Why Regenerative Almonds?

Soil fertility on farmlands is degrading 17x faster than it is regenerating in Europe. In Spain the situation is even more severe. Each year 1.8 mm of topsoil is being lost due to erosion adding up to 25 t/ ha. Intensive, conventional almond cultivation in Andalusia is a big part of the problem. On the market, almond is sold as a commodity and when it reaches the shelves in packaged products we won't know the real impact of our purchase. Farmers seeing the increasing demand for conventional almonds have a bad incentive to keep degrading our key asset: the soil.

The solution is Regenerative Agriculture: a set of techniques such as cover cropping, rotational grazing and promoting biodiversity in orchards. This method applied to almonds is effective in reversing soil degradation by naturally sequestering carbon into the soil. The soil fertility can increase by 17-25% on average each year resulting in more nutrient dense almonds.

That is why we craft our butters only from regenerative almonds to offer a new model for both consumers and farmers - where almond production contributes to the improvement of soil life on the farms while our products will fulfill even the wildest cravings for nut butters! 

We work hand-in-hand with our almond farmers in a single territory on the Spanish Altiplano in north-eastern Andalusia to support their efforts to regenerate soil and landscape life.

Miguel Ángel Gómez is an agronomist and regenerative almond farmer near Guadix in Granada provice of Spain. He is a member of our partner organisation, Association AlVelAl, promoting regenerative agriculture and landscape restoration efforts on the Spanish Altiplano. The almonds we use for our products are partly coming from the traditional almond variety, Desmayo Largueta, he produces on his family farm.

We have also partnered up with the Regeneration Academy, which uses education as a tool to promote change towards a more sustainable and regenerative production and future. You will hear more and more on our collaboration with them and how you can get involved! 

 

Watch this short film about the story of Miguel and how he convinced his dad to change their almond farming practices from Conventional to Regenerative techniques.