PepsiCo Secures Low-Carbon Fertilizer for Potato Farms

Your bag of Lay's potato chips is about to carry a smaller carbon footprint, and farmers won't have to change a single thing about how they grow their crops.

PepsiCo just signed a groundbreaking deal with CF Industries to supply low-carbon fertilizer for potatoes destined to become Frito-Lay chips. The fertilizer looks the same, works the same, and produces the same yields as conventional fertilizer. The only difference? It's made using carbon capture technology that slashes emissions during production.

This matters more than you might think. Fertilizer production accounts for 15 to 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in potato farming. By tackling this piece of the puzzle, PepsiCo can make meaningful progress without asking farmers to overhaul their entire operations or risk their harvests.

CF Industries manufactures the low-carbon urea ammonium nitrate solution at its Donaldsonville facility, where carbon capture and sequestration technology traps emissions before they reach the atmosphere. The fertilizer has earned official certification through the Verified Ammonia Carbon Intensity Program, giving farmers and food companies a trusted way to measure real impact.

The product reaches potato farmers through the same retailers and supply chains they already use. No new equipment needed, no learning curve, no financial risk.

"We're focused on building a more resilient, low carbon food system, and that starts with the crops at the center of our products," said Burgess Davis, PepsiCo's Chief Sustainability Officer for North America. The company describes itself as an agriculture company at heart, and this partnership puts action behind those words.

The Ripple Effect

This deal marks CF Industries' first commercial launch of certified low-carbon fertilizer, but it won't be the last. The two companies are already planning to expand the program beyond potatoes to other crops in PepsiCo's supply chain.

The partnership demonstrates something crucial: climate solutions don't have to be complicated or disruptive to work. Sometimes the biggest wins come from making existing products cleaner rather than reinventing everything from scratch.

Other food companies are watching closely. When a brand as large as PepsiCo proves that low-carbon agriculture can scale without sacrificing productivity, it creates a roadmap others can follow.

The next time you reach for a bag of chips, you might be holding proof that feeding the world and fighting climate change aren't opposing goals after all.