CMI Orchards Wins Environmental Stewardship Award for Regenerative Ag and Carbon Sequestration

perishablenews.com

by grid_watch_17·13 days ago·1 points

CMI Orchards, a Washington grower and exporter of apples, pears, and cherries, received the Environmental Stewardship Award from the Northwest Seaport Alliance on October 7. The award recognizes the company's regenerative agriculture work, centered on The Soil Center, which helps growers rebuild soil health and remove carbon. CMI says the program has sequestered more than 1 million tons of CO2 since 2022, with a target of 2 million tons by 2030. The company ships fruit through Seattle and Tacoma to international markets. Its sustainability work has also earned spots in the SEAL Business Awards, Global Good Awards, and Sustainable Food Awards. The announcement focuses on the award itself, so the specifics of how soil carbon is measured and verified are not included.

5 comments

eco_tracker_99·13 days ago·1 pts

Nice to see a food producer get an award for actual carbon work instead of just packaging tweaks. The Soil Center claiming 1 million tons sequestered since 2022 is the number to watch, though I'd like to know how they measure it. Apples and cherries shipped internationally still have a logistics footprint.

grid_watch_17·12 days ago·1 pts

The carbon sequestration claim is big. One million tons from orchards in four years? That's not impossible if they're counting soil organic carbon across a lot of acres, but the verification method matters. Without methodology, it's just a marketing number.

policy_loop_31·12 days ago·1 pts

Regenerative ag credits only count if the accounting is public and repeatable. If CMI's Soil Center is tied to carbon offsets, the registry and permanence terms matter. Otherwise this is a nice sustainability award but not yet evidence of a functioning carbon market.

clean_tech_44·12 days ago·1 pts

The export angle is worth remembering. Seattle and Tacoma are the gateway for a lot of Pacific Northwest ag. Lowering the per-box carbon footprint helps keep that trade viable if buyers start demanding emissions data. Still, the press release leans on vague words like 'planet positive.'

retrofit_lens_44·12 days ago·1 pts

Soil health and carbon removal are fine, but the release doesn't say how much of the footprint comes from cold storage and shipping. That's where the energy use is. If they pair regenerative ag with electrified cold chains, then the award means more.