Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo celebrates 30 years
Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo celebrates 30 years
Jacobs Farm was a successful organic farming operation in 1985 when longtime organic farmers and owners of the company, Larry Jacobs and Sandra Belin, were confident in their vision for their next venture. They encountered a community of struggling, subsistence-level farmers in Mexico, and the Del Cabo cooperative was conceived.
Today, 30 years since its launching, the unique Del Cabo business model continues to provide opportunities through funding, training and market access.
“Del Cabo is highly impactful,” said Marliese Ward, creative services manager for the Pescadero, CA-based company. “During these three decades, lives have been transformed, robust communities created and sustainability fostered.”
Del Cabo and its small-scale grower groups are exemplified by Productores Organicos Del Cabo in the San Jose area of Baja California.
“Productores Organicos Del Cabo pioneered our sustainable business model, bringing organic product to a global market-grown with the respect for the land and the promise of a better life,” Ward emphasized. “Productores Organicos Del Cabo set the model for small-scale farmers in other regions spanning the length of Baja California.”
The Del Cabo model is instrumental in the growth of Fair Trade and many other organic food trends that are seen today.
“Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo is more relevant today than ever,” Ward added. “We now offer full line of certified Fair Trade organic product.”
She noted that the company’s growing regions passed through the last hurricane season unscathed. And all are extremely thankful especially following Hurricane Odile’s direct hit to Baja in fall 2014.
“This gave our grower communities the opportunity to reinvest in their own infrastructures,” she said. “Rebuild is the today’s momentum. The communities are building new shade houses, packing houses, more efficient pack lines, nurseries housing varietal and other forms of grower development.”
