Our Climate Pledge
Our Start
Palouse Brand is a family-owned and vertically-integrated 125+ year old farm that grows, processes, packages, and ships legumes and grains directly to customers. Our products offer a built in consumer experience through our transparency program. We grow our own products and provide customers with, field location, photos, and harvest dates on their foods.
Our Climate Pledge
We believe in preserving our natural resources and treating them with care - growing crops that naturally add nitrogen naturally back into the soils. We look at every input from our farming to our packaging with the climate in mind.
The farm operation uses the latest in sustainable agricultural practices. We have been using Direct Seeding and NO-Till practices since 1982. These changes have greatly reduced soil erosion, have increased soil health and helped us control our cost in an ever-rising input cost environment. In 2006 we became “Food Alliance” certified.
We are committed to improving our farms and we are committed to evaluating new technologies and farming practices that ensure our ground is forever protected as well as viable.
We don’t just stop at preserving the land – it's our packaging too!
Our 5 LB bags are packaged in burlap (aka jute). Burlap is a vegetable fiber that can be spun into strong threads to make fabric. The burlap we use is important in packaging. Although it is much more expensive than other materials, the burlap keeps the inside of the bag dark which is necessary for preserving the color of our food. If we allowed the food to be out in light (natural or unnatural) for an extended period of time you would see a less aesthetically pleasing product. For example, our green peas would fade to white.
Our 3 LB bags are 100% cotton. Cotton is also plant-derived, re-useable and environmentally friendly. The ink we print on all our bags is water-based and environmentally friendly.
Not only do we select earth-friendly fabrics for our packaging but they also play an important role in preserving the aesthetic quality of our foods for your long time enjoyment.
Your Food Safety
We take great care of your food. Our facilities are practicing the latest and greatest in food cleaning and protection. We are audited several times a year by the organizations that allow us to carry their certifications as well as the USDA. Palouse Trading employs a full-time Food Safety Manager. He/she is responsible for running the day to day management of the program along with getting us through our inspections and audits. Below is a brief description of our Food Alliance Certification.
We carry two Food Alliance Certifications - one at the Farm level and another at our Food Handling Operation, Palouse Trading.
- Protect, conserve and enhance soil, water, wildlife habitat and biodiversity
- Conserve energy, reduce and recycle waste
- Reduce use of pesticides and other toxic or hazardous materials
- Maintain transparent and traceable supply chains
- Support safe and fair working conditions
- Guarantee food product integrity, with no genetically engineered or artificial ingredients
- Ensure healthy, humane animal treatment
- Ensure continual improvement of practices
