OUR IMPACT
Growing access to better, healthier food together
Our impact comes from improving our business by regenerating critical ecosystems, natural resources, and community well-being. Grounded in our objectives to produce healthier food, advance responsible production, and grow access through scale, we seek to show that agriculture can renew the natural resources it relies upon.
Our regenerative mindset is organized around delivering positive impact – not avoiding negative impact – to human and ecological systems. We care for the people and planet that help our business succeed, and we are committed to being transparent about how we work. Agriculture Capital is pleased to provide this update on our impact activities for the 2019 calendar year.
Regenerative practices sequester significant carbon
Investments in building soil health offer relief for the climate and more nutritious food for consumers. Since baseline on our three oldest Oregon farms, 82.6 million gallons of water have been retained in improved soil organic matter.
19.9%
increase in soil
organic matter
portfolio-wide
Regenerative agriculture
builds thriving soils
We consider the health of our crops and our soils inextricably linked, and place soil health and responsible land management at the core of our investment strategy. Boosting soil carbon, reducing soil loss and nutrient transport, increasing soil retention, and enriching soil life is central to facilitating rich, healthy soils that sustain long-term productivity.
19.9%
increase in soil
organic matter
portfolio-wide
Supporting pollinators with habitat and responsible chemical use
We consider the survival of wild pollinators and beneficial insects critically important to the future of agriculture and our environment. We implement pollinator-friendly practices on our pollinator-reliant blueberry farms that are rebuilding native habitats and improving mobility and connectivity for bees and beneficial insects across central Oregon and the California Delta.
657%
increase in total
wild pollinators*
*observed present between 2016 and 2019
(Independence OR-area farms)
7.5K
pounds of fruit and
nuts donated for
hunger relief in 2019
Minimizing waste to
maximize value
Partnerships have become critical to our zero waste aspirations, and we are thrilled to partner with groups that distribute end of season gleaned fruit and packaging to our local communities to reduce food waste and support food security.
Reducing plastics in the produce supply chain
We have set an aggressive goal to run zero waste packing and processing operations, defined as +90% of solid waste diverted through recycling, composting, and reuse. Our integrated waste management strategy reduces costly sources of waste, like plastics packaging.
+86%
recycling / recovery rate in blueberry fresh pack facility
-54%
plastics reduction in table grape secondary packaging