OCTOBER 2007, AROUND THE STATE
Soup, happy cows and farms of the future
TWENTY YEARS AGO Chuck Eggert started a beverage company in
Tualatin. Now better known for tasty vegetable soups and
free-range chicken broth than soymilk, 360-employee Pacific
Natural Foods is stretching its boundaries by getting into the
dairy business and running its own beef processing plant. We
pulled Eggert, who is also a co-founder of the New Seasons
grocery chain, in from the celery fields to talk about how the
natural food business is changing and what it means for Oregon
agriculture.
How long has Pacific been
farming? Seven years. It’s gotten more involved as
we’ve gone along. On the vegetable side, it’s
demonstration. We’re growing butternut squash and celery
to encourage other people to grow it. We grow some to verify
the varieties, but our goal isn’t to grow everything
ourselves but to show others you can grow these organic crops
and make money doing it.
What about dairy
operations? On the dairy side, it’s serious
business. We just have better control over the milk supply. We
have one dairy in Aurora that we’ve had for about a year
and a half, and we’re building another one. It’s
all state-of-the-art equipment. We’re trying to design
them so you can have a mid-sized dairy that works in the
Willamette Valley. Our dairies are in the 500-cow range. At
that size it can be a reasonable family opportunity.
Do you want your dairies to
be models for others in western Oregon? Yes.
They’re low-impact, they can fit in a neighborhood.
How do you get the word
out? Do you give tours? We do very little of that. Until
we have something that’s unique, we really don’t
talk about it much. We want it to be right. If you run things
well from an environmental standpoint, you end up producing the
lowest-priced product. We can produce organic milk as cheap as
anyone and still do things well. There’s something to
this contented cow thing. But it helps to have a long-term
perspective because you’re not going to make money
farming next week just by thinking about it.
What about meat
processing? We run our plant, Dayton Natural Meats, to
organic standards. There’s a need in Oregon to have
places for animals to go where they don’t have to travel
huge distances. We’re building a mid-sized,
state-of-the-art processing facility. We think there’s an
opportunity to do more of those in Oregon, to revitalize the
meat industry. We like being in Oregon, we like the agriculture
here, but it does need to evolve and change.
CHRISTINA WILLIAMS
Have an opinion? E-mail feedback@oregonbusiness.com
