What Sustainability Means To Us
Petaluma Egg Farm’s solar panels provide power for our egg coolers and more.
Sustainability is important to us at Petaluma Egg Farm, but we want it to be more than just a buzzword. Foundationally, we view sustainability through the lens of environmental impact and we see it as a process of continual improvement. As new technology becomes available and our understanding of our impact on the environment changes, there are always new opportunities emerging to reduce our environmental impact. Below are some of the steps we’ve taken on our sustainability journey, as well as some plans we have for our next steps.
Chicken manure ready to be used as fertilizer by local farms.
Natural Fertilizer
Chickens give us two things: lots of eggs and lots of manure. We have a good handle on what to do with the eggs, but it’s a little more complicated to manage the manure. We provide our manure to other local farmers and ranchers who then spread it directly onto their fields. The remaining manure that does not make it onto a field is turned into compost, which is also used for soil enrichment. Chicken manure is rich in nitrogen, which is essential for strong and healthy plant growth. Our chickens eat a largely plant-based diet, so when their manure is spread back onto the fields, they are giving their leftover nutrients back to the ground, sequestering carbon and completing the cycle.
Solar Panels
We have also installed solar panels at our ranch to power the coolers that keep our eggs cold and to power the machine that washes and cleans our eggs. We believe solar power is a key piece of the clean energy movement. Increasing our reliance on solar energy is more than just an economic decision – it’s an affirmation of our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint.
Mother Nature’s Lawnmowers
My dad always likes to call sheep “Mother Nature’s lawnmowers.” That’s why we give other local ranchers access to our excess pasture for grazing. By allowing other animals to graze, we reduce our need to mow the grass mechanically. The less we use mechanical mowers, the fewer greenhouse gases we produce.
Carbon Footprint
Finally, and most important to our sustainability story, we’re local. We only supply eggs to Northern California, which means that over 90% of our customers are within 100 miles of our farm. We believe that we’re the only egg farm in Northern California that can make that claim. This contrasts sharply with commercial egg producers who often ship their eggs thousands of miles, leading to a large carbon footprint from shipping alone.
In addition, that long journey can affect the freshness of eggs meaning they are often two weeks old or more before arriving on grocery store shelves. Our eggs are sometimes laid and delivered in as little as three days. We believe that locally produced food is better for the environment, better for the people, and better for the chickens. The decision to buy our eggs doesn't just ensure you're getting a fresher product; it’s also a choice that tangibly supports the environment.
For the future, we’re exploring burning our manure as a means of powering our chicken ranch, further reducing our reliance on fossil fuels for electricity. In addition, we’re looking into electric alternatives for our diesel delivery trucks and refrigeration units. These are just a couple of future steps in our sustainability journey.
Every day, we’re a local Petaluma family working on our Petaluma farm alongside other local Petaluma families to raise chickens that lay eggs feeding families throughout Northern California. Every day, we strive to take good care of the environment and our chickens to ensure that our farm and our world will be here for the next generation.