“Let's All Chip In” With McCain’s Regenerative Agriculture Campaign Targeting Gen Z

McCain Foods announced a new commercial featuring Love Island commentator Iain Stirling on Tuesday, August 1st, 2023, highlighting the good impact regenerative farming can have on the planet.

McCain's new “Let's All Chip In” TV Ad campaign emphasizes the growing need to accelerate the transition to regenerative agriculture to safeguard Earth and ensure the long-term viability of potato farming in the UK.

In the “Let's All Chip In” promotional video, Iain Stirling is seen spending time with McCain farmer Imogen Stanley at her family's farm in Oxfordshire, away from his typical recording studio.

Iain learns about Imogen's regenerative farming practices and why they are so critical to the future of agriculture and the environment throughout the movie.

“New research commissioned by McCain has found that a third (30%) of Brits do not know what farms do or where their food comes from, with Gen Z over four times more likely than over 55s to admit to this lack of understanding (61% vs 13%). Gen Z is also twice as likely as those over 55s to be concerned about the environmental impact of the way the products they buy at the supermarket are produced (57% vs 29%),” according to a recent company press release.

The Need for a Sustainable Transition

The “Let's All Chip In” campaign aims to inform Gen Z and millennial audiences about the need for a sustainable transition by highlighting the beneficial effects regenerative agriculture can have on the environment and the food we eat.

A more sustainable farming system must be adopted to combat the climate disasters that are becoming more common and to contribute to long-term food security. McCain's sustainability strategy includes sustainable farming as a core pillar, and the company has committed to implementing 100% regenerative agriculture practices across its potato holdings by 2030.

The “Let's All Chip In” campaign promotes the advantages of regenerative farming, and the brand has promised to assist its 250 British growers in switching to more environmentally friendly practices.

In an interesting new initiative, McCain and NatWest have recently joined up to help potato growers who are switching to sustainable farming methods overcome financial obstacles. NatWest currently provides a first-of-its-kind program in the UK where the bank gives further financial assistance to McCain potato producers through its asset finance division, Lombard. McCain has agreed to contribute to the amount of interest owed on assets that promote regenerative agricultural methods.

Along with providing free pollinator seed this spring, other measures include paying grants for cover crop seed and funding soil health evaluations.

McCain joined the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Agribusiness Task Force with several companies and NGOs to help the farming industry throughout the world scale up more environmentally friendly techniques, which have been slowed down by high costs.

By 2025, McCain has promised to contribute to three Farms of the Future, which will help promote sustainable farming methods and research cutting-edge agricultural technologies. Existing farms can be found in Lichtenburg, South Africa, and New Brunswick, Canada. The specialized farms demonstrate how modern agricultural advances and regenerative farming techniques may be applied at scale.

Additionally, McCain has invested a further GBP50m into contract pricing for its farmers over the last two years, with the investment helping to safeguard the future of potato farming in the UK.

“We are pleased to launch our new ‘Let’s All Chip In’ campaign to highlight the need to scale up the transition to regenerative agriculture. The case for making our food systems more sustainable and resilient has never been clearer, and we believe agriculture is an integral part of the solution. We are very proud to now raise awareness with our consumers about the fantastic progress that is ongoing on the farm as we work towards our 100% Regenerative Agriculture ambition by 2030,” James Young, VP of Agriculture at McCain Foods GB commented on the new campaign.