Clover Stornetta Inc.

Clover Stornetta Inc. is a dairy company located in Sonoma County, California, which is located near the coast in Northern California.

History

Clover Stornetta Inc. actually did not start out as Clover Stornetta, but was formed from two separate companies which later joined together. These two companies were the Petaluma Cooperative Creamery which distributed Clover Brand dairy products and Stornetta's Dairy.

The Petaluma Cooperative Creamery began distributing Clover Brand dairy products to homes and stores in the city of Petaluma in the early 1900s. Eventually the company started to expand and sell their products in Sonoma County and the neighboring Marin County. Both counties grew rapidly. Eventually the Clover brand products were being sold to almost every grocery store and home in the North Bay.

In the year 1975, the largest fire in Petaluma history occurred, causing some destruction to the dairy Co-op, destroying the processing and bottling operations along with the cooler. Yet, from the fire which caused the abandonment of Petaluma Cooperative Creamery, the birth of Clover Stornetta Inc. came, founded by Gene M. Benedetti.

In August of 1977, the owners of Clover Stornetta bought the wholesale distribution from the Co-op after deciding not to rebuild their co-op facility. Clover Stornetta also bought the Stornetta’s Dairy in the city of Sonoma. The owners of the Clover Stornetta decided to move their company back to the original city of location and moved the whole distribution back to Petaluma in 1984. In June of 1991, Clover Stornetta opened a brand new state-of-the-art milk processing facility in their current Petaluma business location. The Stornetta Dairy in Sonoma was Clover’s only bottling plant at the time. The equipment was antiquated and a large amount of the work had to be done manually. With the new automated plant run with computerized controls, Clover became able to do three times the volume of the former plant with the same amount of manpower.

Clover Stornetta introduced their North Coast Excellence program in 1995; a full third party certification was later added in 1999. "North Coast Excellence Certified" guarantees that all of the milk produced at the company’s plant came from only the best milk producers in the North Coast region and is produced by cows that are not treated with rBST (Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone). The milk is extensively tested at each processing stage in their on-site lab.

They currently have farms located in Sonoma County, Marin County, and Mendocino County, California. Drivers on Highway 1 will sometimes encounter cows from the dairy alongside the highway. As this is a narrow, windy road that hugs the coastline, in some cases the cows will be immediately adjacent to the road.

Clo the Cow

In 1969, the famous Clover Stornetta mascot, Clo the Cow, made her debut, appearing on billboards in the Redwood Empire, displaying her smile and with her play on words with famous sayings and lines from songs and poems. Every year, a numerous amount of new designs and play on words are designed for billboard advertising.

Awards

North Coast Excellence ProgramNorth Coast Excellence Program: Products Certified HealthyIndependent Auditor verifies Clover Stornetta has Cleanest Milk.North Coast Dairy Processor First in the Industry to Make Quality Assertions.

Free Farmed AwardIn September 2000, Clover Stornetta Farms was the first and only dairyin the United States to be awarded the Free Farmed label forhumanely produced animal products.

Founders of the New NorthwestClover Stornetta Farms was honored in 2003 when Sustainable Northwest, based in Portland, Oregon, named Clover as one of the recipients of the Founders of a New Northwest award. The mission of sustainable Northwest is to build partnerships that promote environmentally sound economic development in the communities of the Pacific Northwest.

HACCPClover Stornetta Farms was one of the first dairy in the United States to receive the HACCP certification.

ee also

*North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)

External links

* [http://cloverstornetta.com/ Clover Stornetta's official site]
* [http://www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pa_farm_animals_clover/ American Humane article about Clover Stornetta]