Teamwork: Rice Farmers and Migratory Birds Rebuild the Soil

“You’ve got to be a little crazy to farm this way.”

That’s something we want to say every time we hear about another regenerative farmer that’s doing something so “out there” that we know we’re amongst friends.

Imagine rice farmers who flood their fields annually so that migratory birds can eat weed seeds and push their composted rice straw deeper into the ground. The Lundbergs take teaming with nature to a whole new level.

Then before planting season, this family will hand-pick every egg they find in the grasses and bring them to permitted hatchery through the US Fish & Wildlife Service. They’ve saved 30,000+ waterfowl this way – and they call is quacktivism.

Instead of herbicides or fertilizers, they’ve homed in on cover crops to sequester nitrogen, prevent erosion, and crowd out weeds. Every year they’re boosting biomass on their land. They’re not just preserving topsoil, they’re building it up and making it stay.

And they’ve been at it before it was trendy – since the 1970s!

We’re proud to bring you jasmine rice from organic, regenerative rice farmers. Lundberg Family Farms has been farming this way for generations, even when neighbours thought they must be mad.

The benefits to the ecosystem mean the soil is like a sponge full of nutrients and available water for the tricky business of rice farming. It works in harmony with other plants and animals, creating teamwork between nature and agriculture.

This is why we aren’t “local”

When farmers are producing our everyday food staples – like rice, wheat, and bananas – we care more about how they’re treating the land than about location. We have just one planet, and the benefits of regenerative farming can be felt around the globe.

We aren’t asking people to cut entire items out of their diet because it can’t grow in the Fraser Valley. We’re encouraging people to buy regenerative-grown wherever they can, whether it’s rice, coffee, milk, or bread.

The Honest Farmer happens to be located near some incredible farmers, but we’ll source our items from people around the globe who are going against the grain to restore the soil.