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Home mushroom farming, fish-gardening and other supply chain collaboration challenges

Offbeat brand Back to the Roots uses co-packers to gain national retail prominence; co-packers and other suppliers add insights at supply chain collaboration panel at Pack Expo.

DIY mushrooms, co-packed for Back to the Roots
DIY mushrooms, co-packed for Back to the Roots

“That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen,” the Whole Foods buyer told Nikhil Arora, who had just opened a basketball-sized bag of fungus — the crown jewel of a new home mushroom-growing kit — in the buyer's office. The inventor and budding brand innovator remained “super confident” that his mushrooms were destined to be a “next iPhone,” says the now-successful brand owner.

In 2009, he and partner Alejandro Velez co-founded their brand, Back to the Roots, following their experience as seniors at the University of California, Berkeley, where their business ethics professor’s idea of growing gourmet mushrooms from recycled coffee grounds sounded like “the coolest thing,” according to Arora. From their first efforts and early failures — like that first call on Whole Foods — the two, with design and production from a contract packaging partner, have gotten their products on shelves at that chain and others, including Kroger, Costco, Target and Home Depot.

Today, a much-improved organic Mushroom Farm kit has an innovative pop-out panel through which the mushrooms grow (pictured). This and a second product — Aqua Farm, a “self-cleaning fish tank that grows food” and generates its own fertilizer — have gained kudos from U.S. President Obama and a place for the co-founders on “top” lists including BusinessWeek’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs under 25, Inc.’s 30 Under 30, Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and CNN’s 10 Next Entrepreneurs.

A "shared vision," as well as clear goals and the hands-on expertise of contract packagers is critical to startup brands lacking manufacturing and packaging resources and know-how. “We wanted the kind of partners who could push us to be better than we actually are,” he added, so the brand could add value rather than going to market as a low-cost commodity, which is the last thing a mushroom kit or fish tank-garden can be called. 

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