Rory Crowley

Since moving to Chico in 2015, Rory Crowley served in multiple capacities at Nicolaus Nut Company (NNC), a closely-held family operation that owned and managed over 750 acres of almonds and walnuts in the Chico area. Rory learned a new trade from scratch, quickly moving from hole-digger/Equipment Operator to Assistant Operations Manager, Director of Research and Business Development, and finished his time at NNC as Chief Operations Officer and Executive Vice President for Business Development and Field Research. Rory also worked at Project Apis m. as the Director of Habitat Programs and was responsible for planning, managing, and executing the Seeds for Bees cover crop program in California’s working lands focusing on almond systems. He built complex, multi-outcome models, projections, and budgets spanning one, three, and five years and while there applied for, and was awarded ~$8.5m for climate-smart grants (Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities). In only one season, he increased planted acreage/grower adoption by ~47% while drastically reducing costs 72% percent in almond systems; he also created and deployed several educational resources for cover crop implementation in almonds and increased cover crop seed sales by ~40%. He expedited logistics for 100% delivery before October 1st, critical for almonds. Finally, he developed and executed a diversity & inclusion program for growers under USDA ERS definitions, ensuring the program is available to all, and funding 25% of the 2022 awards to self-identified DEI growers.

Rory is a graduate of the 2016 Almond Board of California Leadership Program, where he focused research on issues surrounding almond byproducts and utilization. Through his Leadership Special Project—which received the top honor for his 2016 class—Rory collaborated with several companies, organizations, and government agencies at local and state levels to find alternative and sustainable uses for almond biomass and co-product, including Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, North State Hulling Cooperative, UC Davis, CSU Chico, and the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. Rory served on the Technical and Regulatory Affairs Committee (TRAC) and the Strategic Ag Innovation Committee (SAIC) for the Almond Board of California and now serves on the Environmental Stewardship Working Group (ESWG) as well as several local and regional boards and committees that serve agricultural and agricultural land stakeholders. Rory is also a Mentor-Farmer(opens in new window) at CSU-Chico’s Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems, where his work showcased biosolarization, cover crops, water use efficiency, and more.

Rory has written articles on farming and sustainability in the Sacramento Valley for the Sacramento Bee, West Coast Nut, Growing Produce’s NextGen, Modern Ag, and the Chico Enterprise-Record, and has been featured in various publications like the Sacramento Business Journal, Farm Progress, the Almond Board of California’s How We Grow, Project Apis M.’s Seeds for Bees Grower Spotlight, etc.