User:MonteShaffer

organicgirl

File:Label organicgirl.png
Company type	Private
Industrie	Produce, Sustainable Business
Gegründet	1996 (Salinas, California)
Hauptsitz	Salinas, California
Website	iloveorganicgirl.com

organicgirl produce (LLC) is a California-based organic provider of produce for food retailers ranging from Whole Foods Market to Walmart. As a for-profit business, they are leveraging the growing demand by consumers for organic based on perceptions of being better tasting and more nutritious--attempting to deliver the most consistent, highest quality product to the food retailers.

Growing Regions

grows in these areas

Promotional Claims

Product quality

The company has stated that they would rather not have product on the shelf than having inferior product, anecdotally adding that if the farm doesn't meet the high standards of quality required by organicgirl, the farmer may be forced to sell his product to some of the competitors; organicgirl is demanding the farmers fully embrace and master the difficulties associated with organic farming.

Triple Washed

Many consumers enjoy organic food, but do not like finding bugs in their food, nor do they like the inconvenience of having to pick-out bad leaves, or clean the salad once they get the product home. In order to satisfy these needs, organicgirl claims to triple wash their produce, thereby increasing the quality.

Corn-based plastics

Packaging standard organicgirl.png

Packaging standard organicgirl.png

Packaging corn organicgirl.png

Packaging corn organicgirl.png

To reduce its carbon footprint, organicgirl is replacing standard plastic packaging with a corn-based, Bioplastic (PLA). This new plastic is commonly used in China and Hong Kong, but is being received with some controversy in the United States. Recycling in the U.S. has not accounted for a way to sort and separate the plastics, claiming it is too costly and reducing the recycled quality of standard plastics. The advantage of the corn-based plastic is, that if properly composted (outside a landfill) will decompose into a corn-starch bioproduct.

Minimializing food miles and food safety

Although most of the produce does come from California, organicgirl is optimizing its distribution system to minimize the required miles to provide quality fresh produce to the East Coast. Although other produce options may have lower food miles, organicgirl claims that quality, freshness, and organic standards cannot be assumed from local options; nearly 50% of produce bought in Farmer's Markets are not organic, but those selling there want you to believe it is. What's more, certain produce, like leeks, should not be sold unrefrigerated in Central Park in the middle of the summer.

In addition, organicgirl is investigating alternatives to reduce food miles.

Social Responsibility

As a for-profit business, the social responsible as a "triple bottom line" tries to optimize the consumer demands with shareholder value and consideration of the environment and fair treatment of the upstream resources (field workers and farmers). Priority in this optimization for organicgirl has been a quality end product for the customer, as they attempt to be effective stewards promoting standards of sustainable and ecological farming.

E-coli outbreaks

Although plaguing its competitors (Dole and Earthbound Farm), organicgirl has yet experienced issues with E-coli outbreaks, although their farms are in the same geographical region (Salinas, California) as the reported outbreaks. The company claims that their demanded standards of quality, with sample field testing beyond USDA required organic testing, is why they have not had such problems.

Environmental outreach

File:Stamp organicgirl.png

See also

• Organic
• Produce
• Organic food
• Certified organic
• Sustainable business
• Sustainable agriculture

External links

• [http://www.iloveorganicgirl.com/ organicgirl Official Website