In a Northern California rice field, with the sky bathed in a sunset glow and dragonflies swirling around her curls, Brita Lundberg shared a confession. “I love telling my family’s story,” she says about Lundberg Family Farms, smiling wide. That story started in 1937, when Brita’s great-grandparents left Nebraska in the wake of the Dust Bowl. 

Brita takes a breath and begins, “They moved here to California, and they brought with them a flatbed Chevy truck, a Farm-All tractor and a new farming philosophy: “leave the land better than you found it. ‘ ” Exactly how the aforementioned tractor made its way from Nebraska to California is a point of contention – but the artifact is proudly displayed front and center at Lundberg’s Richvale headquarters. 

Why grow rice? 

After the Lundbergs settled in Richvale, the decision to grow rice was practically made for them. “When my great-grandparents lived in Nebraska, they did not grow rice – but this was rice country,” Brita explains. “We have this super heavy adobe clay soil that holds water like a bathtub. Nothing gets through that stuff. That means it’s not very good for growing most things, but it’s perfect for growing rice. So, that’s what we do.”

Organic, regenerative, sustainable farming

For four generations, the Lundberg family has prioritized their mission of leaving the land better than they found it. In 1969, they were approached by Chico-San to grow organic rice. Brita notes, “It was still the super early days of the organic movement. Most people didn’t know what organic meant, including my grandpa and his brothers. Turns out, it looks a lot like leaving the land better than you found it.”

Detailing some of Lundberg’s organic practices, Brita continues, “For us, it means growing rice without chemical herbicides. We use water to manage weeds instead of spraying our fields. It means growing cover crops to promote soil health and support biodiversity.”

Brita’s family didn’t just embrace organic methodologies on their own farm; they helped to pave the way for organic farming in California. She recalls, “In the early ’70s, my Great Uncle Homer banded together with about 50 other farmers in the region to help create California Certified Organic Farmers. We’ve been certified organic for over 50 years now. And just a few years ago, we built on that legacy by becoming the first US-grown rice brand to be regenerative organic certified, which uses USDA Organic as a baseline and then adds important criteria for soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness.”

Lundberg’s dedication to organic regenerative farming demonstrates its commitment to improving not just the land but also surrounding ecosystems and communities. Brita notes, “The way that we grow food also impacts the ecosystems in and around our rice fields, the communities in and around our rice fields. And there’s a way to farm that supports all three of those things: soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness.”

Learn more about how rice is grown at Lundberg Family Farms!

Finding her place on the farm

To illustrate that point, Brita shares her personal story. Growing up, Brita adored working in the rice fields alongside her brothers, father and uncles, but she was worried that there wasn’t a place for her on the farm. She reminisces, “I was always a bit of a reader and a writer and a storyteller, and I wasn’t sure how my interests or skill sets would align with what was needed on the farm. And so I left the farm for about 10 years to study poetry and literature and work in book publishing. But I would be sitting at my desk in Rockefeller Center, and my dad would send me a video from the fields – a flock of pelicans one day or a turtle the next – and I just started to think, ‘You know what? I’m doing something wrong here.’”

She pauses to gather her thoughts, and then adds, “I think sometimes it takes leaving home to realize what you left behind, and I also think it takes telling the story of farmers, all types of farmers, for people to realize that there’s a place for them here – and also to show the next generation of farmers that they can do this, too.”

“Most people don’t realize that rice is a plant, and if people don’t understand that rice is a plant, how are we gonna convince them that the way that we grow it – organically and regenerative organically – matters? And that’s where storytelling comes in. We’re able to show people where food comes from, how it’s grown, who grows it, and why that matters for people and the planet.” – Brita Lundberg

Visit Lundberg Family Farms

You might want to stop by our store on the farm in Richvale, California, to try some rice for yourself and maybe even get an up-close and personal look at the way that we grow, dry, store, mill, and pack the rice right here on the farm.”

Visitors can request a farm tour and shop the entire lineup of Lundberg rice products at the farm store. Lundberg Family Farms also hosts field trips for elementary school students. “It’s so important to help kids understand where food comes from, because they really have the power to eat the change they wanna see in the world,” she espouses. 

Can’t make it to Richvale? Look for Lundberg Family Farms at your local grocer or shop online! 

Article by Hilary Rance. Photography by James Collier.