Why is it important for your brand to celebrate Earth Month and how are you celebrating throughout the month?
Earth Month falls right during “spring work,” which is one of the busiest seasons on the farm. Each winter, we grow cover crops—like nitrogen-fixing legumes—on a portion of our fields to help sequester carbon, restore nutrients to the soil, reduce weeds, and prevent erosion. Cover crops also provide habitat for ducks, who have lost a lot of their natural breeding habitat. So, each spring, before we start our tractors to prep the fields for planting, we partner with our friends at California Waterfowl Association to search the fields for nests, rescue any eggs by hand, and transfer them to a hatchery just up the road where they’re incubated, hatched, raised to about five weeks of age, and released back into the wild. Over the years, we’ve rescued an estimated 30,000 of the fuzzy little quackers. It’s not just ducking adorable. It’s part of our commitment to caring for the land and the creatures who call it home. Because for regenerative organic farmers like us, every ducking day is Earth Day.
What does your brand do to help create a healthier environment and to treat the planet more respectfully everyday?
In 1937, Albert and Frances Lundberg left Nebraska in the wake of the Dust Bowl, which really blew. Literally. It was an environmental disaster caused by drought and destructive farming practices that blew the topsoil away from the Midwest. So, when Albert and Frances moved to California, they brought their four sons, a flatbed Chevy truck, a Farmall tractor, and a new philosophy: “Leave the land better than you found it.” That’s why we started farming organically in 1969, before most people knew the meaning of the word. It’s why we use water to manage weeds instead of dousing our fields with chemicals. It’s why we flood our fields during the winter to provide food and habitat for thousands of migratory birds. It’s why we sort and recycle just about everything (literally 99%). And it’s definitely why we save baby ducks. Yep, baby ducks. Because we’re not here to do what’s easy. We’re here to do what’s right. Even if it takes longer. Costs more. Gets mud on our boots and side-eyes from Big Ag. We farm like the future depends on it—because it does.
What is one thing you wish everyone knew about organic? This can be something that is often misunderstood.
Organic isn’t just a checklist. And it’s not just about not using chemicals (although that part’s pretty dang important). Organic is a holistic approach to farming that recognizes the interconnectedness of everything—that the way we care for our crops impacts the health of the soil, surrounding ecosystems, communities, and the planet. Organic farming practices are a force of land-restoring, habitat-preserving, community-building wonder. And if we care this much about how rice is grown, imagine how much we care about how it tastes!
Why is it important for your brand to be organic?
At Lundberg Family Farms, we exist to grow the highest quality rice using organic and regenerative farming practices because the health of our bodies and our planet depend on it.
What does organic do to make the planet healthier?
Organic farming practices make the planet healthier in all sorts of ways. We’re talking soil-regenerating, land-healing, bird-saving, kumbaya-with-the-Earth kinds of ways like protecting natural resources, promoting biodiversity, sequestering carbon, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. For example, in our regenerative organic fields, we use water to manage weeds instead of dousing our fields with chemicals. First, we drown the grass weeds with water and then we dry up the fields to kill the aquatic weeds. Dry up is a system our founding fore-farmers developed as they prepared to give up on a field of organic short grain rice that had been overrun with aquatic weeds. “Let’s see how long we can let the rice dry up,” they said. Decades later, it’s our best defense against aquatic weeds—no herbicides needed. Plus, a recent study from researchers at UC Davis indicates that Dry Up reduces global warming potential (GWP) by 49% relative to continuous flood. Win-win!
How can consumers celebrate Earth Month?
Our friend and fellow farmer Luke Peterson likes to say, “No market, no mission.” And it’s true—everything we do starts with you! Every time you toss organic food or fiber into your cart, you’re casting a vote for healthier soil, cleaner water, and farmers who care for the planet 365 days a year.
Follow Lundberg Farms on their social media and check out their website!
