Humboldt Creamery was formerly an

agricultural marketing cooperative An agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a Cooperative, producer cooperative in which farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activities. A broad typology of agricultural cooperatives distinguishes between agricult ...

located on the

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

North Coast North Coast or Northcoast may refer to : Antigua and Barbuda * Major Division of North Coast, an urban area and major division in the parish of Saint John * North Coast, Barbuda, an administrative district of Barbuda Australia * New South Wa ...

currently owned by

Foster Farms Dairy Crystal Creamery was founded in 1901 by George Knox in Sacramento, California, as Crystal Cream & Butter. In 1921, Crystal Cream & Butter was purchased by Carl Hansen, a Danish immigrant. The Hansen family led the company for the next 86 years a ...

Modesto, California Modesto ( ; ) is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,069 according to 2022 United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau estimates, it is the List of cities and towns in Ca ...

History

The co-op produced as much as 10 million gallons of

ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...

annually in addition to

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of Churning (butter), churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 81% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread (food ...

cheese Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...

, and other products under its own label and a variety of other labels, and was the sole producer of

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box warehouse club retail stores. As of 2021, Costco is the third-largest retailer in the world, and as of August 2024, Cos ...

premium ice cream. This contract and purchases in 2004 of several other ice cream companies made it one of the largest ice cream producers in the western United States. The co-op originally provided fresh milk for local markets, and converted production in excess of local demand to butter and powdered milk for export. Production shifted from butter to ice cream when butter prices dropped following the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. The organic label and related regional success helped the company prepare to go national in marketing at the end of 2008, at which time it was owned 75 percent by local farmers and 25 percent by

Dairy Farmers of America Dairy Farmers of America Inc. (DFA) is a national milk marketing cooperative in the United States. DFA markets members' raw milk and sells milk and derivative products (dairy products, food components, ingredients and shelf-stable dairy product ...

. Financial problems came to light after the abrupt resignation of 12-year veteran CEO Rich Ghilarducci on February 20, 2009. Bankruptcy was filed two months later, resulting in the sale of assets of the Humboldt Creamery at auction on August 27, 2009, to Foster Farms Dairy for $19.25 million. The former CEO pleaded guilty to changing the values of the Creamery's receivables and payables for three years between 2005 and 2008. He was sentenced to 30 months in Federal prison and ordered to pay $7 million in restitution for a "single count of making false statements to an agricultural credit bank". The bankruptcy proceedings and sale resulted in many changes for the company. Primary storage and production facilities remained at the original site in Fernbridge, California, and frozen products were still based in a

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. It is the most populous city in the county, the List of municipal ...

, facility. However, under order of the Santa Rosa, California bankruptcy court, a more recently acquired facility in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and older property located in Loleta, California, were divided off for separate sale. The operation and all of its products had always been free of synthetic or added rbST hormone.

References

External links

*
Foster Farms website
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110208074153/http://fosterdairyfarms.com/ , date=2011-02-08 Dairy products companies in California Companies based in Humboldt County, California Agricultural marketing cooperatives Agriculture in California Agricultural cooperatives in the United States Cooperatives based in California

History

See also

References

External links