Texan by Nature is excited to recognize Vital Farms as a 2022 TxN 20 honoree for their leadership in conservation and sustainability. Vital Farms’ commitment to conservation, their projects, programs, best practices, and lessons learned are an example and inspiration for us all. 

Honoree Industry and Size: Agriculture – Mid

Company Overview: Vital Farms is a Certified B Corporation that offers a range of ethically produced foods nationwide. Started on a single farm in Austin, Texas in 2007, Vital Farms has become a national consumer brand that works with over 300 family farms and is the leading U.S. brand of pasture-raised eggs by retail dollar sales. Vital Farms’ ethics are exemplified by its focus on the humane treatment of farm animals and sustainable farming practices.

What is Vital Farms’ conservation and sustainability mission and why is it important to your culture?
Since Vital Farms was founded 15 years ago, conservation and sustainability have been at the heart of what we do. We believe there is an alternative to our current food system, one where conservation and working lands go hand-in-hand. Our pasture-raised eggs come from hens that receive 108 square feet of land and are rotated to a new section of pasture every few weeks. This allows the grass to grow back and soil to recover, while preventing parasite buildup without the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.  This founding mission is coupled with our organizational culture of Conscious Capitalism. We make decisions based on what’s sustainable for all our stakeholders, including farmers and suppliers, crew members, customers and consumers, stockholders, the community, and the environment

How is conservation and sustainability a part of Vital Farms’ business strategy?
Our decision to become a Certified B Corporation and Public Benefit Corporation is a natural extension of the purpose-driven business we built from the beginning. Our practice of Conscious Capitalism has naturally guided us to make significant progress across the pillars of Environment, Social & Governance (ESG), weaving resilience and sustainability into every aspect of our business, considering the value we create for society, not just shareholders. 

We believe prioritizing the long-term sustainability and success of our stakeholders produces strong outcomes for everyone over time. Conservation is a critical part of ensuring our resilience and business strategy as we are dependent on farmers, hens, and the land to continue to bring ethical food to consumers across the country. 

What are Vital Farms’ short and long-term goals as they relate to conservation and sustainability?
In March 2022, Vital Farms released our Inaugural Sustainability Report that provides an overview of our ESG progress as it relates to all our stakeholders. At Vital Farms, we acknowledge the importance of climate instability and preserving our environment. We made it imperative for Vital Farms to actively assess its business by making decisions and changes that preserve our planet and its natural resources, such as

• Land Conservation: Every egg farmer in our network of over 300 family farms practices pasture rotation, a method that rejuvenates the land naturally without herbicides or pesticides, which is a standard we require.
• Energy & Water Conservation at Egg Central Station: At Egg Central Station, where we wash and pack our eggs, we’ve implemented several features to conserve energy and water, including a water recycling system and solar panels. 
• Biodiversity: Our farmers use silvopastoral systems that intentionally integrate trees and forage on the same land used to raise animals. This allows farmers to leave their trees intact, creating an additional source of income from land that would otherwise have to be deforested. At Egg Central Station, we use native grasses and plants outside to preserve soil health, foster an environment for pollinators, and eliminate the need for permanent irrigation as well as the use of any fertilizers or pesticides.  
• Greenhouse Gas Emissions: We recently conducted our first greenhouse gas inventory (for both our operations and our supply chain) to better understand where our biggest activities for reduction are. We are in the process of prioritizing reduction opportunities.
• Packaging: We aim to use packaging that is recyclable and compostable while prioritizing our food safety and quality standards. 

Who at Vital Farms is leading your conservation and sustainability efforts and what are some examples of employee engagement in conservation and sustainability at your company?
Our conservation and sustainability efforts are led by Joanne Bal, who serves as our General Counsel, Corporate Strategy, and Andrea Chu, Director of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG). Joanne and Andrea design, implement, and report on Vital Farms’ ESG mission, including working with our Board of Directors on developing and maintaining best practices in governance. Additionally, within our board, Vital Farms has a Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee that oversees our strategy, initiatives, practices, and reporting relating to ESG matters.

What conservation and sustainability programs and projects does Vital Farms lead and participate in?

At Vital Farms, we aim to make decisions and implement practices across our business that have positive long-term effects on all our stakeholders. With conservation in mind, our family farms practice pasture rotation, a method that rejuvenates the land and avoids herbicides and pesticides. Our farmer partners rotate the girls to a new section of pasture every 21 days to give the land time to recover. With nearly 300 family farms, over 8,400 acres of land can be rejuvenated. Our dedicated farm support team provides year-round farmer guidance and support including weekly phone calls, monthly in-person visits, quarterly meetings, and other hands-on support. 

“I absolutely love working with Vital Farms. I always feel valued and supported. It’s clear they want us to succeed. Working with Vital Farms is so much more than supplying eggs. It’s the opportunity to produce food to a higher standard, treating the girls, the land, and family farmers with care and respect. As a farmer, I also love that Vital Farms takes the time to connect families to the source of their food by sharing stories about the girls or videos of the exact farm their eggs came from!”

-Joseph Patterson, Roaming P Ranch Farm 

We also do our part to embrace the circular economy, by minimizing our consumption of virgin materials by utilizing post-consumer recycled content in our packaging. Our entire product portfolio is 99% recyclable by weight, 48% comfortable by weight, and 90% made from post-consumer recycled materials. Our core 12-count hybrid egg cartons, which are made from 100% recycled material with a carbon-neutral lid, have saved more than 33,000 trees since their inception. 

We recently release Restorative eggs, produced using regenerative agriculture principles like perennial rotations and cover crops. Regenerative agriculture helps create balanced environments between pastures and animals that aims to increase the land’s resiliency and improve the health of waterways. Vital Farms is working with Regen Ag Lab to track key measurements like biodiversity and water retention every quarter on the five initial farms. Those measurements will be used to determine year-over-year soil health improvements which will be reported annually. Additional progress highlights will be updated seasonally on the Vital Farms website.

“We’re constantly evaluating how we can operate more sustainably since we believe we have a responsibility to lead the industry forward by implementing emerging and scalable practices that support farmers, animals, and the environment, this is only the beginning of our journey with regenerative agriculture and one of the many ways Vital Farms is trying to leave the land better than we found it.”

-Andrea Chu, Director of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), Vital Farms

How do you see the future of conservation and sustainability evolving, and what role will Vital Farms play in that progress?
As consumers push brands to reflect their values and supply chain disruptions become more of a norm, conservation and sustainability will become more and more critical to how companies do business. Our founding story centers on prioritizing long-term resiliency for all stakeholders over short-term profits for a few so we see ourselves leading the charge on conservation and sustainability. We are constantly working to deliver on our mission to improve the lives of people, animals, and the planet through food. As part of our inaugural Sustainability Report, Vital Farms disclosed our performance on certain Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues in accordance with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards. We will continue to raise the bar by setting public ESG commitments on key issues such as climate change, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and farmer welfare, and transparently report progress. 

How does Vital Farms quantify investment and return on conservation and sustainability?
We consider investments in conservation and sustainability as investments in our resiliency, our direct supply chain’s resiliency and our broader food system’s resiliency. From the supply side, we incentivize our farmers to transition to more regenerative practices, which makes their operations more adaptable to adverse weather conditions. For example, farms that implement cover crops handle flooding events better than farms with bare soils. From the demand side, we know that consumers are willing to pay more for food that has been responsibly and sustainably produced. Additionally, consumers are becoming more sophisticated in their understanding of sustainability so we see an opportunity to invest in fulfilling that consumer criteria and capture that part of the market.

What is the one lesson that Vital Farms has learned from your conservation and sustainability efforts that others can take back and think about applying within their own space?
The stakeholder model is essential to successful conservation and sustainability efforts. The positive impact of conservation and sustainability goes far beyond an organization’s four walls and can also be geographically and community-specific. Ensuring that all relevant and potentially affected stakeholders have a seat at the table is critical to finding the right solutions.

Why is Texas an important home or base of operations for Vital Farms?
Vital Farms began with a husband and wife, an Austin pasture with 20 Rhode Island Reds, and a commitment to animal welfare. As we grew, we didn’t make our farm bigger – we found more like-minded farmers who put the welfare of their feathered friends first. Today, we partner with over 300 small family farms across the pasture-belt that give hens (who we affectionally called “the girls”) the outdoor lifestyle they deserve. While many of our farms are now outside of Texas, we still have deep roots in the Lonestar state. Our main office, “The Roost,” is based in Austin, TX where over 50 of our crew members reside, dozens of foodservice operators such as Texas-based Tacodeli proudly serve Vital Farms pasture-raised eggs, and we support local non-profits including Boys & Girls Club of Austin and Central Texas Food Bank. We know the important role we play within the communities we serve and strive to be reliable partners. 

Learn more about Vital Farm’s conservation and sustainability efforts here.