Veritable Vegetable

Veritable Vegetable was the nation’s first organic food distributor, open since 1974 VV has been spreading organic produce all throughout the united states. They employ over one hundred workers, and work with over six hundred customers and vendors. They mainly focus on bringing organic produce to as many places as possible, and keeping a sustainable working environment for their employees. VV pays their employees very well for warehouse and trucking jobs, and focuses on giving women a place in their work environment.

We visited VV in the morning of our second day on the environmental science trip. We had stayed at the Trueblood’s house in Oakland CA. I was in the first car to arrive at VV, and after trying to enter though their kitchen, we found the front entrance and waited for a while for the other cars to arrive. We were greeted by a very friendly receptionist who called the manager to come down and give us a tour. They allow their employees to bring their dogs to work, and keep them in the office area, and not at all in the warehouse, so we were greeted by three very friendly pooches.

First we got a brief overview of the company, and then we went back into the warehouse where they keep all of their veggies before being shipped out. Something I had never thought about before caught my attention is that different types of food prefer to be stored at different temperature. For some reason this had never crossed my mind, but it makes total sense. Different foods grow in a diversity of climates, so why would they all like to be stored at the same temp? Bananas for example, have their own fridge because they need to remain a very particular temperature, and will turn brown if they get a few degrees up or down. Most of the produce has in one of the three main fridges, and all were at slightly different temperatures. The coldest being 34 degrees fahrenheit.

I think VV is a company right on the forefront of the future. They have good working conditions, and focus on healthy food. What more could we ask of a company? They are doing almost everything in their power to create the ideal environment for the staff and the workers.