Nurturing Life — 116,000 Acres
We regularly visit families who grow Eden foods and who participate in our certification programs. Sitting in their kitchens, touring outbuildings, exchanging updates, sharing ideas, and walking the fields is the only way we know to maintain understanding, trust, and to know what motivates them.
Pure & Purifying™
- Champion of organic family farms. Society's Brightest Hope for Positive Change.
- GMO free assurance since 1993.
- EDEN canned and dried beans are from U.S.A. organic family farms.
- EDEN organic custom food cans have bisphenol-A (BPA), BPS, and phthalate free linings.
- A ‘Local First’ purchasing ethos.
- All used pallet wrap is recycled. This reduced the total company landfill output by 50%.
- EDEN organic pasta packages are in 100% recycled paperboard boxes.
- EDENSOY requires no refrigeration until opened.
- Committed to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and common sense building methods.
- Eden Foods trucks are ecologically designed, configured, and operated.
- Post consumer recycled materials and biodegradable packaging materials are used in shipping.
- Company wide commitment to reduce, reuse, recycle, and rethink operational practices.
Clean, Effective Facilities Management
Eden Foods partnered with the Ernest Otter family business in 1981 to help design and implement the first organic 'Structural Pest Management' systems for post harvest handling. – Organic pest management systems that are safer, and more effective than toxic chemical pest applications. Mr. Otter says, “Eden's demand for the organic method in food handling is unmatched. When faced with a potential problem, their reaction is not (as many do) to simply move organic product aside and spray with unapproved pesticides. Their commitment is to truly understand the conditions and ecology of each situation and solve it accordingly.” Eden sponsored Mr. Otter to take our ‘structural pest management’ organic practice systems to Europe, and share them with the IFOAM network worldwide.
Recycle — Reuse — Rethink
Eden recycles glass, plastics, metals, aseptic containers, paper, catalogs, magazines, cardboard, printer cartridges, old computers, electronics, and used pallets. We have a company policy of purchasing recycled materials. We use recycled paper. Carpet in Eden's trade show booth is made of recycled plastic bottles. Labels, brochures, fliers, catalogs, sales materials, business cards, stationary, etc. are soy-based ink printed.
“We can calculate in approximately how many decades [agricultural] products will have degenerated to such an extent that they can no longer serve as human nourishment. It will certainly be within this [20th] century. We can see how necessary it is to derive forces from the spirit, forces that are as yet quite unknown. This is necessary not only for the sake of somehow improving agriculture, but so that human life on Earth can continue at all, since as physical beings we depend on what the Earth provides.”
— Rudolf Steiner, 1924
Organic Home
There are no toxic pesticides, fertilizers, or weed killers at Eden Foods. Cleaning products are 100% biodegradable and contain no phosphates or petrochemical ingredients.
Headquarters is 32 contiguous acres and seven buildings including native hardwoods, wetlands, and fields. Compost generated from four kitchens is used to enrich the organic plant beds. We have restored native greenery and wildflowers. It is a haven for bees, birds, herons, muskrats, minks, foxes, fish, butterflies, turtles, frogs, squirrels, woodchucks, etc. Soybean fiber from making EDENSOY is dried and becomes organic animal feed. Bean refuse from the organic cannery enriches nearby farm fields.
Ecological Aseptic Cartons
The Tetra Pak® Co. invented aseptic packaging for human food using minimal materials and energy. EDENSOY’s package is 73% from EU certified sustainable forests that protect biological biodiversity and endangered species. They replace need for refrigeration in transport and storage, and are recycleable.
EPA reports greenhouse gas emissions due to refrigeration have increased exponentially since the 1990s. We have chosen to avoid contributing to this pollution.
Commonsensical Local Supply
Sourcing all EDEN soybeans from U.S.A. organic farms has deep social and environmental impact. Reduced shipping distance reduces fossil fuel use and pollution. Almost all U.S. soymilks are made of soy from China, Brazil, and Argentina because so-called 'organic' soy from these countries is so much cheaper. American demand for food labeled organic has spurred epidemic burning and bulldozing deforestation. Eden is not part of this destructive, oxymoronic system. We work with and rely upon local organic growers whom we know and trust.
Life-Positive Spirals
Each year more research confirms the benefits of organic farming, improving one's health, preserving landscapes, cleansing the air, water, and soil, etc. A Rodale Institute study found that organic farming is the most effective tool we have to reverse global warming, as organically managed soils show a remarkable ability to mitigate greenhouse gases and sequester carbon.
From innovation and dedication, life-positive cycles of organic farming must be carried into food processing. For example, after making EDENSOY, the hulls and mash are sent to organic farmers for feed. What's left over, composted manure, goes back to the soybean grower for use as organic fertilizer.
As Eden supports organic farms and asks others to do so, we strive to ‘walk the talk’ knowing our actions produce positive results for us now, and for future life on Earth.