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 for organic based on consumer perceptions of being better tasting and more nutritious—attempting to deliver the most consistent, highest quality product to the food retailers.

Produkte

Their product line includes a variety of "good clean greens", such as baby arugula blends, baby spinach, hearts of romaine, herb baby romaine, italian, romaine heart leaves, spring mix, sweet mache mix, and a veggie romaine. In addition to these leafy blends, tehy also offer traditional produce: broccoli crowns, celery hearts, green beans, green onions, and romaine hearts.

Growing Regions

File:Stamp organicgirl.png

The company is located in "America's Salad Bowl" the Salinas Valley, California—known as one of California's richest farming regions. In addition, organicgirl has farms located in:

• San Joaquin Valley, California
• Oxnard, California
• Yuma, Arizona
• Mexicali, Mexico
• Ojos Negros Region, Baja California, Mexico
• Ensenada Region, Baja California, Mexico

Promotional Claims

USDA certified organic

Certified Organic

Organic farming is much more difficult than traditional farming.

• Natural Pesticides: Crop rotation, nonconsumptive plants, and beneficial bugs are non-toxic ways of dealing with unwanted pests.
• Natural Fertilizing: Cover crops, crop rotation, and natural fertilizing agents (compost and cottonseed meal) ascertain that the produce maximizes its natural nutrients from the soil.

File:Packaging standard organicgirl.png

Standard Package

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Corn-Based Package

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. Before packaging the product, it is washed in a highly controlled state-of-the-art wash flumes and dried with care to prevent bruising.

Corn-based plastics

In order to reduce its carbon footprint, organicgirl is replacing standard plastic packaging with a earth-friendly, biodegradable corn-based packaging, 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

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 and eliminating "wasteful" food miles. 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.

Food safety

The way that organicgirl gives their consumers the safest food possible is to pay attention to every detail from germination to distribution. They enforce rigid regulations in-between to assure every precaution has been taken. Some of these regulations are:

• Inspecting fields prior to planting, making sure possible risks are being managed.
• Setting strict food and safety guidelines for their growers and harvesters. Inspecting through the season.
• Performing an inspection at harvest making sure no crops were harmed or compromised.
• Washing and packaging processes are audited daily.

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 to experience 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.

See also

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

External links

• organicgirl Official Website