Contract for Change is a revolutionary agreement between American farmers and Anheuser-Busch to transform America’s agriculture. To introduce Contract for Change to the farming community and enlist growers, we relied heavily on PR. Locally, Anheuser-Busch agronomists partnered with organic trade groups to discuss the program within different farming communities, while PR outreach allowed us to tell our story to farmers, consumers, and stakeholders nationwide. Contract for Change was talked about by both agricultural publications and mainstream news media such as Business Insider and Forbes, effectively strengthening Anheuser-Busch’s image as a partner of American farmers and a leader in sustainability.

Anheuser-Busch strongly believes businesses should serve their consumers, partners, and the world they operate in. That’s why sustainability is at the core of everything the company does. In 2018, this belief inspired Anheuser-Busch to create Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold, the first mass organic beer in America. An instant success. But as the need for organic ingredients grew, we confronted a shocking reality: barely 1% of U.S. farmland is organic and farmers were unable to make the organic transition–even though they want nothing more than to grow natural food again. Building on the mantra “do good, do well”, Anheuser-Busch saw an opportunity to leverage its economical might as the world’s largest brewer and to lead the change towards a healthier, more sustainable, organic farming system.

Contract for Change is a revolutionary agreement between one of the world’s largest buyers of grain–Anheuser-Busch–and American farmers, created to transform the future of America’s agriculture. It sets farmers up for a successful organic transition by addressing the three biggest barriers they confront:

• Farmers sign today and are guaranteed that Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold will be their first organic customer after the 3-year transition.

• Anheuser-Busch commits to buy crops grown during the transition for its yearly production of non- organic beers at a 25% higher price, so farmers don’t lose money.

• The contract provides in-depth training in organic farming practices, through the most trusted agricultural organizations such as the Organic Trade Association and the United States Department of Agriculture.

We spent time with farmers to really understand their situation. We learned that we needed to come up with a concrete, scalable and long-term solution that at the same time could be communicated easily to the farming community. That solution was Contract for Change.

To develop the contract, we brought Anheuser-Busch agronomists, marketers, supply chain managers and legal teams together with the most important and trusted agricultural organizations, such as The Organic Trade Association, the Idaho Barley Commission, Sustainable Food Lab and the United States Department of Agriculture.

We knew Contract for Change was newsworthy at its core, so we pitched our story to agricultural and sustainability publications, as well as mainstream business and trade outlets, using in-depth information on the program, data facts about the problem, interviews with farmers and key figures within Anheuser-Busch, and a selection of multimedia assets such as photos of participating farmers and their contract.

After a short pilot of Contract for Change in 2019, we called upon all American farmers to contact us and begin their organic transition, through a hyper-targeted campaign, supported by PR outreach to the most significant and largest agricultural and mainstream publications. Select PR outreach was done ahead of this moment to help build anticipation for the program within the farming community.

The targeted campaign ended in July 2020, but Contract for Change is still being offered today and will be for many years to come, helping secure the future of America’s organic farmland.

Contract for Change was quickly picked up by agricultural, sustainability and organic focused media outlets, as well as dozens of mainstream publications, successfully achieving the predetermined KPIs. Over 60 stories appeared in outlets such as Organic Insider, Green America, Marketwatch, Yahoo Finance, Business Insider and Forbes, who called the program “incredibly meaningful”, “of tremendous significance” and “a boost for the organic industry”.

It helped get the story of Contract for Change out into the world, effectively strengthening Anheuser-Busch’s image as a partner of the American farming community and a leader in sustainability.

But more importantly, it also helped to enlist growers. 175 farmers have already signed the Contract for Change and 104,000 acres–4% of America’s total barley farmland–have begun transitioning to organic. Contract For Change will triple organic barley acreage by 2023 and these farmers will keep 12,000 pounds of toxic herbicides from the environment every year, marking an unprecedented contribution to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: smaller carbon footprints, improved soil health, and cleaner air and water.

Once certified organic, these farms will grow natural ingredients for generations, improving the world’s access not only to organic beer but all kinds of foods which help reduce the risks of cancer, allergic disease, and obesity.

By 2023 the brand projects to expand production by 25%, keeping pace with the explosive demand for this groundbreaking beer. Contract for Change will be offered for years to come, effectively securing the future of America’s farmland.