Hazelnuts and Walnuts: What Lies Behind the Crunch?

Tree nuts have become essential ingredients in plant-based cooking. Rich in nutrients, they are found everywhere—from everyday cooking to fine dining. But beyond a handful of hazelnuts or walnuts, what does their environmental impact really look like? Are they inherently sustainable?

It’s More About the Orchard Than the Nut

As is often the case with sustainable food, the answer does not lie in the ingredient itself, but in the way it is produced.

On paper, hazelnuts offer many environmental advantages. Hazelnut trees are perennial crops that can remain productive for several decades. Unlike annual crops, they provide permanent ground cover, helping to reduce soil erosion, store carbon, and create habitats for birds, insects, and small mammals.

However, this only holds true if the orchard remains a living ecosystem.

When hedgerows disappear, wildflower strips are replaced by uniform rows, and synthetic inputs become the norm, biodiversity declines rapidly. Intensive monoculture simplifies landscapes, weakens ecosystems, and increases dependence on pesticides.

In other words, the sustainability of a hazelnut depends less on the tree itself than on the farming system in which it grows.

Environmental Footprint: A Matter of Supply Chains

Tree nuts are sometimes criticised for their water consumption. Yet not all species have the same environmental footprint.

Hazelnuts generally have a more favourable water profile than many other tree nuts. Their water requirements are significantly lower than those of almonds or pistachios, while still providing exceptional nutritional value. Their deep root systems also help stabilise soils and contribute to long-term carbon storage within orchards.

Once again, nuance matters.

An industrial chocolate spread containing a small percentage of hazelnuts obviously does not have the same environmental impact as whole hazelnuts grown locally and processed by artisan producers. Transportation, industrial processing, packaging, and the addition of numerous ingredients often contribute more to a product’s environmental footprint than the hazelnuts themselves.

Sustainability should therefore never be assessed by looking at a single ingredient in isolation, but rather at the entire value chain.

Health Benefits and Culinary Value

From a nutritional perspective, hazelnuts and walnuts are among the most valuable foods we can include in our diets. They provide plant-based protein, fibre, unsaturated fats, vitamin E, and a wide range of essential minerals.

Their high energy content should not be viewed as a drawback, but rather as a reflection of a naturally nutrient-dense, minimally processed food. Even small quantities add texture, richness, and aromatic complexity to a dish.

In the kitchen, they can also replace more heavily processed fats, add crunch, and help create desserts that rely less on refined sugar.

As always, balance is more important than quantity.

Entropy’s Perspective

At Entropy, we believe tree nuts deserve to be treated as true ingredients of terroir, just like seasonal vegetables.

This is precisely why we have chosen to work with Nok, whose approach goes far beyond simply producing hazelnuts.

• Preserving biodiversity: partnering with farms that maintain hedgerows, cover crops, diverse ecosystems, and responsible resource management.
• Celebrating terroir: selecting hazelnuts whose flavour reflects their soil, climate, and local expertise rather than industrial standardisation.
• Looking at the whole supply chain: because a sustainable ingredient is defined not only by where it is grown, but also by how it is processed, transported, and ultimately valued on the plate.

For us, working with a producer like Nok means supporting high-quality, sustainable agriculture.

The Real Question

Ultimately, the question is not whether hazelnuts or walnuts are sustainable.

The real question is which farming model we choose to support every time we enjoy a handful of nuts.

Behind a single hazelnut may stand a producer who nurtures biodiversity, healthy soils, insects, and birds—or, on the contrary, an intensive monoculture where nature gradually disappears.

The most meaningful food revolutions rarely begin with a new ingredient. They begin when we learn to ask how it was grown, who produced it, and what kind of landscape made it possible.