Be Mindful of Your Packaging Choices

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Maine. It wasn’t more than a week ago we had been greeted by the first snow flakes dancing about our yard, bringing a taste of what was to come. Then yesterday we had 60 degrees and bright sunshine, getting to see the last of the luxurious gold, fire red, and burnt orange leaves that were still clinging to their branches. I do love Maine in the fall.

We live on the ocean, too, so we get to have the wondrous waves of the Atlantic lapping at our feet, for the dogs to run in (but not swim… neither like to swim for some weird reason. Strangest labs in the world!). Every so often, however, we’re privy to ours and our neighbors choices for products they consume. It’s not often we see trash washed up on our shores here, but it does happen. We live in a small community, but near larger ones. Picture the rocky coastline of Maine spotted with quaint little towns, clapboard houses with sea-stained gray siding and bright white trim. Small country stores in one town, with Wal-Mart’s in the next. Strip malls, big malls, Home Depots and Lowes right next door to each other vying for customers of their competitors. Large businesses and small there to make our lives easier as consumers.

I know I’m as much a consumer as the next person. I make no excuses for needing to purchase things that come wrapped in plastic. Do I try to avoid it at all costs? Absolutely. Do I wish there was a better way? Of course. When you purchase our product, ALL of our packaging can be put back to the Earth and NOT in a landfill, or even worse, into our oceans. We encourage you to compost our bag and box, grow your own food, even if it’s just a potted tomato plant on your balcony of your apartment. Toss our bag into a fireplace/woodstove/bbq pit, and recycle our paperboard box. Whatever you do, just don’t throw it away. We made a conscious decision to rid our packaging of detriments to the environment.

What happens when you do use plastics and just toss them to the side of the road? Toss them into the trash? That lighter you use to light those cigarettes that damage not only yourself but our environment. That bottle of Coke that gave you a moment of enjoyment but seems to last forever on our Earth?

Beware, as this link I’m posting is graphic. I promised myself that I wouldn’t look at it just based on the description of it. But, I couldn’t neglect what is true, and neither can you. These pictures of birds were taken on an island that is 2,000 (two THOUSAND) miles from the nearest continent. Keep that in mind as you view what our packaging choices have on the environment. Not just packaging choices as consumers, but as manufacturers. Demand that the companies you purchase from find better ideas! Vote with your dollars. Buy a refillable lighter, use a stainless steel water bottle and make your own iced tea instead of buying Coke. Buy Barkwheats!

And now, the big show. From Chris Jordan.

New Looks Abound

It’s been quite some time since my last post, and things have been interesting around these parts during all that time. We’ve been in the process of redesigning our packaging and “brand”, which we’re extremely excited about. We’re working with an artist in Montana, Abby of www.folkdogart.com, to paint us some wonderful folk dogs on the most vibrant of backgrounds one could imagine!

These are the SeaVeg & Chamomile background, and the Blueberry & Lavender background.

So with all of these new designs comes some work with The SOAP Group in Portland to “be the megaphone for our voices” as the prez says. Be on the look out for our names and faces (hopefully more name than faces… ) as we gain the traction to keep climbing the trail we’re on.

And, one note about our blueberries… you’re going to have one lucky dog! By many accounts the berries from Moon Hill Farm are the best grown in Maine. They’re MOFGA Certified and I’ve put them against many other berries, and these are the sweetest blueberries I’ve ever put in my mouth! Mmmmm, so tasty! If you live near a Whole Foods around here (I think the Portland, Maine and the Boston ones) try and find them in the freezer. You won’t be sorry.

What do we do?

This week I had the absolute pleasure of presenting Barkwheats at a conference alongside other B Corps King Arthur Flour and Comet Skateboards, as well as one of the Co-Founders of B Lab, Bart Houlahan. At the beginning of the conference I really was struggling a bit with what exactly Barkwheats does. I know we make dog biscuits that are absolutely the best ones that a person could buy for their companion, but we really do so much more.

So, I talked to my girlfriend, expressing my emotional distaste with saying “we make dog biscuits” and we came back to the core of what we do. We work with small scale, diverse farms to purchase ingredients directly from the farmers who grow them, help support them to keep farming and to keep feeding their family. The farmers that we work with in Belize through our partnership with Sustainable Harvest International now have a market for one of their crops, which diversifies their income, helps to bring them and their communities out of poverty, and helps to further accomplish SHI’s mission of stopping rain forest devastation and rebuilding the lungs of our Earth. How we do that? We make dog biscuits.

Another thing I became much more aware of at this conference was the importance of collaborative efforts, and relationship building. The word “trust” was talked about often. Personal relationships are so important, and there are many, many people who’s closest friend is their dog. And when I say many, I mean… a lot around this country. It’s extremely important for our dogs to eat a proper diet and nutritious treats to let them live the long life they deserve, as all dogs really want to do is be a happiness provider to us. Why would someone want to give them something that would do harm to their health?

Dogs can bring joy into so many people’s lives, and we want to bring some more joy into their lives by providing a healthy, nutritious biscuit that we all can feel great about. We know people care about their food, and people don’t think they do, deep down I know they really do. Without food, we wouldn’t live. Without farmers, we wouldn’t have food. With Barkwheats, we can help keep these farmers doing what they do best… providing us and our companions with life.

Changing Times (Pt 2)

Phew! Finally, I have a moment to breath. Barkwheats has been growing, as I previously mentioned. We’re now being distributed through PPI, Pet Products, Inc, and are extremely excited to be working with them and their massive network of retail stores. We think Barkwheats will do very well for them. With this increase in activity, the current “facility” is just a bit too small to handle anything more. We continue to grow aside from the PPI distributorship, so we want to make sure things are moving forward with a new space to handle the increases we will continue to see in our business.

PLUS, we’ve been having tons of rain the past 2 weeks, and this morning was the first peek of sunshine I can remember since we came back from Belize (seems like that anyways). I think it’s been raining for like 12 of the last 15 days or something insane like that. With that rain brought about a basement flooding. And, as many of you know, we built our bakery in our basement. Quick drive to work, for sure, but just too small, and now that we’ve been flooded out (nothing major got ruined, as we put everything on pallets down there juuuuuust in case) we are taking this opportunity to really look into our growth options. Gotta keep your dogs well fed, right?

So onward and upward Barkwheats goes. We have a lot (and I mean a LOT) of exciting things coming down the pipe in the next few months, so be sure to stay tuned.

Here’s a video of a farmer we work with in Belize, Mariana Shol.