Do You Know The Difference Between Organic And Natural?

ALAMEDA, CA - Golden Gate Organics prides itself as the Bay Area’s premier destination for certified organic produce and groceries — delivered straight to customers’ doors!

The Oakland-based Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) turns seven this year, serving 12 communities — and everywhere in between — throughout the Bay Area.

But GGO is more than a delivery service; it’s a family, where small-town congeniality meets big-city access. CEO Corey Tufts discusses the story behind Golden Gate Organic and giving back to the community and treating its customers like family.

Patch: Golden Gate Organics prides itself as a one-stop shop for an organic lifestyle. How does it uphold this?

Golden Gate Organics: This is a great question! There are a few good reasons for this. First off, before GGO, it was confusing to shop for certified organic foods. I was a member of a CSA [Community Supported Agriculture] that delivered organic produce, but they were really limited to what they grew on their own farm. For example, there were no bananas or pineapples, which was a bummer because they are two of my favorite fruits. So, I had to go to the store to buy these items. Not a huge deal but still inconvenient. Additionally, the CSA didn’t have any options for groceries at all, and this meant I still had to go to the store. Now, the same CSA continues to deliver organic produce from their farm, and they offer some very limited grocery items, but their grocery items are not organic. They are only natural, which doesn’t really mean anything because “natural” is a marketing term and not regulated, like “certified organic” is, by the National Organic Program under the FDA.

For non-produce items, there is no real organic sections in grocery stores. Instead, organic foods are intermingled with the conventional food, so if you don’t fully understand what to look for to ensure something is certified organic, then what you buy may not actually be organic even though you thought it was. We are the only company in the Bay Area where Everything we have is 100 percent, certified organic with no exceptions. We have an abundant selection of organic groceries to go with the best varieties of organic fruits and vegetables. Need milk? We got it. Need coffee? Check! Pineapple and bananas? Got ‘em. We even have paper towels, dish soap, etc. We work continually to improve what we do. Our goal is to become the best at what we do and I think we are doing that right now.

Patch: Golden Gate Organics was founded in 2010, turning 7 years old this year. How has GGO transformed since its inception, and what was the inspiration behind its foundation?

Golden Gate Organics: Well, in a lot of ways, we are still the same company and in many ways we are not.
What hasn’t changed is that we provide the best customer service, which is evident by our online reviews. I would say that our grocery deliveries and business fruit deliveries have really became a big part of the business. Our customers want not just organic, but, perhaps more importantly, they want convenience. Produce delivery is nice and keeps you honest and healthy, but the added convenience of a large selection of essential grocery items has turned out to be the way we are heading. In fact — and don’t tell anyone — we are currently redesigning the website to allow a la carte grocery delivery in addition to organic produce boxes. This way, anyone can get whatever they want whenever they want at a great price with the best service possible.

The inspiration behind GGO was simply to create more awareness about organic foods and provide a better shopping experience to go along with that. That inspiration hasn’t changed, and I still focus on that today. Everything is always about the customer, and educating people turns them into a knowledgeable consumer. From that position, I feel that we really are the best all around option for grocery delivery in the Bay Area.

Patch: What is the GGO mission, and how is this mission accomplished?

Golden Gate Organics: Our main mission is to promote the education of what organic is and provide a one
stop shop to make customers’ lives easier at a great value to them. We do this by handing out free materials on organic certification and answering questions at local street festivals and business health fairs. We even have a fun little game at the festivals where kids guess the fruits and veggies we have on display. I love trying
to trick them by saying potatoes are actually pineapples. As time and budget allow, we are building up our website to include much more information on organic certification and many more educational videos that are fun, short and informational.

Patch: Golden Gate Organics is currently based in California’s Bay Area. What is the draw to this particular location?

Golden Gate Organics: Well, I first came here in the Coast Guard and loved the Bay so much that I stayed
after my 10 years of military service. I then went to U.C. Berkeley while concurrently managing Golden Gate Organics as CEO and earned my degree in Philosophy. The draw is the diverse people, the great weather — other than the rain this year, which I actually kinda liked — and the scenery. California is such a beautiful place. Sometimes, when I take deliveries, I still marvel at the beauty of the scenery. I love looking at the Golden Gate bridge from the hills of Oakland or Berkeley or looking at the East Bay and downtown San Francisco from the top of Twin Peaks.

Sometimes, I still can’t believe that I live here. It also sucks that I never remember to take my camera with me on those trips. While I do miss my family and the cherries back in Michigan, I don’t necessarily miss lake effect snow and Alberta Clippers in the winter time there!

Patch: How can Patch readers distinguish between “organic” and “natural?”

Golden Gate Organics: This may be the most important question you’ve asked because there is so much
confusion out there about just what “organic’ means. Anyone can go to the “About Us” page of our website to see a chart with this information. First off, “natural” is an unregulated marketing term. It doesn’t actually mean anything good. For example, crude oil derives naturally in the environment. It is natural. A derivative of crude oil is mineral oil. Mineral oil can be added to processed foods because it doesn’t spoil like vegetable oil does.

The only way anyone can truly have the highest confidence of what is not in their food is to always look for the USDA Organic seal on the product. It is usually green or black circle with the USDA on the top half and “ORGANIC” on the bottom. This seal carries with it specific guarantees that your food item will not have certain toxic persistent pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormones and sludge and irradiation. If you don’t see the USDA ORGANIC seal, then there is absolutely no accountability for what chemicals have been in or on your food. If you don’t see the seal, then what I do is try to buy items with the least amount of ingredients on the label.

Patch: Why is it important that GGO customers be treated like family?

Golden Gate Organics: This is the most important part of my business. Ever go somewhere and just have a
totally bad experience? Like, you get some takeout and when you get home, you realize that the order isn’t right? But it is such a pain in the butt to go back to the store, so you call the store instead and then nobody ever answers the phone? I’ve had experiences like this, and it sucks.

I don’t see any reason why negative customer experiences like this cannot be severely minimized. And if it does happen then, as a business owner, I feel it should be made right and then some. Back in Michigan, everyone is so nice and friendly. Customer service is usually great in a small town. I just want to have that
type of experience for all of my customers. That is why I call them my family of customers. We try hard not to mess up in the first place. When we do mess up, I accept responsibility for it and I make it right — even if it is not our fault. It doesn’t matter; I accept full responsibility. There is a way to do business that is both great
for customers and great for businesses. I always try to walk that fine line, not just because it is morally the right thing to do but because it is easier to keep customers then to have to go get new ones. It is a win-win, and Golden Gate Organics is a better business because of it, even if we don’t make as much money as our
competitors. Our customers appreciate this.

Patch: Golden Gate Organics offers a customized menu appropriate to customers’ tastes and preferences. Tell us a little more about the GGO experience.

Golden Gate Organics: Most of our customers only interactions are through our website, weekly email
and customer service. My vision of the GGO experience is to keep things as simple and easy as possible while fulfilling every conceivable need of the customer. All of the touchpoints I provided are always being refined and improved to become better until they are perfect. I am never happy with our website because I am a perfectionist and I know that the experience can always be better. With this being said, our customers leave us overwhelmingly positive feedback about how great and easy the website is to use. I’ve even seen some of our competitors begin to change their website to incorporate features that our website had when we launched. It makes me feel good that these bigger established competitors are copying us, and this is why I am always working to provide a better GGO experience for our customers.

Patch: Golden Gate Organics currently serves 12 communities within the Bay Area—and “everywhere in between.” How do you envision GGO’s growth? What is the outlook for the future?

Golden Gate Organics: We have our hands full right now within our current delivery area from San Jose,
San Francisco, up through Marin and from Livermore/Pleasanton up to Vallejo. Growth within this area will keep us very busy, and I will not be content until we are the most happiest customers in the Bay Area grocery delivery market. In the meantime, my team and I are always thinking ahead and have plans for a very, very
special project that will realize our vision for a true one stop shop for an all organic lifestyle. The only thing holding this back right now is the money. But we will get it when the time is right, and this Galleria project will eventually serve every metropolitan region in the United States with the goal to be more successful than
Whole Foods. I am confident in this.

Patch: How does GGO contribute to its community?

Golden Gate Organics: Every week since we opened for business, we have donated what we can to the
food bank in the city of Alameda. Some weeks we give them a little and some weeks we give them a lot, but they always have the friendliest volunteers there. I hope more people support them through donations of food or to volunteer their time.

In addition to this, we donate so many boxes of organic produce to different charitable events for their silent auctions. My staff always say that I am too nice and shouldn’t donate so much, and they may be right, but we are still here after seven years and I am in charge.

Patch: OK — last question! How can Patch readers learn more about Golden Gate Organics and how to get their hands on GGO’s delivery service?

Golden Gate Organics: Very easily. Give us a call at 510-698-9446 or go to our website. Our president Steven answers the phone and he is the friendliest and funniest guy you’ve ever met. We also have the GGO Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the GGO blog.

Photo credit: Golden Gate Organics