TOTALLY ORGANIC
Wednesday, February 13
Natural Selection Foods LLC, San Juan Bautista, Calif., plans to phase out its growing and processing of conventional fresh produce as soon as this spring, and will emphasize marketing under the Earthbound Farm brand as the company’s two processing facilities convert to organic.

“We’ve farmed organically for 24 years, so we’ve always been an organic company that has sold some conventional product,” said Mike Stevens, senior director of sales. “A couple of years ago, we stopped referring to the Natural Selection Foods piece of the business to focus on Earthbound Farm.”

In 2005, about 30% of the company’s business was conventional, and by early February that figure had dwindled to about 15%, according to Samantha Cabaluna, director of communications. Natural Selection Foods processes about 2 million pounds of product every week, year-round.

Stevens had said on Feb. 7 that Natural Selection Foods would go 100% organic by April, but Cabaluna said in an e-mail that estimate is “overly enthusiastic.”

“We’re definitely not there yet and, in fact, we’ll still be packing Natural Selection Foods and a few others, while simultaneously working to convince our customers who do take conventional of the value of converting their business to organic,” Cabaluna said. “The opportunities for doing that get stronger every day and we can certainly envision a time when that will happen and we’ll work toward that.”

The company is owned by the founders, Drew and Myra Goodman, along with Mission Ranches, King City, Calif., and Tanimura & Antle Inc., Salinas, Calif., which will continue to grow organic product for the Earthbound Farm brand.

The Natural Selection Foods conventional salad label, which has only been sold to foodservice, will be phased out as the company intensifies its marketing efforts to replace it with the Earthbound Farm label in restaurants.

Stevens said he doubts all of the company’s foodservice customers are aware of the change.

“Foodservice is the next big frontier in produce,” he said. “The reality is you can go into any retail outlet from Los Angeles to Bangor, Maine, and buy organic fruits and vegetables, but you’d be hard pressed to find an organic restaurant in most major metropolitan areas of the country. At some point, foodservice really has to embrace organic because people will demand it and it has been an area of focus for us for many years.”

He said as the company’s two facilities, in San Juan Bautista and Yuma, Ariz., shift to organic, the volume of conventional product will be replaced by organic and there will be no reduction in overall volume. He said the organic category has grown steadily by 15% to 20% for a number of years.

“The big thing with foodservice is that it’s very price-sensitive and that’s why it’s so heavily dominated on the conventional side,” he said. “Organic is still undersupplied relative to total demand, so it keeps the price point up, which is good from the farming perspective because it’s sustainable. And I think it’s just a matter of time that the foodservice sector sees the benefits to organic.”

By John Chadwell

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