis Dreyfus Company, further emphasized that farmers require “peer-to-peer exchange groups where you can learn from what other farmers have been doing.” In 2024, Nestlé partnered with Louis Dreyfus to support Argentine farmers adopting regenerative agriculture for soy and corn feed production, demonstrating how strategic supply chain partnerships address emissions across the dairy value chain beyond farm-gate operations.
Standardization Versus Proliferating Program Designs
A critical barrier to broader adoption remains the proliferation of distinct program designs implemented by different CPGs and retailers, according to James Havlock, VP and managing director of commercial at regenerative agriculture data platform Arva Intelligence.
“So often, each CPG or retailer has a different program design that they’re implementing,” Havlock said, calling for stakeholders to “co-invest in programs around a common program design.”
The parallel development of multiple program approaches creates inefficiency where farmers must navigate distinct requirements across different buyer relationships, increasing compliance complexity while limiting adoption incentives.
“In order for this to work, we need to collaborate across our own farming level, and then we need to collaborate across the supply chain,” Allred stated.
