“I was making a connection between the farmer and the food. But there was a huge disconnect with what I was wanting to consume and what was in this bag,” Lewis said. “I realized there was a better way. I kept thinking someone was going to reinvent this classic snack in a healthier way, but it didn’t happen. I jumped in.”

After connecting with the right farmers, the right bags made with compostable paper and a ton of hard work, Quinn nailed down a process that would work for her vision. That vision included partnering with Grain Place, a regenerative farming group that allowed the brand to have farm-to-bag transparency.

The snack brand has since broken into other areas of snacking, including its beloved gluten-free peanut butter pretzel nuggets. But as it’s scaled up, it’s never compromised on its partnership with growers and promoting scalable, sustainable farming.

“Erosion can lead to up to fifty percent loss of yield of crops, and the North American grain yields are supposed to drop over twenty-five percent by 2050,” Lewis said. “And this all matters because we are expected to feed 9 million people by 2050. But we are in a position of power to fix this.”

The Quinn team dug in through committing to regenerative agriculture, and truly “knowing thy farmer” as Lewis puts it. This means working with growers to understand what their unique needs are and a focus on reducing tilling and pesticide use. This allows them to rely on mother nature to use its own devices such as pollinators to keep a farm healthy, which leads to things like better carbon sequestering and water retention.