The world's healthy soil and future food supply is at risk. Here's how NUTRO™ is helping growers implement sustainable soil practices.

One year ago, natural pet food brand NUTRO™ announced the start of their Greater Ground™ program whose mission is to encourage growers to adopt healthy soil practices.  Since then, the Greater Ground program has trained more than 60 growers on healthy soil practices and a $5 million commitment is being made to provide growers in their network with training, support, and funding to help with the implementation of healthy soil practices over the next five years.

How often do you think about the soil that grows healthy ingredients that are used to make your pet's food? Chances are, rarely. But the NUTRO™ brand wants to change that. An estimated 95% of all food in the world is grown in soil, but this soil is under threat putting all our food, including that of our pets', at risk. In fact, every five seconds, the equivalent of a soccer field of soil is lost due to erosion, according to the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 

The natural pet food brand, NUTRO™, part of the Mars family of brands and in alignment with Mars Incorporated's Sustainable in a Generation Plan, is at the beginning of a journey to help growers protect healthy soil, starting within the brand's own supply network. 

In 2022, on World Soil Day, the NUTRO™ brand announced the launch of the Greater Ground program. This aims to raise awareness of the importance of healthy soil and to encourage select growers in their network to implement healthy soil practices by providing training, support, and funding. 

"Protecting healthy soil is about helping protect the future of natural ingredients. Every pet and every pet parent benefits when we stand up for soil,"Alanna McDonald, president of Mars Pet Nutrition in North America, said. "The NUTRO™ brand's commitment to soil and our work through Greater Ground demonstrates how we can meaningfully act upon the principles that guide all we do at Mars Petcare, including a deep belief in mutuality and in creating shared benefits from which we all can gain." 

Since the announcement of Greater Ground, the NUTRO™ brand has partnered with technical leaders Understanding Ag to facilitate training and mentorship through their Soil Scholarships. By the end of 2023, more than 60 individual growers will have been trained through the program, which will hopefully empower them to begin or to continue implementing healthy soil practices in their operation. The NUTRO™ brand is also collaborating with Healthy Food Ingredients (HFI), a key supplier of barley for NUTRO™ brand products, to help HFI better understand the current status of soil health on barley farms in its network, and to identify potential focus areas. 

Because growers can face many barriers in adopting healthy soil practices on their farms, the NUTRO™ Greater Ground program also offers Soil Growth grants which provide financial support to selected growers within their network. These grants help with the transition costs needed to implement healthy soil practices.  The brand recently announced the recipient of the 2023 inaugural Soil Growth Grant in the amount of $150,000: Schiff Farms Inc. in Delaware.

"Providing meaningful support for growers is a critical component of the Greater Ground program," McDonald said. "We're grateful for the collaboration we've received from growers and the open dialogue we've cultivated to ensure that we're supporting one another in achieving shared soil health goals."

In November 2023, the brand released their animated fable, "Tail of Two Farms," which educates pet parents about the importance of healthy soil through the unique experiences of Arlo the dog and Sunny the cat, who live on neighboring farms. In the fable, one neighbor helps the other transform their farm using healthy soil practices. Not only does "Tail of Two Farms" inspire pet parents, but because the video received over 300,000 views, $300,000 will go toward the 2024 Greater Ground Soil Growth grants to help select growers implement healthy soil practices. 

As the NUTRO™ brand looks toward the next year, educating customers on the important role soil has in helping ensure a food supply for the future is key. The brand plans to achieve this by continuing to collaborate with growers to expand upon the Greater Ground program and develop healthy and sustainable soil practices.

Learn more about Mars NUTRO™ here.

This post was created by Mars NUTRO™ with Insider Studios.