Several years ago, Nevada County’s Eric Botner noticed that food wasn’t tasting that good. Even his old favorites weren’t lighting up his palate. He noticed also that his energy was a bit low, his vitality flagging. He tried some raw food and was delighted by not only the injection of energy into his body, but the taste as well. He wasn’t enthusiastic about the price, however, so he bought a case of raw goodies, divvying them up with friends and sharing the cost. That went well, so he bought a few cases. Soon his home was a make-shift warehouse for a fledgling business: Earth Family Foods. Today, the company employs twelve Nevada County residents and occupies a large warehouse on Bitney Springs Road outside Nevada City.
Nutrition and cost-effectiveness continue to be the two themes that inspire Botner in his new role as president of a super-food distributer. Briar Patch Co-Op was his first official customer, but now he ships his products to stores all over the United States and Canada. These products are raw, mostly organic, and include coconut oil, almond butter, cashews, agave nectar, hemp seeds, gogi berries, and so much more. Seaweed products are wild and not considered organic. “These are crucial foods, medicine really,” Botner states. It is Botner’s belief that everyone needs to have access to these foods that drives him to buy in large quantities, keeping the prices down for all his customers. Some foods he sells to Briar Patch now retail for less than half of what they did when he started buying them case by case. The fact that the foods he buys are not immediately perishable, but have a shelf life of a year or two, helps with cost-effectiveness as well.
With today’s focus on local foods, it’s important to remember the concept of subsidiarity, well defined in Alternatives to Economic Globalization by John Cavanagh and Jerry Mander. Subsidiarity calls for a return to local whenever possible. When not possible, as is the case with the foods sold by Earth Family Foods, it is vital to get the foods from as close to home as possible. Botner practices subsidiarity, bringing hemp seeds from Canada (it is illegal to grow them here) and coconut oil from Mexico. (Imports also come from Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, and from as far away as Thailand and Bali.) Another key aspect of subsidiarity is that trade must be fair, of course, and every product in Earth Family Foods warehouse is a product of fair trade. Both in its trade policies and its support of the local economy through job creation and cost reduction, Earth Family Foods offers us an excellent example of practicing subsidiarity.
Today, Eric Botner has seemingly boundless energy, and looks decades younger than he actually is. He is a walking encyclopedia about the foods he distributes, knowing with great specificity why maca root powder is beneficial to creating stamina and energy, and what the many medicinal values of cacao powder deliver to our bodies. After years of eating raw foods, though, he cautions people to be moderate in their food choices. Diet and nutrition are a “huge puzzle,” he states. “Everyone is different.” Botner recommends a diet similar to the one Michael Pollan advocates in In Defense of Food: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Botner agrees. “People are not feeling well. Their energy is low. Practicing conscious under eating, eating mostly fresh fruits and vegetables” are keys to increasing energy and stamina,he says. Botner also cautions about sugar intake, which as we know has increased disastrously in our country in the last 60 years. “It used to be a treat to eat one cookie with sugar,” he remembers, and now sugar, or its Frankenstein’s monster, high fructose corn syrup, have infiltrated nearly every processed food. Botner sells agave nectar and coconut sugar (the most sustainable sugar harvested) but cautions his customers about overusing even these relatively nutritional sugars.
Earth Family Foods continues to grow. One of two packing rooms is already built and operational, packing dry seeds and nuts for shipment to Whole Foods. This fall, the wet packing room will also be up and running, packaging oils and nectars for a variety of customers, including Briar Patch.
Besides the healing nutritional value of super foods, one theme remains prevalent in Botner’s mind: how does he lower the costs of these foods, and how does he pass this savings on to the people who buy and need these foods? Look for Earth Family Foods products in the raw food and bulk food sections of Briar Patch, and keep your eye on the prices. They just may amaze you and go down and instead of up.
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Eric Botner’s Favorite Smoothie
1 fresh young coconut, w/ its water
cacao powder
maca powder
six ice cubes
blend and serve
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Carolyn Crane is a writer and teacher. She lives on the San Juan Ridge. You can email her at sierraccrane@gmail.com.
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