The challenge is maintaining quality. As small organic outfits are bought out by large companies, the quality can sometimes wane, he said, and that hurts everyone in the organic sector.
Grain Place Foods owes its foundations to Don Vetter. The third-generation farmer came back to the farm after World War II. He was an early adopter of “chemical farming,” as Evans puts it.
“He soon realized though that the soil and ecology was changing for the negative, so he decided to ditch the chemicals and farmed organically starting in 1953,” Evans said.
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In 1976, Vetter’s son, Dave, joined the farm with a vision to dive deeper into organics. In the 1980s, he created a place where organic farmers could bring their grains and have them cleaned and prepared for market.
Grain Place Foods, featured in the film “Dreaming of a Vetter World,” started selling soybeans in the German and Japanese markets. Today, it sells primarily to North American companies because of challenges in the export business.
It handles organic whole grains and also rolls grains such as barley, oats, wheat and spelt into flakes. Organic popcorn is another popular item for which the company has become known over the years.
The grains are sourced from Canada to Texas and from California to Ohio. Grain Place Foods sells the products in small packages or in 25- and 50-pound bags. It offers custom cleaning, color sorting and co-packing services with refrigerated warehousing to clients from all over the U.S.