On a farm in the Sacramento Valley, fields of rice stretch toward the horizon. These aren't just any rice paddies. They belong to Lundberg Family Farms, where farming practices initiated during the Dust Bowl era have evolved into a leading sustainable agricultural enterprise.
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| Lundberg Family Farms |
The story begins in 1937, when Albert and Frances Lundberg left Nebraska with their four sons, a tractor, and a flatbed truck. They settled in Richvale, where the clay adobe soil proved perfect for rice cultivation despite neighbors' skepticism about the land's potential.
Albert's approach was revolutionary for its time. In the 1940s, while other farmers burned rice straw after harvest, he plowed it back into the soil and planted cover crops, building soil health decades before environmental farming became mainstream.
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| Lundberg Family Farms |
The four Lundberg brothers — Eldon, Wendell, Harlan, and Homer — continued their father's legacy. In 1969, when a local snack company sought organic rice, the Lundbergs were the only farmers among the 150 approached who accepted the challenge. They planted 76 acres of organic short grain rice that year, launching what would become a significant agricultural movement.
With no commercial mill willing to process their small organic harvests, the brothers built what was then the smallest rice mill in the country and distributed their products to health food stores along the West Coast in an old bread truck.
In the early 1970s, Homer Lundberg helped establish California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), creating formal standards for organic agriculture three decades before the National Organic Program was created. The company's innovation continued when Harlan Lundberg introduced rice cakes to their product line after seeing a rice cake machine at a trade show in Las Vegas.
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| Lundberg Family Farms |
The Lundbergs maintain a distinctive relationship with wildlife, rescuing duck eggs by hand before spring planting and flooding fields in winter to replicate natural wetlands. Since 1993, they've saved an estimated 30,000 ducklings.
Now in its fourth generation of family ownership, Lundberg Family Farms has expanded its commitment to sustainability. They offset 100% of their headquarters' power with renewable energy, recycle approximately 99% of their waste, and in 2023 became the first U.S.-grown rice brand to launch Regenerative Organic Certified rice.
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| Lundberg Family Farms |
What once seemed like agricultural eccentricity has proven to be remarkable foresight in a world increasingly concerned with environmental stewardship. As Lundberg Family Farms has grown, it continues its founding principle that every generation should leave the land better than they found it.
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