Ever since The Restoration Economy was published in 2002—with its chapter on what author Storm Cunningham then called “restorative agriculture”—the regenerative agriculture (as it’s now called) trend has been growing steadily.
As defined in that groundbreaking book, regenerative agriculture rebuilds topsoil quantity and quality with each passing season while restoring local watersheds and biodiversity (especially native pollinators.)
More recently, with the rapid, catastrophic increase in global climate change, soil-based carbon sequestration has been added to that definition.
In March of this year, REVITALIZATION reported the introduction of regenerative pasta products from Annie’s.
Now, the latest regenerative food product news comes from that popular category of healthfood products known as nut-based milks. The Milkadamia brand (based in Burr Ridge, Illinois) starts with macadamia nuts that are grown on family farms in Australia.
There is a stark difference between Milkadamia’s farms and those of other commercial macadamia producers in the region: Milkadamia farmers use regenerative farming methods.
Even better, macadamia trees are native to the Australian rainforest. As a result, he Milkadamia farms strive to keep the environmental conditions as natural as possible, to reduce or eliminate the need for fertilization and irrigation.
Jim Richards, CEO of Milkadamia says that if 20% of currently cultivated land worldwide switched to regenerative farming, the buildup of carbon in the atmosphere could be reversed. Moreover, they use natural methods of pest control, keep their products as clean as possible by not using unhealthy preservatives or emulsifiers.
He says “The family-owned Jindilli farms are nestled near the Eastern coast of Australia in the very region where the tree originated. In a nutshell…our abundant rainfall, ample sunshine, rich soil and low impact farming is good for our nuts. Heart n’ soil – how good food is grown now.”
Macadamia nuts
“At our farms, we are ardently impassioned about regenerative farming. It means we run our farms as naturally as possible using an ever-growing collection of holistic farming techniques that rebuild the soil health. Helping to restore the amazing biodiversity of the millions of microorganisms living in each tablespoon of our land is the prime objective. Life has become a knowledge quest for creative ways to minimize human intervention and leave the earth do what she knows best – some call it ‘low impact, low energy’ farming, we like the thought of gentle farming too. Whatever the name, it is such an exciting journey, we are amazed with what we are learning and thrilled to find ourselves a small part of a new wave of farming communities who are bent on creating a more sustainable, abundant future for our planet,” he concluded.
Farm and macadamia nut photos courtesy of Jindilli Farms.
See article and listen to interview with Jim Richards on One Green Planet.