Earthbound Farm is an American farm located near San Juan Bautista, California. It is the largest producer of organic salads in the United States.[1] It was also the first company to produce prewashed, packaged salad greens on an industrial scale.[2]
History
Earthbound Farm was founded in 1984 by Drew and Myra Goodman, on a 2.5 acres (10,000 m2) farm in California’s Carmel Valley.[1][3] Just over two decades later, the company employed over 150 growers on 30,000 acres.[4] By 2015, nearly 50,000 acres were in production.[5] In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan referred to Earthbound Farm as "a company that arguably represents industrial organic farming at its best."[6]
In 2009, HM Capital acquired Earthbound Farm.[7] In 2013, Earthbound Farm was acquired by WhiteWave Foods, owner of Horizon Organic milk, for $600 million.[8] In July 2016, it was announced that the French company Danone would purchase WhiteWave Foods for $10.4 billion.[9] The acquisition was completed in April 2017, and the newly formed company was named "DanoneWave".[10] Finally, Earthbound Farm was acquired in April 2019 by Taylor Farms.[11]
