KIND Snacks Announces Major Sustainability Milestones in the Journey to Scale Regenerative Agriculture Across its Almond Supply Chain

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Oct 22, 2024, 08:30 ET

Developments include partnering with Wolfe's Neck Center with support from the USDA and doubling the acreage of the KIND Almond Acres Initiative

NEW YORK, Oct. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, KIND Snacks, the brand known for its delicious and nutritious snacks with the legacy of creating a kinder and healthier world, is announcing a series of industry-leading sustainable sourcing milestones just one year after releasing its most ambitious sustainability commitment yet – to source 100% of its almonds from farms leveraging regenerative agriculture practices on a mass-balance basis by 2030. As a brand that buys millions of pounds of almonds each year, KIND believes it has a responsibility to support the industry in moving towards more sustainable practices.

KIND announces partnership with Wolfe's Neck Center
KIND Snacks is partnering with Wolfe's Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment (Wolfe's Neck Center) to join their Regenerative Services Match Program. Wolfe's Neck Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating change in food systems through regenerative farming, innovative research, and collaborations. This partnership – currently Wolfe's Neck Center's largest partnership focused on almonds – will unlock more than $300,000 in funding for regenerative practice adoption and resource deployment within KIND's almond supply network. This funding, made possible in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities Program, represents a key milestone in bringing regenerative practices that support soil health to specialty crops, like almonds, and supporting growers in practice adoption and monitoring.

Through this partnership with Wolfe's Neck Center, KIND will have line of sight to ensure over 30% of its almond supply chain is leveraging regenerative practices on a mass-balance basis by 2025 as a first step towards the commitment to source 100% of almonds from farms leveraging regenerative agriculture on a mass-balance basis by 2030. This partnership will also reduce the risk for KIND's growers to adopt regenerative agricultural practices, including cover cropping and soil amendments, to reduce the environmental impacts of farming by providing financial incentives and technical assistance. Support to growers also includes assistance with measurement, reporting, and verification tools that are multi-purpose and used by growers across the industry.

"At Wolfe's Neck Center, we believe that it has never been more important to change the way we produce food to improve the health of the planet. Our shift to a more regenerative food system relies on strong, cross-sector partnerships. We are thrilled to partner with KIND and support their goals for scaling regenerative practices for almonds. Their commitment to supporting growers and sustainable farming truly exemplifies how collaborative efforts can drive meaningful change in our food systems. It's through partnerships like these that we can all accelerate change to create a more sustainable and resilient agricultural future," says Dave Herring, Executive Director of Wolfe's Neck Center.

KIND and ofi double acreage of the KIND Almond Acres Initiative
The partnership between KIND and Wolfe's Neck Center was secured in part due to the industry-leading work of the KIND Almond Acres Initiative, a regenerative agriculture pilot project in collaboration with one of KIND's suppliers, ofi (Olam Food Ingredients), that launched in 2023. With the KIND Almond Acres Initiative, KIND and ofi have embarked on testing a combination of five regenerative practices and modern technologies over three years on 500+ acres of land in California – one of the largest pilot projects dedicated to regenerative agriculture for almonds in California.

In year 2 of the pilot, KIND is nearly doubling the acreage of the KIND Almond Acres Initiative to close to 1,000 acres, working with ofi to add a pilot farm outside of Bakersfield, California. The second pilot farm will test the same five stacked practices, but in a region that received half as much water in 2024 as the original pilot farm in Madera County. This expansion will allow for critical testing of the impact of regenerative practices in more water-stressed areas. Initial results from the first year of the KIND Almond Acres Initiative have been positive and were critical to inform the expansion of the acreage and the partnership with Wolfe's Neck Center to further support almond suppliers looking to implement regenerative practices.

"I'm energized by the significant strides we've made in our first year of research," says Caitlin Birkholz, Sustainability Impact Manager for Regenerative Agriculture at KIND. "Transparency and collaboration across multiple partners are essential to advancing regenerative agriculture. By openly sharing knowledge and working together, we can drive meaningful progress and build a more sustainable future for the industry."

The KIND Almond Acres Initiative embraces new agtech solutions in year 2
Lastly, year 2 of the KIND Almond Acres Initiative involves continued collaboration with new and existing partners in the public and private sectors, including:

LandScan AI, to better enable more real-time amendments to the regenerative agriculture pilot for greater sustainability impacts.
Regrow Ag to discover how to best measure and model on-farm carbon outputs for the broader almond industry.
Supporting regional partners with research and investment through the California Water Action Collaborative and KIND's longstanding partnership with the Williams Lab at UC Davis. KIND Snacks is also continuing to invest in the next generation of sustainable change agents through its scholarship with UC Merced.

For more information about the KIND Almond Acres Initiative, please visit kindsnacks.com/almonds.

About KIND Snacks:
Since Day 1, KIND has had a vision for a kinder and healthier world. A world in which people never have to choose between what tastes good, feels good, and does good when it comes to their snacking.

Our iconic KIND^®bars – made with real, recognizable ingredients – sparked the growth of an entirely new healthy snacking category back in 2004. Now, KIND has a family of more than 80 snacks that offer solutions for a variety of occasions. All of KIND's products lead with a nutrient-dense first ingredient – like nuts or whole grains – and do not contain genetically engineered ingredients, sugar alcohols or artificial sweeteners. It's all KINDs of good.

To learn more about KIND, please visit www.kindsnacks.com and join us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

About Wolfe's Neck Center:
Wolfe's Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment is a national nonprofit organization based on a campus of over 600 acres of coastal farmland in Freeport, Maine. Our work is dedicated to creating a world where agriculture and food systems support farmer viability, thriving ecosystems, and vibrant communities. Through regenerative farming demonstration and training, innovative research, and collaborations, Wolfe's Neck Center works to advance agriculture - on our own farm, regionally, and nationally - to accelerate holistic change in food systems and mitigate the effects of a changing climate.

Regenerative Services Match Program is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement number NR233A750004G032.

About ofi:
olam food ingredients ("ofi") is a new operating group born out of Olam. ofi offers sustainable, natural, value-added food products and ingredients so that consumers can enjoy the healthy and indulgent products they love. It consists of industry-leading businesses of cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts, and spices. ofi has built a unique global value chain presence including its own farming operations, farm-gate origination, and manufacturing facilities. ofi partners with customers, leveraging its complementary and differentiated portfolio of 'on-trend' food products, to co-create solutions that anticipate and meet changing consumer preferences as demand increases for healthier food that's traceable and sustainable

SOURCE KIND Healthy Snacks