An interior view of Clif Bar headquarters in Emeryville, California. Photo © GreenBiz Group

We put a lot of stock in organic farming, as well as eating and drinking. If companies do it right, sourcing organically can make a difference. So it’s uplifting to read that two companies we support by buying their delicious products, Clif Bar and Kashi, are making an effort to bolster the organic ingredient supply chain by leading a new category for crops produced by farmers who are in the three-year process of switching from conventional agriculture to an organic label; it’s called “Certified Transitional.” Lauren Hepler reports for GreenBiz:

Inside an airy, post-industrial space situated on the East side of the San Francisco Bay, several brightly colored mountain bikes and the sail of a kite surfing set hang from a lofted ceiling above some 350 employees sprawled across the 150,000-square-foot headquarters of Clif Bar.

Outside, a small organic gardening plot has been set up next to the free daycare center for the children of employees at the famously outdoorsy food company.

“We start ’em young,” jokes Dean Mayer, Clif Bar’s communications manager.

The burgeoning urban gardening operation is one illustration of the many employee perks at the company — an in-office gym with free personal training, a zen meditation garden, a rock climbing wall — but one that also underscores a strategic priority in recent years: growing the share of organic food in the global food system.

Since 2003, Clif Bar has used some 637 million pounds of organic ingredients. After achieving an initial target of 70 percent organic ingredients, the company today uses 120 organic ingredients in 16 out of its 18 total product lines.

That’s not to say it’s been an easy transition, financially or otherwise.

“What you’re saying is, ‘Let’s use much more expensive ingredients,'” Clif Bar Director of Environmental Stewardship Elysa Hammond told GreenBiz. “We went organic without raising prices.”

Despite growing consumer appetite for organic food, it’s not as easy as slapping a new label on a product to actually make the leap from conventional to organic farming. It’s a supply chain process that requires an overhaul of ingredient sourcing, which for farmers has historically meant a three-year gap in production while soil recovers from pesticides and other organic no-nosdetermined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

That lag has pushed Clif Bar and others to get creative with growing the organic food supply chain. At California’s San Juaquin Figs farm, for instance, the company worked out a deal to transition 300 acres to organic by agreeing to buy not only the fruits of the three-year interim period, but also the next four harvests.

Another company known for environment and health-conscious offerings, Kashi, this week helped unveil a new third party initiative focused on embracing the transitional period for farmers. Starting with a new Kashi cereal slated to be released in June, consumers will be able to buy foods from farms in the process of going organic labeled “Certified Transitional” by organics oversight body Quality Assurance International (QAI).

Read the rest of the original article here.