0820_AUG Comstock's Magazine 0820 August | Page 55

Next
Generation
Foods
At Rue & Forsman Ranch in Olivehurst, rice farmer
Michael Bosworth devotes less than 10 percent of
his crop to specialty rice like organic brown, organic
sushi, brown and white basmati, and white jasmine.
Before the pandemic, he exclusively sold those varieties
(several million pounds annually) through Next
Generation Foods, his food distribution company
that sells locally sourced ingredients from various
farmers directly to chefs and large institutions such
as Golden 1 Center, university cafeterias including
Stanford University and UC Davis, and tech campuses
in the Bay Area. When the pandemic hit, that
business essentially stopped, says Bosworth.
But a small percentage of his specialty rice was
sold to retail customers through localized food
hubs like Farm Fresh To You, Capay Valley Farm
Shop and Tahoe Food Hub that deliver groceries to
consumers at home. Those markets sold several
thousand bags of rice a year, and that small
diversification in markets may have been critical to
Next Generation Foods’ ability to swiftly shift its
business model.
When rice became a rare commodity at grocery
stores as consumers stocked up, people looked to
purchase staples through outlets like localized food
hubs. With the supply of rice on hand, Bosworth
increased Next Generation Foods’ team of three
to more than a dozen, nimbly shifting his business
model in 10 days to accommodate where people
were now purchasing their food, he says.
Within two months, consumers bought more
than 100,000 of Bosworth’s 2-pound bags with labels
applied, primarily through Farm Fresh To You.
That volume justified investing in the company’s
first 2-pound preprinted bag, making the product
more appealing to consumers, says Bosworth, and
easier to shift between markets based on where the
future demand is.
“I think we’ll continue to serve the retail side of
the business more than we ever have, and we want
to get better at that. We really want to improve our
look and tell our story,” he says. At Next Generation
Foods, Bosworth owns the entire food supply
chain, from growing rice seed to delivering the
product to customers, giving him control at every
step, which translates to reliability.
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