From Vision to Reality: McDonald’s, Regenerative Agriculture, and a Cultural Shift

The fast-food giant will invest $200 million in a bid to restore and steward up to 4 million acres of U.S. rangeland.

President Donald Trump, then a presidential candidate, answers questions as he works the drive-through line as he visits a McDonald's restaurant in Feasterville-Trevose, Pa., on Oct. 20, 2024. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Commentary

Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

—Rumi

This line inspired the founding of Kiss the Ground, a nonprofit built on the belief that caring for the Earth begins with the soil beneath our feet.

At the time, in about 2010, “regenerative agriculture” was barely on the map. It wasn’t in the media, taught in schools, or considered in major corporate or political circles. It was more of a whisper, an idea that human beings could work in harmony with nature and restore what had been broken.