If you have ever picked up a bag of pre-washed organic salad greens at a Whole Foods, Costco, or your local grocery store, there is a very good chance the label said Earthbound Farm. It is one of the most recognized names in the American organic produce market — and it has one of the most interesting ownership stories in the entire food industry. From a 2.5-acre raspberry farm in California’s Carmel Valley to the shelves of thousands of supermarkets across North America, the journey of Earthbound Farm has passed through the hands of its founders, a global food giant, and today sits with one of the most respected family-owned produce companies in the country.
Here is everything you need to know.
What Is Earthbound Farm?
Earthbound Farm is an American farm located near San Juan Bautista, California. It is the largest producer of organic salads in the United States. It was also the first company to produce prewashed, packaged salad greens on an industrial scale.
Today, Earthbound Farm operates under the Taylor Farms Retail Group and sells its products through major retailers including Costco, Whole Foods, Walmart, and digital grocers like FreshDirect. Earthbound Farm has over 50,000 acres under organic cultivation and produces a wide range of organic fruits, vegetables, and salad mixes.
Who Owns Earthbound Farm Right Now in 2026?
The current owner of Earthbound Farm is Taylor Farms — a privately held, family-owned company headquartered in Salinas, California. Taylor Farms acquired Earthbound Farm from Danone, SA on April 11, 2019, bringing the beloved organic brand back home to the Salinas Valley and catapulting Taylor to the forefront of the organic produce sector.
Taylor Farms is a privately held, family-owned company founded and led by Chairman and CEO Bruce Taylor. As of 2026, Taylor Farms generates approximately $7 billion in annual revenue and is the largest salad producer in America.
Earthbound Farm operates as a subsidiary within the Taylor Farms Retail Group and retains its own brand identity, marketing, and product line — completely separate from the core Taylor Farms brand.
Who Owns Earthbound Farm — Ownership Table
| Owner / Party | Type | Role | Key Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taylor Farms | Current Parent Company | 100% ownership since April 11, 2019 | Privately held; headquartered in Salinas, California |
| Bruce Taylor | Founder & CEO of Taylor Farms | Controlling Owner | Third-generation Salinas produce grower; net worth ~$2.5 billion |
| Danone SA | Previous Owner (2017–2019) | Sold to Taylor Farms | French multinational; acquired Earthbound Farm for ~$600 million in 2017 |
| WhiteWave Foods | Previous Owner (2012–2017) | Acquired by Danone | Bought Earthbound Farm for $600 million in 2012; absorbed into Danone |
| Drew & Myra Goodman | Original Founders | Founded in 1984 | Sold to Natural Selection Foods in 2003; remained as brand ambassadors |
| Natural Selection Foods | Previous Owner (2003–2012) | Sold to WhiteWave | Bought Earthbound Farm in 2003 for an undisclosed amount |
The Founders: Drew and Myra Goodman and the 2.5-Acre Dream
Every great brand has an origin story — and Earthbound Farm’s is one of the most genuinely charming in American food history.
Earthbound Farm was founded in 1984 by Drew and Myra Goodman on a 2.5-acre organic raspberry farm in California’s Carmel Valley. The Goodmans were young, idealistic, and deeply passionate about organic farming at a time when most of the country had never heard the word “organic” used in a food context. They started by growing vegetables and selling them at local farmers markets and to a handful of restaurants in the area.
The breakthrough came when they started pre-washing and pre-packaging their salad greens into bags — a concept so simple that it is hard to believe nobody had done it at scale before. Earthbound Farm was the first company to produce prewashed, packaged salad greens on an industrial scale. That single innovation changed the way America eats salad and turned a tiny Carmel Valley farm into a national brand.
By the early 2000s, Earthbound Farm had grown from 2.5 acres to tens of thousands of acres of certified organic farmland and was generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. The Goodmans had built something extraordinary — but they needed a larger partner to take it further.
The Ownership Journey: From Founders to Taylor Farms
Earthbound Farm has changed ownership several times since the Goodmans founded it, each transition reflecting the growing commercial value of organic food in America.
2003 — Natural Selection Foods buys Earthbound Farm. The Goodmans sell to this larger regional produce company, though they remain involved with the brand. Earthbound Farm continues expanding rapidly as consumer demand for organic produce surges.
2012 — WhiteWave Foods acquires Earthbound Farm for approximately $600 million. WhiteWave is a major player in natural and organic foods, and the acquisition gives Earthbound Farm access to a much larger national distribution network.
2017 — Danone SA acquires WhiteWave Foods — and with it, Earthbound Farm. The French food giant pays $12.5 billion for all of WhiteWave, making Earthbound Farm part of one of the largest food companies in the world. But organic fresh produce is not Danone’s core business — the French company is famous for yogurt, dairy, and packaged foods — and Earthbound Farm never quite fit naturally inside a Paris-based conglomerate.
A Danone press release confirmed selling off Earthbound Farm as part of the global food and beverage company’s “portfolio management and capital allocation” strategy.
April 11, 2019 — Taylor Farms acquires Earthbound Farm from Danone, returning it to local, family-owned roots in the Salinas Valley where much of California’s produce industry was born.
Who Owns Earthbound Farm — Taylor Farms: The Current Owner in Detail
To understand who truly owns Earthbound Farm today, you need to understand Taylor Farms — the company that brought it home.
Taylor Farms was founded in 1995 by Bruce Taylor, a third-generation Salinas lettuce grower who built the business into a $7 billion enterprise — North America’s leading producer of salads and fresh foods.
Bruce Taylor holds a Bachelor of Science in Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from Harvard University. He started Taylor Farms with a small processing facility in California’s Salinas Valley and grew it through an unwavering focus on quality, innovation, and customer relationships.
Today, Taylor Farms operates 19 production plants across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Western Europe, employs more than 25,000 people, and produces 165 million servings of produce every week. Bruce Taylor’s net worth is estimated to be approximately $2.5 billion as of 2026.
When Taylor Farms bought Earthbound Farm in 2019, CEO Bruce Taylor was clear about the vision: “We are grateful for the opportunity to return ownership of this organic produce leader to local roots and family ownership. Earthbound Farm will join the Taylor Farms Retail Group and help lead growth in the dynamic organic fresh produce category.”
Since the acquisition, Earthbound Farm has won multiple sustainability awards, including Inc.’s Best in Business Award for Sustainability in 2024 — a recognition that the brand’s organic mission remains fully intact under Taylor Farms ownership.
How Earthbound Farm Reaches Your Grocery Store
Earthbound Farm products are sold through a massive retail network across North America. The company’s produce is sold through third-party retail outlets including Costco, Whole Foods, and digital retailers such as FreshDirect.
The product line has expanded well beyond simple salad bags. Earthbound Farm today offers organic salad kits, ready-to-eat greens, herbs, carrots, apples, and a growing range of organic snacking vegetables — all certified USDA Organic and produced on farmland that has been farmed without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers.
In April 2025, Earthbound Farm partnered with Instacart to launch a high-impact Earth Month campaign aimed at inspiring healthier, more sustainable choices. That kind of active digital marketing shows that under Taylor Farms, the Earthbound Farm brand is not being quietly managed into retirement — it is being actively invested in and grown.
Taylor Farms’ Bigger 2025 Expansion Story
Taylor Farms — and by extension Earthbound Farm — has been growing aggressively. In November 2025, Taylor Farms acquired Natures Way Foods, a UK-based fresh prepared food manufacturer founded in 1994 and headquartered in Selsey, England. The company supplies major UK supermarkets including Tesco, Aldi, and Morrisons, as well as food service customers including McDonald’s, KFC, and Pret a Manger. The acquisition marked Taylor Farms’ entry into the UK fresh prepared food market.
This international expansion signals that Taylor Farms — and the brands it owns, including Earthbound Farm — is on a clear path toward becoming a truly global organic and fresh produce company.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. Who owns Earthbound Farm in 2026?
Earthbound Farm is owned by Taylor Farms, a private family-owned company led by founder and CEO Bruce Taylor, headquartered in Salinas, California.
Q2. Who founded Earthbound Farm?
Earthbound Farm was founded in 1984 by Drew and Myra Goodman on a 2.5-acre organic raspberry farm in Carmel Valley, California.
Q3. When did Taylor Farms buy Earthbound Farm?
Taylor Farms acquired Earthbound Farm from Danone SA on April 11, 2019, for an undisclosed price estimated near $500 million.
Q4. Did Danone own Earthbound Farm?
Yes. Danone owned Earthbound Farm from 2017 to 2019 after acquiring it through its $12.5 billion purchase of WhiteWave Foods, which had previously bought Earthbound Farm for approximately $600 million in 2012.
Q5. Is Taylor Farms a publicly traded company?
No. Taylor Farms is a privately held, family-owned company and is not listed on any stock exchange. Bruce Taylor retains full private ownership and control.
Q6. Where is Earthbound Farm located?
Earthbound Farm is headquartered near San Juan Bautista, California, and operates its famous farm stand in Carmel Valley. Its products are grown across over 50,000 acres of certified organic farmland.
Q7. What does Earthbound Farm sell?
Earthbound Farm sells organic salad mixes, salad kits, leafy greens, herbs, baby carrots, apples, and other organic fresh produce — available at Costco, Whole Foods, Walmart, and online grocery platforms.
Q8. How big is Taylor Farms in 2026?
Taylor Farms generates approximately $7 billion in annual revenue, employs over 25,000 people, operates 19 production plants across 4 countries, and produces 165 million servings of produce every week.
Earthbound Farm is owned by Taylor Farms — a privately held, family-owned company founded and controlled by CEO Bruce Taylor, who built the business into a $7 billion fresh produce empire from a small processing facility in Salinas, California in 1995. Taylor Farms acquired Earthbound Farm from Danone SA on April 11, 2019, returning it to local California roots after a period of ownership under WhiteWave Foods and then Danone.
Earthbound Farm was originally founded in 1984 by Drew and Myra Goodman on a 2.5-acre farm in Carmel Valley, California — and became the first company to sell pre-washed, packaged organic salad greens at a national scale. Today, it remains the largest producer of organic salads in the United States, operating under the Taylor Farms Retail Group with over 50,000 acres of certified organic farmland.
