Everyday is Earth Day at American Olive Farmer

Earth Day 2025 Update from Liz Tagami

Since we introduced EcoCart in 2022, many of you—our patrons—have quietly chosen to reduce the environmental impact of your orders. Thank you for walking this path with us.

For the first two years, your offsets supported a forest project near Mt. Shasta, just 80 miles north of our orchards. That local connection allowed me to speak directly about the trees and terrain your dollars helped protect. In 2023, I matched your Earth Month and holiday contributions to help push us past neutrality into “climate positive” territory—removing more carbon than we emitted.

At the end of that year, EcoCart changed course, combining all contributions into a broader initiative called Global Forestry Projects. Today, your offsets support REDD+ projects—which stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation—across the global south. These projects preserve large, vital forests that absorb carbon, protect biodiversity, and help rural communities thrive through jobs, clean water, and education.

Since the switch, your orders have offset 164,258 pounds of CO₂—the equivalent of:

• Driving nearly 200,000 miles in a gas-powered car

• Powering over 14 homes for a full year

• Charging more than 9 million smartphones

• Growing 1,200 trees for ten years

• Protecting the carbon stored in nearly 90 acres of forest

Although I wasn’t able to match contributions in 2024, I’ve continued to quietly offer the program and hope to resume matching when our other costs allow.

As a small family business, we can’t do everything—but we can do something. And thanks to your participation, we already have. Your choices make a difference.

Whether it’s Earth Day or just a quiet Tuesday, thank you for being the kind of patron who chooses with care.

— Liz