Earthbound Farm is an American

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

located near

San Juan Bautista San Juan Bautista is the Spanish-language name of Saint John the Baptist. It may refer to: Places Bolivia *San Juan Bautista, Bolivia, Jesuit mission ruins near the village of San Juan de Taperas Chile *San Juan Bautista, Chile, Juan Fernández ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It is the largest producer of organic salads in the United States. It was also the first company to produce prewashed, packaged salad greens on an industrial scale.

History

Earthbound Farm was founded in 1984 by Drew and Myra Goodman, on a farm in California’s Carmel Valley.Amanda Hesser,
Salad in Sealed Bags Isn't So Simple, It Seems
', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', January 14, 2003.Dawn Withers,
Earthbound Farm turns 25, sees organic remaining strong
', The Packer, August 25, 2009. Just over two decades later, the company employed over 150 growers on 30,000 acres. By 2015, nearly 50,000 acres were in production. In ''

The Omnivore's Dilemma ''The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals'' is a nonfiction book written by American author Michael Pollan published in 2006. As omnivores, humans have a variety of food choices. In the book, Pollan investigates the environmental ...

'',

Michael Pollan Michael Kevin Pollan (; born February 6, 1955) is an American author and journalist, who is currently Professor of the Practice Non-Fiction and the first Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer at Harvard University. Concurrently, he is the Knight Professo ...

referred to Earthbound Farm as "a company that arguably represents industrial

organic farming Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and re ...

at its best." In 2009,

HM Capital HM Capital Partners was a private equity firm in the United States that specialized in leveraged buyouts. The firm was previously known as Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. It was founded in 1989 by Tom Hicks and John Muse as Hicks, Muse & Co. and was c ...

acquired Earthbound Farm. In 2013, Earthbound Farm was acquired by

WhiteWave Foods Danone North America is a consumer packaged food and beverage company based in White Plains, New York, U.S., that manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells branded premium dairy products (including yogurt), plant-based foods and beverages, c ...

, owner of

Horizon Organic Horizon Organic is an American company, founded in 1991, that produces organic milk and other organic food products. Horizon Organic is the largest supplier of organic milk in North America. Its products are sold in supermarkets and grocery stores. ...

milk, for $600 million. In July 2016, it was announced that the French company

Danone Danone S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of t ...

would purchase WhiteWave Foods for $10.4 billion. The acquisition was completed in April 2017, and the newly formed company was named "DanoneWave". Finally, Earthbound Farm was acquired in April 2019 by Taylor Farms.

References

External links

* * Jennifer McNulty,
Alum brings organic produce into the mainstream
', Currents online (University of California, Santa Cruz), November 8, 2004 {{Coord, 36, 52, 29, N, 121, 33, 13, W, region:US-CA_type:landmark, display=title Organic farming in the United States Farms in California Companies based in San Benito County, California