15 Aug Regenerate & Restore: The 2023 Tribeca Oven Sustainability Report
At Tribeca Oven, we believe that caring for our environment and stewarding agricultural land are responsibilities we all share. Consumers do their part by choosing eco-friendly products and supporting brands that demonstrate an authentic commitment to sustainability; brands and producers choose ingredients that are grown and harvested with minimal environmental impact; and farmers continue to both innovate and look to the past to discover more ways to integrate conservation-minded resource management. There is much work to be done to repair and protect our planet, and this joint effort along the food supply chain plays an important role.
We are proud to share highlights from the Tribeca Oven 2023 Sustainability Report, an annual informational review of our commitment to supporting sustainable and regenerative farming practices and providing our customers with high-quality artisan breads that align with their values.
Since 2018, we have spearheaded the North Dakota Wheat Program, which supports farmers who are on the cutting edge of regenerative agriculture, and uses benchmarks to evaluate the project’s performance. We invest in the farmers that are part of the program with financial incentives and our formidable buying power (we require a lot of wheat to make our breads!); the wheat we purchase from this program makes up about 25% of our total needs.
To become part of this program, forward-thinking producers must commit to the five core principles of regenerative agriculture: maintain living roots in soil; maximize diversity; minimize soil disturbance; continuously cover bare soil; and responsibly manage inputs.
In 2023, the North Dakota Wheat Program included 9 farms, accounting for 6,567 acres of wheat across 55 fields. Digging deeper into the results of the report, many of the benchmarks were met or exceeded by the farmers in the program. These include:
100% use no-till methods (the USDA’s Weighted State Benchmark is 35%), meaning the soil is not turned before planting. This prevents erosion and saves approximately 3.9 gallons of fuel per acre.
60% are in the N-balance safe zone, the name for a system created by scientists to determine if crops have the nutrients they need. The fact that over half of the acreage in our program is in this zone shows that the farmers are effectively managing nitrogen inputs and optimizing nutrient use efficiency, which benefits both crop productivity and the environment!
The farmers’ average score was 66, compared to the state average of 47; this is up from a score of 53 in 2022.
Approximately 11% use cover crops or living roots (note that the USDA benchmark is 1.5%).
Biodiversity was 80%; this is an increase from 73% biodiversity among farms in the program in 2022.
Carbon emissions: Farmers reduced carbon emissions compared to the state benchmark through high yields and normal nitrogen use.
The report also shows that the farms in the North Dakota Wheat program underperformed in the areas of agrochemical usage (their score was 70, compared to a benchmark of 35); Nitrogen Use Efficiency (1.8 compared to the recommended range of 1 to 1.2); and water quality (1.8 on a 0-to-4 scale, though it’s very rare to see farms that score over a 3). We are confident that with continued investment and incentivization, these farmers will continue to improve these metrics in future years.
We also hope and believe that Tribeca Oven can be an industry influencer through the North Dakota Wheat Program, and through our practices of purchasing from flour mills that are net carbon neutral. It is our corporate social responsibility to achieve our environmental stewardship goals and to continue supporting producers that share those goals.
For more information, head to the Sustainability page on our website. If you’re a chef or restaurant operator, sign up for The Crumb Collective, our artisan bread community for operators.
Curious to learn more? Check out the full report here, and our 2022 Sustainability Report. We encourage retail or restaurant operators to sign up for The Crumb Collective, our artisan bread community for operators. Home cooks and professional chefs alike are welcome to explore our recipes, and follow Tribeca Oven on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn. To find our artisan breads in stores, use our product locator.
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