2023 Natural Grocers Environmental, Social, and Governance Report

In 2000, after working in conventional food marketing for 20 years, Thousand Hills™ owner and Chief Regenerative Renegade, Matt Maier moved back to the family farm to raise grass-fed beef. Witnessing the degradation of his childhood land and environment, he vowed to make a positive impact. Since their founding in 2003, Thousand Hills Lifetime Grazed has been focused on its mission of nourishing soil, plants, cattle, and people by holistically grazing cattle for their lifetime. Thousand Hills prides itself on offering 100% grass-fed beef without any confinement feeding, GMO plants, grain by-products, antibiotics, or artificial hormones. Its cattle are always grazing on the land and managed holistically, which regenerates soil and grasslands. Its cattle are raised in open pastures for their lifetime so they can express natural, instinctive behaviors and remain safe from the pain and stress of confinement feeding. Thousand Hills is committed to demonstrating leadership in the 100% grass-fed meat industry with regenerative agricultural practices. Thousand Hills has fully embraced regenerative agriculture, which seeks to move past sustaining to regenerating natural resources through holistically managed grazing. Its approach to regenerative agriculture is based on key land management practices that look holistically at the ecosystem to build soil health, increase clean and safe water runoff, improve biodiversity and ecosystem resiliency, increase carbon sequestration, and improve the nutritional value of meat—all while helping rural economies to thrive. The Thousand Hills home farm in Clearwater, MN is certified as one of 20 North American Savory Institute Hubs. The

Savory Institute is a leading non-profit organization that uses a decentralized network of regional Hubs, educators, and land verifiers to help create regenerative outcomes through applied Holistic Management of farmland. Thousand Hills’ inclusion in this program reflects their demonstrated commitment to holistic, regenerative grazing practices. In addition, all Thousand Hills products have the American Grassfed Association certification and Land to Market verification, and is in the process of obtaining the Audubon’s Conservation Ranching certification. These rigorous third-party certifications communicate and quantify the value of Thousand Hills’ stewardship. Thousand Hills has expanded its influence by working in cooperation with 60 like-minded family farms nationally. With this scale Thousand Hills is able to regeneratively farm over 600,000 acres in the United States and provide exceptional grass-fed beef products to all Natural Grocers locations. It is estimated that 220 million tons of topsoil is lost each year through US corn production efforts. Thousand Hills estimates that for each pound of beef it produces through regenerative practices, it is able to regenerate 300 square feet of topsoil. Thousand Hills estimates that its network of family farms generates 50,000 tons of topsoil each year. Thousand Hills’ experience demonstrates that there is significant opportunity to improve soil and the ecosystem by converting cows’ feed from corn to grass, and converting land from corn production to pasture. For additional information about Thousand Hills and their

commitment to regenerative agriculture, please visit their website: https://thousandhillslifetimegrazed.com/regenerative-agriculture/ Better land, better animals, better food for healthier thriving people are all part of the blueprint for Thousand Hills.

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FISCAL YEAR | 2023