Soil to shelf: Celebrating farmer-owned CPG brands
Natural and organic brands continue championing their connections to farms. Meet some that stick to sourcing from their own fields.
![CPG brands that own their own farms CPG brands that own their own farms](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt09e5e63517a16184/blte420273eea288086/6537df1a7b536e4e14a75e90/farmer-owned-brands.png?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
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The route from farm to bottle began in April of 2013, when Matt Sayre, the co-founder of Shrubbly Bubbly Superdrink in Vermont, planted the first berry plants on his farm. Almost seven years later, he bottled his first line of Shrubbly, a ready-to-drink beverage based on a traditional drink that includes apple cider vinegar in the formulation. Today, Shrubbly produces three flavors of Shrubbly, all of which are available at grocery stores across the country. And most of the drink’s key ingredient, fruit, comes from the Shrubbly farm.
Farming, family and friendship serve as the foundation of this Montana brand, which grows Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) farro on its own farm. It was the Covid-19 pandemic that spurred the launch of Gruff. Two families were living together on the same ranch to get through the pandemic in safety. As the ranch was remote and in-person shopping was risky, they began processing the farm’s farro into products that could be used as an easy grain for any meal, from breakfast through dinner. And now, those grits aren’t just for the families behind the farm—they are for sale to everyone.
Three million plants. Between 20 and 40 species. More than 350 acres. It’s on the North Carolina farm where supplement company Gaia Herbs grows much of what it needs for its products: echinacea and astragalus, burdock and holy basil, lemon balm, nettle and plenty more. Gaia Herbs is a spectacle of sustainability, ambition and farm savvy, a supplement brand that truly stands out for its commitment to sourcing by growing so many of its ingredients on its Certified Organic Blue Ridge Mountains farm.
A health crisis compelled Ashely Walsh to purchase land in northern Pennsylvania, certify it organic, and begin farming. It began with 50 acres and now includes 380 acres of land dedicated to vegetable and hemp production. While the farm serves as an agritourism resource center for the region and grows food for the community, it also raises hemp, from which it extracts the cannabinoid CBD and incorporates it into consumer packaged goods. In addition to its acreage, Pocono Organics manages a 38,000-square-foot, 35-foot-tall greenhouse and was the world’s first Regenerative Organic Certified hemp grower.
This farm has been raising dairy cows for four generations in far northern California near the Oregon border, and has been a leader in organic dairy production. The 4,300-acre farm became an organic dairy in 2001—the ninth in California. Today it also enjoys Regenerative Organic Certified status—the first dairy in the nation to achieve that. Instead of just selling its cows’ milk to brands that then process, package and truck it to store shelves, Alexandre Family Farms created its own brand, with milk, yogurt (and its own farm eggs) for sale in California, and its Eco Dairy Milk line available nationwide.
Chances are, most of the supermarket mushrooms you’ve purchased, regardless of whether you’re in Nevada, Michigan or Florida, come from southeastern Pennsylvania—the mushroom capital of the world. Farmers markets, at least, often provide one local option for mushrooms. But Smallhold, a fresh mushroom brand based in Brooklyn, is bringing the farm to the people, with its own farm operations in New York, Austin and California, with more on the way. Its mushrooms, meanwhile, are for sale in markets in most states. The brand packages the ‘shrooms in well-designed boxes and offers several varieties: oysters, shiitakes, lion’s mane, trumpets and maitake.
Oatman Farms sells a variety of Regenerative Organic Certified flour-based products, such as this waffle and pancake mix, blends for different kinds of sourdough breads and straight bags of flour. One thing that sets Oatman Farms apart is its fourth-generation farm—Oatman Flats. There, in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, the company grows a diversity of wheat, including Sonoran White. It also grows the superfood mesquite on the farm, and mills it into flour.
Lundberg Family Farms may represent the OG of farm-owned brands. This 100-year-old, fourth-generation, 5,000-acre California organic (with a growing volume of Regenerative Organic Certified fields) rice farm today is a fixture in the rice aisles of both natural and conventional grocery stores nationwide. Shoppers encounter bags of everything from short-grain white rice to basmati, jasmine and Arborio rices. But they also find sleeves of Lundberg rice cakes, rice chips and boxes of rice and seasoning mixes for dishes such as Cilantro Lime Rice. And a balance of the main ingredient for these many products, the rice, is grown by Lundberg, supplemented by another 12,000 acres of organic rice grown by other farmers.
Painterland Farms, way up in north-central Pennsylvania near the New York border and 15 minutes on a dirt road from the nearest patch of pavement, got its start in 1941 as a dairy farm. Ever since, members of the Painter family—on its fifth generation now—have taken care of cows on the 5,000-acre farm.
Recent years have not been kind to the dairy industry, especially in the Northeast. And the disruptive economic headwinds affected Painterland Farms. But then two Painter sisters, Hayley and Stephanie, started transforming their 400 cows’ organic milk into yogurt. In 2021, they began packaging the thick, creamy yogurt in cups, and calling it Painterland Sisters Organic Skyr Yogurt. Now, the farm and Painterland Sisters are thriving, with the yogurt for sale in stores across the country. And retailers welcome the fresh introduction to a brand yoked tightly to a farm, a union that leads to powerful storytelling opportunities and consumer affection.
Painterland Farms, way up in north-central Pennsylvania near the New York border and 15 minutes on a dirt road from the nearest patch of pavement, got its start in 1941 as a dairy farm. Ever since, members of the Painter family—on its fifth generation now—have taken care of cows on the 5,000-acre farm.
Recent years have not been kind to the dairy industry, especially in the Northeast. And the disruptive economic headwinds affected Painterland Farms. But then two Painter sisters, Hayley and Stephanie, started transforming their 400 cows’ organic milk into yogurt. In 2021, they began packaging the thick, creamy yogurt in cups, and calling it Painterland Sisters Organic Skyr Yogurt. Now, the farm and Painterland Sisters are thriving, with the yogurt for sale in stores across the country. And retailers welcome the fresh introduction to a brand yoked tightly to a farm, a union that leads to powerful storytelling opportunities and consumer affection.
The farm-to-table movement first invited consumers—in this case, restaurant guests—to recognize the farmers responsible for the ribeye on the plate, the arugula in the salad and the raspberries topping the panna cotta. Now we encounter farm-to-bottle supplements, farm-to-can beverages, farm-to-bag snacks and many more iterations of farm-to-product celebrations.
In the case of consumer packaged goods, most farm connections have long revolved around transparent sourcing and collaborations. The chip manufacturer doesn’t grow the potatoes itself, but champions the local, organic farmer responsible for the spuds. But being one step removed from the farm doesn’t describe all CPGs that tout their sourcing bona fides. Sometimes, the brand runs its own farm to supply at least some (if not all) of its products’ ingredients.
Dairy farmers now craft and package yogurt, kefir and more from their own herds. An English non-alcoholic cordial brand grows its own elderflowers. A Vermont pasta brand raises chickens for the eggs it incorporates into its bucatini. It’s not exactly a rollicking movement. After all, owning a CPG is challenging enough, never mind the addition of operating a farm. But it’s happening, and it yields payoffs. These tight farm-product unions resonate with consumers who increasingly seek to know the ingredients in their foods. Brands that own their own farms enjoy considerable storytelling advantages that stand as key marketing differentiators.
What are some brands today that are supported by their own farms? Click through the gallery for an eclectic sampling of leaders in the space.
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