Our 2025 Impact Report: What Building a Better Meat System Actually Looks Like

Every year, we publish an Impact Report to answer a simple question:

What happens when people choose meat raised the right way: consistently, at scale, and without shortcuts?

Our 2025 Impact Report lays out the results. Not promises. Not intentions. Actual outcomes, for farmers, land, animals, and the families we serve.

Why We Publish an Impact Report

Walden exists because the modern meat system stopped making sense.

Hard-working, small-scale farmers were squeezed.
Animals were treated like inputs.
Flavor and nutrition were traded for speed and scale.
And most people were left guessing what their food actually stood for.
Meat became mindless.

As a Certified B Corporation and Public Benefit Corporation, we are legally required to measure and share our progress toward a better system.

But more importantly, we believe transparency builds trust.

And we’re fighting to keep common sense farming alive in America – to prove the right way tastes better.

This report is how we hold ourselves accountable in that fight.

2025 by the Numbers

Here are a few highlights from the year:

• 24,000+ families fed with regeneratively raised meat
• 28,384 acres managed using regenerative practices
• +60% growth in regenerative acres compared to 2024
• 333% premium paid to partner farmers over commodity prices
• 37,141 pounds of food donated through our 1% for the Hungry program
• 60% better Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio in Walden beef compared to the USDA average

Each of these numbers represents something meaningful: healthier soil, better animal care, stronger farm economics, and better food on the table.

Supporting Farmers When the System Makes It Hard

2025 was one of the most challenging years farmers have faced in decades.

• Historic cattle shortages.
• Extreme weather.
• Rising land, feed, and labor costs.

While conventional supply chains pushed more risk onto farmers, Walden continued to do the opposite.

For every dollar Americans spend on meat, farmers typically receive about 15 cents. Walden farmers receive closer to 50 cents. That’s over 3× more money staying on the farm, and it’s the difference between surviving and selling out.

That difference allows farmers to:

• Invest in soil health and pasture management
• Care for animals properly
• Build operations that can last, not just survive the next season

As several of our farmers put it in the report: “I want to do better, but I can’t afford to fail.” Our job is to make sure they don’t have to choose.

Raising Healthier Meat, Not Just Making Claims

In 2025, we deepened our focus on outcomes, not labels.

We expanded our internal regenerative scoring system to measure soil health, grazing impact, animal welfare, and carcass quality.

• We partnered with Edacious, a food-systems research organization, to analyze the nutrient density of Walden meats compared to conventional and other “better” options.
• We continued strengthening animal welfare standards across all species—no antibiotics, no growth hormones, pasture rotation, and humane handling requirements.

The result is meat that doesn’t just check boxes, it tastes better, nourishes better, and reflects better farming

Beyond Organic: Regeneration at Scale

Regenerative agriculture isn’t about doing less harm. It’s about creating a net positive impact.

Based on conservative estimates, Walden partner farms now sequester the equivalent of:

• 18,286 metric tons of carbon annually
• The same impact as planting over 300,000 trees
• Or avoiding 46 million miles of driving

Those outcomes are made possible by farmers doing the hard work, and by members choosing to support them.

Why This Report Matters

This report isn’t about Walden patting itself on the back. It’s proof that:

• Farmers will choose better systems when the economics work
• Regional food systems can scale without becoming industrial
• Flavor, nutrition, animal welfare, and environmental responsibility can coexist

Most of all, it shows that every purchase is a vote – and those votes add up.

Read the 2025 Impact Report

If you want to go deeper, into farmer voices, animal welfare standards, carbon impacts, and how this system actually works, we invite you to read the full report.

This is what building a better food system looks like.

And we’re just getting started.