some seasons, Avinelis says. The scouting program is now active on all eight farms the company operates in Oregon, half of which are organic. Homegrown Organic Farms handles the packaging and merchandising for roughly 100 growers overseeing 9,000 acres, including much of the produce and products grown and harvested through AgriCare. “We take the crops
“That’s where the Elevated Foods dollars really, really helped,” Avinelis says. “It put money back in the budget to continue to do the things we could do to really maintain and improve soil health and keep pushing biological life in these farms.” Benevidez, meanwhile, makes sure the company’s employees are as well taken care of as the land they tend to. That includes AgriCare’s certification in California and
Thriving On and Off the Field AgriCare helped several of its managed growers successfully apply for grants from Elevated Foods. Avinelis says the funding allows them to continue to implement regenerative practices like cover cropping, promoting soil health with compost, and
“It’s important to understand
that what makes our family of companies
that our growers are growing, and we work to communicate the value of those crops to the buyers and to the consumers,” says Agrivision and Homegrown Organic Farms CEO Scott Mabs. For some folks, value can mean flavor, while for others it’s how the product was farmed, he says. Homegrown Organic Farms communicates that value to consumers through signage and by bringing wholesale buyers to the farms to see how items are grown, among other tactics. “If you just want to sell an orange, that’s not what we do,” Mabs says. “We want to market high-value specialty crops in a way that features the methods used to grow it.” Homegrown Organic Farms works with growers in California, Oregon, and Mexico to market citrus, stone fruits, berries, grapes, and fall fruits like kiwis, persimmons, and pomegranates. Some are sold under the Homegrown Organic Farms and Homegrown Farms label; consumers might recognize other product names too: Little Pranksters’ kiwi berries, Mammoth Kiwi, and Buck Brand Citrus, which offers more than 40 specialty citrus varieties. They also market Regenerative Organic Certified Gold stone fruit under the Peterson Family Fruit label. As an organization, Agrivision continues to explore new certifications with groups promoting effective, responsible, and sustainable methods of food production. It also wants to try out and evolve new technologies,
unique is, it’s not just about the bottom line, it’s about the people.”
“Safety is everybody’s responsibility, whether it’s employee safety or food safety, and we all have to take care of each other.” The company also has an education scholarship program for employees and their spouses and children. Beyond the company, Agrivision also runs a Thanksgiving meal program that provides all the ingredients for the day’s feast to more than 100 families in local communities. And it participates in the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program, helping imprisoned people buy holiday gifts for their children. Everything Benevidez oversees, from GlobalG.A.P. certification, a farm assurance
Agrivision is 100% employee owned and operated which means their purpose-driven values are reflected in the quality of their product.
varietal releases, and precision farming techniques that are economically sustainable. “Our focus is on becoming the most caring and trusted produce ecosystem in the world over the next decade,” Avinelis says. “This means leaning further into how we care for people, communities, and the environment while also furthering efforts toward transparency and precision in our operations.”
maintaining habitats for beneficial insects. These practices tend to get cut when money gets tight. “It’s been a really difficult number of years, as inflation has taken its effect,” he says, adding that labor is very expensive in Washington, California, and Oregon, where the minimum wage is among the highest in the nation. The practices that get eliminated usually require substantial labor but aren’t mandatory, like extensive cover cropping.
Oregon with the Equitable Food Initiative (EFI), which seeks to elevate workers’ voices. Teams in both states, made up of employees at every level — from irrigators to executives — meet quarterly to discuss ideas for improving employee health and safety, as well as upholding the EFI’s social responsibility, labor, and pesticide management standards. “This is just more eyes and ears out for us,” Benevidez says.
program that helps advance safer and more responsible farming practices, to Agrivision’s community-based work, is in service of helping the company and its people thrive. “We want to give back to our communities and take care of those around us,” Benevidez says.
Visit AGRIVISIONEO.COM to learn more.
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ISSUE 02
FROM SOUL TO SOIL
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