From Burgers to Biodiversity: McDonald’s Grassland Push

McDonald’s pledges over $200M to regenerative ranching, targeting 4M acres across 38 U.S. states

10 Nov 2025

McDonald’s latest effort to go green stretches far beyond the drive-thru. The fast-food giant has launched a seven-year, $200m Grassland Resilience and Conservation Initiative to promote regenerative ranching across 4m acres in up to 38 American states.

It is the company’s largest U.S. commitment to regenerative agriculture, a sign that sustainability is moving from marketing slogan to supply-chain strategy. Developed with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the programme will fund grants for ranchers who adopt practices such as rotational grazing, improved soil management and better water use. Major suppliers including Cargill, Coca-Cola and Golden State Foods have signed on.

“As a brand that serves more than ninety percent of Americans each year, we recognize the responsibility we have to help safeguard our food systems for long-term vitality,” said Cesar Piña, McDonald’s chief supply-chain officer for North America.

The logic is simple enough. Healthy grasslands can lock away carbon, prevent erosion and soften the blows of drought, traits that matter more as climate shocks grow frequent. For ranchers, the promise of technical help and financial incentives may make sustainable grazing both feasible and profitable.

But translating good intentions into measurable results will be harder. Soil-carbon gains are difficult to track, and verifying consistent stewardship across millions of acres will test both science and bureaucracy.

Even so, McDonald’s initiative reflects a broader shift among food firms to tackle emissions at the source. Where once sustainability was seen as peripheral to profit, it is now becoming part of how brands secure their future supplies. If America’s grasslands grow stronger under the scheme, McDonald’s may prove that fast food and long-term thinking can, on occasion, share the same table.