The Almond Project

The Almond Project’s Five Year Soil Health Study is a commercial-scale research initiative running from Fall 2021 through 2026, designed to generate rigorous, real-farm data on the impact of regenerative soil health practices in California almond production.

Study Design

• 160 acres of active soil health management blocks (80 acres organic / 80 acres conventional)
• 150 acres of comparison blocks (75 acres organic / 75 acres conventional)

Soil Health Practices Being Tested

• Multi-Species Cover Crops — Diverse mixes of legumes, grasses, brassicas, and broadleaves to build soil structure, increase organic matter, and enhance biodiversity
• Animal Integration — Sheep rotated through management blocks to graze cover crop growth, contribute to soil fertility, and increase biodiversity
• Increased Compost Application — Dairy manure compost applied in bands over tree rows to boost organic matter, moisture retention, and microbial activity
• Input Reduction — Decreased use of synthetic nitrogen in the conventional block

What We’re Measuring
Soil and ecosystem health are tracked across biological, chemical, and physical indicators, including soil organic matter, aggregate stability, water holding capacity, nutrient availability, and almond nutritional quality, to build a comprehensive picture of how these practices perform at commercial scale over time.

We’ve completed five years of EOV monitoring.

• We tested the adaptation of Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV), developed by the Savory Institute, to almond orchard growing systems.
• The trial of EOV on these almond orchards will serve as a vital resource to help establish a verification program for almonds and other perennial cropping systems.

*Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV) is an approach developed by the Savory Institute that measures and trends ecological outcomes on participating producers’ land. If results trend positive, a verification is granted and the farm is entered into the Land to Market Verified Regenerative Supplier Roster, which will, in turn, make it easier for food manufacturers to source and customers to purchase foods farmed using regenerative practices.

We are working with Dr. Selina Wang’s lab at UC Davis to compare the nutrient density of almonds in the soil health management blocks to those in the traditionally farmed comparison blocks. Samples were taken from the 2023 harvest and will be taken from the 2026 harvest. Results will be available summer 2027.

We conducted extensive research on the possible verification and certification programs that can certify “regenerative almonds” or “climate beneficial almonds,” evaluating which programs best serve all stakeholders across the supply chain, from farm to processor to brand to retailer to customer. A PDF guide summarizing our findings is coming soon.

In 2025 we brought together a diverse group of almond farmers and technical specialists from across the globe to form an advisory board that meets regularly. Together we explored how almond growing can evolve around shared goals: biodiversity, water efficiency, carbon sequestration, chemical reduction, and soil health. We are currently seeking funding for the next phase of this work, which will include developing a report created by farmers, scientists, and technical service providers presenting a plan for sustainability practice implementation to brands and customers. This work aims to reverse the trend of sustainability requests being dictated top-down by customers, putting farmers and growers at the center of the conversation.

Determine how companies that source almonds can measure the carbon benefit of almonds produced with regenerative soil health practices and integrate verified results into company reporting and claims.

The initial project phase will involve interviewing platforms that currently track carbon sequestration for almonds or are in the process of developing this capability, and connecting with others in the industry working on similar questions to identify the key platforms that will best serve all almond industry actors.

The goal of this work is to understand how regenerative almonds can be economically viable,  priced at a point that works for companies and customers, while genuinely incentivizing land stewards to tend to soils, biodiversity, and water and carbon cycles at their highest form of health.

Almond farming economics are volatile. Variable interest rates, multi-year stretches below cost of production, input cost swings, water uncertainty, and export market disruptions can force growers into short-term thinking, making it difficult to prioritize the long-term investments that regenerative transition requires.

We are exploring how business models across the supply chain can bridge that gap, including premiums, subsidies, loan guarantees, long-term contracts, and new models beyond these traditional approaches.