Supply Chain

Mars Invests $15M in Pursuit of Climate-Resilient Peanut

The food giant’s Protect the Peanut Plan aims to future-proof the vulnerable legume — a key ingredient in billion-dollar brands including M&M’s and Snickers.

Published 4 months ago | About a 4 minute read

Image: artyponds

As climate change challenges the health and productivity of a growing number of agricultural commodities around the world, global food companies are turning to research and innovation to find ways to safeguard critical ingredients — from cacao and coffee to potatoes, soy, and staple crops such as rice and wheat.

On Thursday, Mars, Incorporated announced the expansion of its efforts to perfect the peanut with the launch of the Mars Protect the Peanut Plan — the company's first organized program aimed at safeguarding the peanut against increasing pressures that threaten the reliability of global supply.

One of the world's top five peanut buyers, Mars purchases over 300 million pounds a year to supply global brands including Snickers and M&M's. Mars aims to help stem the tide of devastating crop losses that currently prevent up to 30 percent of peanuts from making it from pod to plate, costing farmers hundreds of millions of dollars and jeopardizing a key source of protein for millions of families worldwide. Backed by a five-year, $5 million investment, the plan will fund advanced genomic science-backed techniques to grow hardier peanut varieties that can stand up to rising pressure from pests, disease and unpredictable weather.

Protect the Peanut is the latest initiative in Mars’ long-term commitment to its Sustainable in a Generation plan, which includes everything from supply chain improvements — such as working to decrease resource use in its US rice-farming operations, and launching the Unreasonable Food and Next-Generation Pet Food programs to scale innovations with potential to future-proof the food and pet food value chains — to broadening awareness of the environmental impact of digital advertising by reusing fan-favorite ads from some of its biggest brands.

This new, multimillion-dollar commitment builds on more than a decade of Mars-funded peanut research, including approximately $10 million invested across a suite of state-of-the-art scientific efforts. One key initiative is helping to map the peanut genome — a botanical breakthrough that had eluded scientists for generations.

As a co-founder of the International Peanut Genome Initiative, Mars helped map more than 2.5 billion base pairs of DNA — roughly equivalent to the human genome — and has shared the data as open-source science available to the entire industry. This groundbreaking effort has transformed the search for the perfect peanut from guesswork to genetic precision.

"We have long believed that Mars can play a unique role as an engine of innovation, which is why we're thinking in generations and betting big on science to protect the peanut," said Amanda Davies, Chief R&D, Procurement and Sustainability Officer at Mars Snacking. "We know that the perfect peanut won't be discovered by accident. It will take long-term investment, scientific ingenuity and the dedication of our incredible partners to keep turning potential into progress — from the greenhouse to the farmer's field. After all, innovation without implementation is just imagination."

The Protect the Peanut Plan is already yielding results. Peanut pioneers at the University of Georgia's Wild Peanut Lab — a long-time Mars partner — have developed more resilient peanut varieties that can thrive in tough conditions, boosting yields by up to 30 percent. One such variety, Sempre Verde ("Forever Green"), is now being grown in Brazil and requires no fungicides.

"The cultivated peanut was a once-in-a-millennium accident of nature, but we can't afford to wait for chance to strike twice. Creating more resilient peanuts requires transformative science, discipline and partnership," said Dr. Soraya Bertioli, Senior Research Scientist, Department of Plant Pathology at University of Georgia’s Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics. "Simply put: Our breakthroughs would not be possible without the long-term support of Mars."

The Mars Protect the Peanut Plan is also backing work to:

Cultivate drought- and disease-resistant peanut varieties in partnership with the University of Georgia Tifton Campus, HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
Develop disease-resistant peanut varieties in partnership with USDA ARS, HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA).
Use wild peanut species in Brazil to cultivate more resilient peanuts in partnership with Instituto Agronômico de Campinas and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation.