359: The Produce Entrepreneur Steve Brazeel on Produce Boxes, Regen Ag, and Much More

The Modern Acre

In 2000, Steve Brazeel founded SunTerra Produce, which has grown from a one-person produce brokerage firm into an industry-leading, full-service platform handling sales, marketing, farming, food safety, harvesting, storage, and distribution activities for specialty crop producers on over 5,000 acres throughout the US and Mexico.

Born out of SunTerra‘s participation in the USDA’s ground-breaking Farmers to Families Food Box program, Project FoodBox was launched in 2020. Since the program’s inception, the SunTerra/Project FoodBox teams have delivered over 55 Million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to families in need through its network of food banks and other non-profits.

Steve is also the Founder and CEO of Elevated Foods. Elevated Foods was founded with a vision to invigorate great brands and position them for sustainable long-term growth. In an industry facing increasing disruption, we see the opportunity to build a fresh produce company for a new age, one that brings together differentiated yet complementary brands and aims to make them stronger than they would be on their own. We’ve identified a common thread between our farms –the capacity to Elevate our food system. From land stewardship and nutritional quality to career development and community well-being, Elevated aims to increase the health of our planet and its people. In 2022, Elevated was awarded a $20,000,000 grant as part of USDA’s Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities program.

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This episode is presented by American AgCredit. Learn more HERE. Check out Matt Woolf's episode on the California ag market HERE.

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Links

• SunTerra - https://sunterraproduce.com
• Project Food Box - https://projectfoodbox.org
• Elevated Foods - https://www.elevatedfoods.com
• Steve on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevebrazeel/
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