Photo credit: Briana Forgie
Thirty-one years later, on Earth Day 2001, we launched Clif Bar & Company’s sustainability program with a commitment to organic food as its foundation. I knew in my heart that this was the right way to go and in 2003, our signature Clif Bar became certified organic. As a food company, we see the connections between food, health, and the environment every day: The kind of food we put in our bodies affects our health; the way that food is grown, packaged, and shipped affects the environment; and the environment affects the health of all living things. This fall, Gary and I will be hitting the road to introduce our new organic fruit and nut bar—near and dear to my heart—Kit’s Organic, and to meet people across the country who share our interest in food and health. From where we sit—on the seat of a bicycle or a tractor or an RV running on biodiesel—we’re encouraged that the food choices we make three times a day can positively impact our health and our environment. Enjoy this issue of Moving Toward Sustainability—its mission has always been to educate, but we hope it will also inspire.
The food choices we make three times a day can positively impact our health and our environment.
Kit Crawford Co-Owner and Co-CEO of Clif Bar & Company President, Clif Bar Family Foundation
Distributed by Clif Bar & Company, Emeryville, CA 94608 U.S.A. 1-800-CLIFBAR M–F 8–5 PST • clifbar.com • © 2012 Clif Bar & Company Printed on New Leaf paper, 100% recycled, 60% post-consumer content, processed chlorine-free with vegetable-based inks. CBC12.635
WORKING TO REDUCE OUR ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
Long before the scientific studies began to appear about the benefits of organic farming, Gary and I knew that we wanted Clif Bar to be organic. Our commitment to the environment came naturally, as it did for many of us growing up during the ’60s and ’70s. In our hometown of Fremont, California, we experienced the loss of nature on an almost daily basis. We saw apricot orchards plowed into suburbs, walnut groves bulldozed into shopping centers, and the foothills above my home divided by Highway 680. At the same time, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring sounded the alarm about the dangers of DDT to the natural world. I remember feeling deeply moved by television news about the impact of pesticides on the health of farmworkers children and communities in the nearby Central Valley. The environmental movement was coming into its own: In April 1970 we celebrated the first Earth Day, and later the founding of the EPA and the passing of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. We also saw the first organic foods come to market.
Clif Bar Sustainability Newsletter / Fall 2012
LETTER FROM KIT
FOOD. HEALTH. ENVIRONMENT. THEY’RE ALL CONNECTED.