WENATCHEE, WA - As we celebrate the Earth today and all it gives, I had the opportunity to sit down with Stemilt Marketing Director Brianna Shales to talk about how sustainability took root—literally—long before the term was coined and curated for the public.
“For our team, this goes back to 1989 when a television report shocked and scared the public in regard to chemicals being used in fruit. Our leader at the time, Tom Mathison, pledged to find new practices and limit our chemical use as much as possible. In that same year, we also began to invest in organic growing ahead of any large-scale programs of the kind, truly pioneering steps that are a standard practice today,” Brianna reflects.
Those steps planted roots which have spread out into a true caretaking culture, branching to everything from literal land stewardship like bee-friendly farming and the unique concept of Kyle Mathison’s Stemilt Hill Compost Farm to the canopy of sustainability by safe labor practices and energy saving practices.
“Things like integrated pest management, water monitoring, and investment in better ways of growing are so ingrained, but at the same time we are constantly looking for ways to be better and to continue that pioneering spirit Tom started us with,” Brianna reflects.
In this way, she alights specifically on Kyle’s composting practice.
“Not only is this a unique way to give back to the land and mitigate waste, it gets our community involved in contributing to the growth of the food that comes back to them,” Brianna says with a smile.
Twenty-three acres are dedicated to composting green waste from Stemilt facilities, orchards, and the local community yard waste through a disposal center called Stemilt Organic Recycling Center, she explains. The waste is churned into a nutritionally balanced compost that fits the needs of the specific orchard, with compost applied on organic or conventional orchards, depending on the compost type.
Set up as an intricate local network, everyone surrounding Stemilt’s operations can opt to utilize curbside green waste bins and are encouraged to join in converting waste into compost alongside the grower’s packing facilities and orchards. The very epitome of Earth Day.
Going beyond the soil, Stemilt certified its owned orchards in 2021 as Bee Friendly Farming through the Pollinator Partnership. This certification ensures Stemilt is promoting and protecting the health of bees and other pollinators.
“We planted over 400 acres of native wildflowers, bee forage, and made water available, dedicating three percent of our owned acreage to pollinator habitat,” Brianna tells me.
In addition to nature’s workforce, the company looks after its own under its Equitable Food Initiative certification as well.
“Stemilt is the only tree fruit company to be fully certified with the Equitable Food Initiative and their Responsibly Grown Farmworker Assured program,” Brianna points out. “All of our company-owned orchards and warehouses have active Leadership Teams working on continuous improvement practices. We certified our first orchard in 2020 following a pilot program, and achieved EFI certification across our entire operations in 2021.”
To dig deeper into the data, EFI certification assures retailers that Stemilt orchards and warehouses are producing fruit according to 300 rigorous standards for responsible labor practices, integrated pest management, and food safety.
All branches of a caretaking culture deeply rooted in and committed to the Earth making this all possible. And is that not exactly what Earth Day is all about?
