ADM and Hill’s Pet Nutrition expand regenerative farming to 18,500 acres across the U.S. and Hungary

ADM and Hill’s Pet Nutrition have launched a multi-year regenerative agriculture programme covering approximately 18,500 acres of corn and soybean farmland in Illinois and Minnesota in the U.S. and soybean fields in Hungary — linking pet food supply chain sustainability to measurable field-level outcomes in soil health, water quality, and biodiversity.

The programme engages farmers in Minnesota and Illinois across roughly 16,000 acres of corn and soybean fields, supplemented by about 2,500 acres (1,000 hectares) of soybean production in Hungary as part of a European pilot. ADM said farmers will receive financial incentives tied to implementing regenerative practices — including cover crops, fertilizer efficiency improvements, and conservation tillage — with outcomes tracked through data collection and field monitoring.

Hungary was selected for the European pilot because it serves as a key soybean origin for ADM’s downstream facilities in Straubing and Mainz, Germany, with transport via the Danube and Rhine rivers. By enrolling Hungarian suppliers, the programme extends its measurement and verification framework from the U.S. Midwest to ADM’s European soy procurement network.

ADM said it had already surpassed its 2025 target of transitioning 5 million acres to regenerative agriculture ahead of schedule. The company’s Ukraine oilseed crushing facility in Chornomorsk, Odesa Oblast, remains suspended following damage from a Russian drone strike on April 26, 2026, according to a statement confirmed to Feed Business MEA — a reminder that supply chain resilience concerns now extend beyond sustainability considerations for major agribusiness processors.

The programme’s effectiveness will be validated through outcome metrics on soil health, carbon intensity, erosion, water quality and biodiversity — a move toward performance-linked incentives rather than practice-based payments, which have faced criticism for producing unverifiable results.