42 Years Ago...

Eden began in Ann Arbor in the late 1960s with friends sourcing natural food. Young folks motivated by their study of a worldwide phenomenon centered upon macrobiotics; whole grains, plant based nourishment, and local food grown and made without toxic chemicals, and not nutrient depleted.

A principled natural food company (organic food no longer has to be natural)

Independently owned and operated for over 40 years

Only the finest food that can be procured from growers and handlers we know and trust

Doing everything it takes to acquire the absolute best, no shortcuts

Full transparency – complete disclosure of ingredients and all handling

Food that tastes great and is good for you

All Eden facilities rated Superior, AIB International's highest rating

Natural foods were simply not available at the time, so they started the Eden food co-op to source and bring them in. Their initial $200 orders to Erewhon in Boston and Chico-san in California were well received and caused a local stir. Co-op members traveled rural roads knocking on doors, looking for farms to grow food using organic methods.

The Eden Co-op grew into a natural food store offering whole grains, beans, soyfoods, sea vegetables, miso, cereals, vegetable oils, seed and nut butters, and the like. It expanded adding a cafeteria, bakery, and books. Known at the time as the Eden Deli, it was one of very few places in the USA where one could get natural, organic, and macrobiotic food.

People came from near and far. Health food stores began calling, asking for help in getting the foods we carried in our store. The EDEN brand began to take shape.

In 1972 Eden opened its first warehouse and established relations with artisan Japanese traditional food makers. Importation of sea vegetables, teas, miso, shoyu, umeboshi plums, kuzu root starch, rice vinegar, rice bran pickles, mirin, etc., followed, and this solidified Eden as an important natural food source for the United States and Canada.

Sustainable Investing

Eden is the oldest natural and organic food company in North America and the largest independent manufacturer of dry grocery organic foods. We have deep roots in Michigan, about twenty miles southwest of Ann Arbor. It is here we manage grower relations, manufacturing, trucking, quality control, customer relations, retailer services, marketing, import/export, accounting, and websites.

Over 95 percent of EDEN foods are sold in natural food stores, co-ops, and supermarkets via traditional grocery and natural food distribution channels. Web, employee, and wholesale sales make up the remainder.

All EDEN food moves through one of our warehouses in either southeast Michigan or central California in San Francisco's East bay.

In 2008 Eden completed a 70,000-square-foot Michigan warehouse addition. Design, construction, and operations reflect our commitment to sustainable growth and follow green LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) principles. Our original builder's son utilized 80 percent recycled steel forged within 500 miles of Eden. The building uses energy-efficient lighting and insulation while preserving native landscaping. This Eden warehouse meets a gold certification level, the second highest rating possible. It is the first LEED engineered building in our county.

Eden tracks the environmental impact of its food upstream with suppliers through company operations, and downstream monitoring all social impacts. Energy consumption and waste are tracked using customized in-house tools.

In 2009 Eden Foods was selected as the best food company in the world, and the third best company overall by The Better World Shopping Guide. They acknowledged Eden's outstanding record in social and environmental responsibility. The company earned A+ and A ratings in ten food categories. This is further explained at edenfoods.com/betterworld

Local First

Eden buys all food from, and pays farms directly, in a sustainable way. Most is grown a few miles to a few hundred miles from home base. In the Midwest we source wild rice, beans, spelt, soybeans, cabbage, apples, tart cherries, strawberries, pastry wheat, and tomatoes. Other North American family farm organic food includes grains from the Midwest and Western high plains; almonds, pistachios, brown rice and chick peas from California; flax and mustard seed from Saskatchewan; dulse from New Brunswick, etc.

Download Map (PDF - 5,692KB)

Most cooking and packaging centers around home. Seventy-seven percent of EDEN items are prepared in Clinton: fresh milled whole grain flours, gomasio sesame salts, unrefined vegetable oils, vinegars, soy sauces, roasted almonds and seeds, packaged snacks, whole grains, sea salt, popcorn and other grain. EDENSOY is made twelve miles east at an affiliate company we founded to bring its manufacture from Japan to Michigan. Eden Organic Pasta Company is in Detroit. Meridian Foods cannery for organic beans, refried beans, rice and beans, and chilies is in east central Indiana. EDEN organic udon and soba noodles are made at Sobaya Company in Montréal, PQ.

Some EDEN food comes from afar: extra virgin olive oil from Spain, high altitude white and red quinoa from Bolivia, chamomile from Egypt, and green tea and traditional natural food from Japan. In this catalog, foods imported from Japan are marked with a map/flag symbol shown here. All of the soybeans in our miso and soy sauces are non-GMO, USA Midwestern organic.