Mission

Our Mission

At bioNative Family farm, we are deeply committed to our environmental mission. As we are conscious that Spain is very arid land and water is a very scarce resource, we made a vow to protect it in our farm. This is why we approached various conservation groups and presented our project and our mission. With the help of WWF, we created a new certification for agriculture, which is Bio-integral agriculture under the label Arborigen. Arborigen is the highest agro-ecological and bio-environmental level for agronomic crops today.

In fact, Bio-integral Agriculture is cumulative, assuming both Organic and Biodynamic agriculture. It enriches other agricultural labels by incorporating agro-environmental practices that directly affect the enhancement and biological diversification of the farm, as well as the preservation of the natural environment and landscape and forest naturalization of the entire agronomic surroundings. Our objective is not only to achieve healthy and nutritionally clean agricultural products, but also to enrich and preserve the natural environment of our farm. Our process allows a perfect Bio-integral balance, through the conservation of the water resources of the subsoil — dryland farming-, the use of indigenous rootstocks and traditional agronomic varieties, the botanical forest restoration with native species and the promotion of the farm's own integrated ecosystem, with minimal human intervention.

Bio-integral Agriculture (ARBORIGEN) is defined and regulated by based on five pillars

  • 3 Labels into 1

  • Traditional high quality varieties

  • Dryland Farming

  • Wild and native rootstocks

  • Botanical-Forest Restoration of the farm ecosystem

We offer 3 labels into 1

Bio-integral Agriculture (ARBORIGEN) is cumulative. It includes the official certification as Organic Agriculture as per the European regulation is the starting point. We grow all our products without any pesticides, insecticides or chemical fertilizers and we do not use any process that would affect the preservation of the natural environment of our farm.

The Arborigen label also follows biodynamic agriculture regulations (certification Demeter). Following the principles of the biodynamic certification (Demeter), our agriculture follows lunar phases and we use composting and diverse crop rotations to ensure that more is given back to our soil than is taken from it during cultivation. Our goal is to maintain and importantly, increase our soil fertility.

There was no agricultural standard high enough for our products, so we created one: ARBORIGEN.

We exclusively grow traditional high quality varieties

Bio-integral Agriculture (ARBORIGEN) only uses native and/or traditional varieties in order to recover and promote our rich and vast agronomic heritage. We use ecotypes and ancestral varieties which are on the way to extinction as they are currently threatened by super-intensive conventional agriculture. We also work towards agricultural recovery and environmental reintroduction of extinct species - such as our pistachio that was previously extinct in the Iberian Peninsula about 500 years ago. We exclusively grow high quality noble varieties with excellent organoleptic and gastronomic qualities are taken into consideration when choosing our species.

We use strict extensive traditional dryland farming

Our agriculture process follows strict extensive traditional dryland farming rules, with the dual objective of maintaining and enhancing all the organoleptic and nutritional qualities of our fruits, as well as preserving the water resources of our lands. We are conscious that the water resources in the Iberian peninsula are limited due to the over-consumption of fossil and underground water that traditional agriculture uses to develop crops that would grow perfectly in traditional extensive dryland agriculture such as grape, almond, olive and pistachio. We also aim to avoid the human impact on our lands that would be caused by using irrigation with infrastructures such as high voltage lines, motor pump, wires, drips or rubber tubes. This is why our farm does not have any high voltage lines, motor pump, wires, drips or rubber tubes.

We select exclusively wild and native rootstocks

Our Bio-integral (ARBORIGEN) agriculture only uses either wild native rootstocks, or those grown from seeds.. The reason behind this choice is that these rootstocks are better adapted to the rigorous conditions of dryland farming and are resistant to diseases and pests under water stress conditions.

When possible we use wild rootstocks, if these are not available we grow these rootstock from seedlings, but the use of hybrid species is explicitly prohibited. For example, we graft the pistachio variety Kerman on the wild pistachio plant Pistacia terebinthus (Cornicabra, Terebinto) - a small indigenous tree found in the whole Iberian Peninsula. This wild and mountainous species gives the pistachio fruit a particular "pine nutty" taste, thanks to its resins and turpentines provided which boost and enhance the fruit's particular flavor.

Botanical-Forest Restoration of the farm biodiversity

One of our environmental missions is the recovery and restoration of the hedges, boundaries and copses in our land using indigenous species of Iberian forestry, which act as a refuge for "beneficial fauna", (insectivorous birds and small mammals). That way, we favor biological battle and natural plague controls in the crops.

This botanical regeneration favors both the landscape diversification and improves the biological connectivity, breaking the uniformity of a single crop and creating areas of wild bushes as the biodiversity of the farms. Ouf efforts re-created authentic botanical-forestry reserves of the native Iberian flora of the region.