Sustainability

Sustainable agriculture is the foundation of our operations. Not only do sustainable practices address environmental and social concerns, these policies also offer economically viable opportunities for the food production and distribution system to benefit from less waste, increased efficiencies, and healthier, better-tasting products.

We focus on four main areas of resource and environmental sustainability:

 

Water

Water is the principal resource that has helped agriculture — and society — to prosper. We focus on clean water as a foundation of our growing practices, and we practice careful stewardship with our water conservation and reclamation efforts, including a focus on drip irrigation – which greatly reduces the amount of water used to harvest crops, while also increasing yields.

Soil

It’s a fact: “healthy” soil is the foundation of agriculture. And our sustainability practices allow us to nurture healthy soil that will in turn produce healthy crop plants that have longer life spans and are less susceptible to pests and heat. Some of our soil-sustainability practices include but aren’t limited to crop rotation, planting cover crops during the off-season, and conservation tillage methods.

Energy

We’re focused on reducing the amount of energy we use in our operations (through efficiencies and energy management programs) and we’re moving to renewable sources to the extent that is economically feasible. Other practices include purchasing more fuel-efficient machinery, including tractors and other implements, and conducting regular maintenance.

Air

Maintaining air quality standards is an important part of our operations. In addition to reducing or eliminating airborne byproducts, other strategies including incorporating crop residue into the soil, using appropriate tillage levels, and planting wind breaks, cover crops or native perennial grasses to reduce dust, among other practices.