The Farmers of the Upcycled Food Movement
By Sabrina Serrano
Here at the Upcycled Food Association, we align ourselves with and follow one mission. To reduce food waste and help ensure that all food reaches its highest and best use. Our organization recognizes more than 220 businesses worldwide that align with that mission. Among those businesses is a subset of categories crucial to the upcycled food movement—our farmers.
All produce that then gets upcycled starts at one source, the farm. In celebration of National Farmers Day, we take this day to recognize some of our Upcycled Food Association members to celebrate and highlight their achievements in reducing food waste.
The Ugly Co
The first farmer we highlight today is Ben Moore, the founder of The Ugly Co. Ben Moore is a fourth-generation farmer from Kingsburg, California. He and his family have farmed everything from stone-fruit, wine grapes, raisins, almonds, and olives. Ben grew up farming with his family in sunny Kingsburg, California. At the end of the different crop harvest seasons, there would always be produce that was wasted. This is when Ben realized a new idea, what if he took all the leftover fruit and turned it into fruit snacks! Moore then got the idea to start a company that would take the "Culls," or un-aesthetically pleasing produce, and upcycle it into healthy dried fruit snacks. The Ugly Co's products are 100 percent natural with no GMOs, artificial flavoring, or additives. They come in assorted varieties, such as Cherries, Nectarines, apricots, and more.
Sunrise Fresh
Sunrise Fresh is a family-owned company in Linden, California.
The Samuel family has been farming for more than 100 years. When the Samuel family’s grandfather emigrated from Italy in the early 1900s following the San Francisco earthquake, he settled in the fertile San Joaquin valley in central California and began farming.
Their grandfather and his wife then started their family farming business. Together they grew carrots, beets, tomatoes, and dry beans. Sunrise Fresh now produces various high-quality dried fruit available to consumers and in bulk for food service providers.
Their products include dried cherries, apples, blueberries, and others.
Farm to Summit
Farm to Summit is committed to decreasing food waste while upcycling wasted food into dehydrated ready meals. Jane Bardon grew up on a third-generation farm. Her childhood experiences inspired her passion for squashing with food waste. She continued to pursue her love of food while traveling but discovered that backpacking didn’t support her desire for the home cooked meals she was raised on. Co-founder Louise Barton had a similar experience when it came to sub par backpacker friendly meals.
Working directly with farmers, Louise Barton and Jane Barton combined their passions and networks to create Farm to Summit, where they upcycle leftover produce and turn it into flavor packed, farm fresh food for Hikers and everyone alike. Their products include a variety of dehydrated meals such as Fall-Harvest green curry, garden mac and cheese, and white bean potato stew
Credit: Farm to Summit / Courtesy Photo
To Farmers Against Food Waste!
Farmers are at the heart of the upcycled food movement, fixing the world's food waste problem and helping to prevent climate change begins at the source.Thank you to these member companies and so many others for dedicating yourselves to the Upcycled Food Movement.
Are you interested in becoming an Upcycled Food Member? upcycledfood.org has plenty of information for you! Click on the 'Membership' tab on the Upcycled Food website for more details.
Sabrina Serrano (she/her) is a twenty-five-year-old food enthusiast with an obsession for writing and research. When she is not obsessing over her recent research hyper-fixation, she is usually in her kitchen baking bread. Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She recently graduated from The University of Texas at San Antonio with a Bachelor in Communication.
