Back to the Roots, Inc.
 | |
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Lawn & Garden |
| Founded 📆 | 2009 |
| Founder 👔 |
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| Headquarters 🏙️ | , , U.S. |
Area served 🗺️ | |
| Products 📟 | Organic Gardening Kits, Organic & US-Grown Seed Packets, Organic Live Plants, Raised Beds, Aquaponic & Hydroponic Grow System |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | backtotheroots |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Back to the Roots, Inc. is a privately-owned American organic gardening company based in Oakland, California. The company was co-founded by Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez in 2009.
History[edit]
Back to the Roots was founded by Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez who met as students at University of California, Berkeley in 2009.[1][2] The idea for their first product was inspired by the concept that mushrooms can be grown in used coffee grounds.[3][4] Arora and Velez began to develop the idea in Velez’ fraternity home.[4]
Arora and Velez experimented growing mushrooms in buckets; only one of ten buckets yielded mushrooms.[5] They took the oyster mushrooms to Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse, who gave the mushrooms a positive review. Before graduation, the duo received a $5,000 grant from the UC Berkeley Big Ideas Contest to help launch the company.[6] Later in 2009, the mushrooms were accepted by Whole Foods Market.[7]
One of the first consumer products was a grow-your-own mushroom kit[8] which used recycled coffee grounds from Peet's Coffee & Tea as the substrate for growing mushrooms and was packed into a cardboard box. By the end of 2011, every week, the company was reusing about 20,000 pounds of coffee waste.[2] With its first yield taking about ten days,[9] the reusable kits can produce as much as a pound and a half of mushrooms in total.[10]
Since then, Back to the Roots has introduced organic seed packets and indoor gardening kits.[11] Each of the kits is part of a Grow One, Give One campaign where the company donates kits and curriculum to elementary school classrooms.[12] As of September 2020, the company's products are sold in over 10,000 stores including Costco, The Home depot[13], and Whole Foods.[14]
The company also introduced a line of ready-to-eat breakfast products and snacks.[4] This included a cereal made from ingredients produced through biodynamic farming.[15][16] In 2017, New York City offered Back to the Roots the contract to replace two of the five breakfast cereals offered by the city's public school system, the largest public school system in the U.S.[1] The company subsequently licensed off its ready-to-eat cereal line to Nature's Path.[17] The company is also partnered with Sodexo, a large food services and facilities management company, which has distributed its indoor gardening kits.[18]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Strom, Stephanie (2017-03-01). "Healthier Cereals Snare a Spot on New York School Menus". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fabricant, Florence (2011-11-22). "A New Mushroom-Cultivating Kit". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
- ↑ Yvette, Mar (2016-04-04). "Our American Dream: How a passionate young Colombian is helping redraw urban farming in U.S." Fox News. Retrieved 2017-07-18. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Sciacca, Annie (2016-08-11). "Back to the Roots finds success in simple food". East Bay Times. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
- ↑ Dunlap, Tiare (2017-01-13). "Man Who Survived a Terrorist Kidnapping, Cancer and The Bachelorette Becomes Successful Mushroom Entrepreneur". People Magazine. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
- ↑ "Where Are They Now? Big Ideas Winners' Innovations Take Off – Big Ideas Contest". Retrieved 2020-09-11.
- ↑ Henry, Sarah (2010-11-12). "The Mushroom Guys: A business out of UC Berkeley". Berkeleyside. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
- ↑ Strom, Stephanie (2016-05-24). "New Crop of Companies Reaping Profits From Wasted Food". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
- ↑ Braw, Elisabeth (2014-05-20). "Starbucks turns coffee ground to milk in Japan". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
- ↑ Purvis, Andrew (2012-05-18). "Will 3D printers make food sustainable?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
- ↑ Leon, Pamella de (2020-10-27). "Prince Khaled's KBW Ventures Joins Organic Gardening Company's Funding Round". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ↑ Growing Sustainable Food with the Family - Spark, retrieved 2020-09-11
- ↑ "home-depot-and-importance-of-category/". retargetingnews.com. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
- ↑ Chhabra, Esha. "Two Founders Go From Growing Mushrooms In College To Building Out A National Brand". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
- ↑ Chhabra, Esha (2017-03-05). "Biodynamic farming is on the rise – but how effective is this alternative agricultural practice?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
- ↑ Strom, Stephanie (2016-03-18). "From Kefir to 'Cucamelons,' Sampling the Next Wave of Natural Foods". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
- ↑ "Better together: Why some food companies enter into partnerships". Food Dive. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ↑ Kowitt, Beth (2016-10-05). "Startups Are Finding a Powerful Partner in This Hidden Corner of the Food Economy". Fortune.
External links[edit]
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- Food manufacturers of the United States
- Companies based in Oakland, California
- American companies established in 2009
- Food and drink companies established in 2009
- 2009 establishments in California
- Privately held companies based in California
- Seed companies
- Horticultural companies of the United States
- Organic gardening
- Horticulture and gardening
- Agriculture companies of the United States
- Hydroponics
