Lundberg Family Farms is scaling production of their regenerative organic products to improve soil health, sequester carbon, and protect wildlife.
Brita Lundberg, a fourth-generation farmer and the Chief Storyteller for Lundberg Family Farms describes the Regenerative Organic Certification as “holistic,” telling Food Tank that “we’re really proud and thankful we were able to achieve it.”
The company was the first U.S. grown rice brand to launch Regenerative Organic Certified products. By 2027, they aim to transition all organic rice to regenerative organic.
Lundberg explains that as part of their commitment to the environment, they avoid chemical herbicides and instead use a practice that she calls “reading the rice” to manage weed growth. This entails raising the water level just high enough to drown the grass weeds, but not so high that it harms the rice crops.
“What you’ve got to do is put your hip waders on and wade into the water and pull up some plants and look at them really close, read them,” Lundberg says. Farmers have just 24 to 48 hours to effectively pull this off.
Lundberg Family Farms also utilizes cover crops including oats, vetch, and fava beans to restore nutrients in the soil, prevent soil erosion, sequester carbon, reduce weed pressure, and provide habitat. “My dad likes to call them a win-win-win-win-win, working in partnership with nature,” she tells Food Tank.
For the company, protecting biodiversity and wildlife is an important benefit of their approach to farming. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California has lost more than 90 percent of its historic wetlands, which are critical habitats for migratory birds.
Lundberg says that their rice fields are able to “replicate those natural wetlands, especially in the winter when the birds really depend on that habitat.” That’s why, following the rice harvest, they flood a portion of their fields that birds can flock to.
In the spring, before they begin planting, they also partner with the California Waterfowl Association to comb the fields for nests that ducks have built. Any eggs they find are then transferred to a local hatchery before the fowl are released back into the wild.
Lundberg acknowledges that the transition to regenerative organic may present hurdles that can be intimidating for farmers. “There was a lot of fear internally about what that would look like if we fall short, how we would overcome those potential barriers to certification,” she says.
But Lundberg encourages producers to “just start,” noting that their own journey began with a conversation with the team at the Regenerative Organic Alliance who developed the certification.
“I always recommend that folks who are considering becoming regenerative organic certified just reach out and ask questions and find out what it would look like,” Lundberg says. “You can just start with a part of [the farm] and see how it goes and see if it works for you.”
Listen to the full conversation with Brita Lundberg to learn more about how Lundberg Family Farms is supporting salmon populations, the most effective ways to communicate the story of regenerative farming, and how she is thinking about carrying on her family’s legacy.
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Photo courtesy of Lundberg Family Farms
