Standard Process Dedicates New Addition Agri-View: Crop News

Nestled in the southeast corner of Jefferson County sits the small town of Palmyra, population 1,766, and a booming health supplement company, Standard Process.

Last Thursday, Standard Process, a manufacturer of nutritional whole food supplements from its own organic farm, dedicated its new 100,000 foot addition. The addition was built to accommodate robust sales growth. The company’s total corporate headquarters now has grown 63 percent to 260,000 square feet.

Dr. Royal Lee in Milwaukee started Standard Process in 1929 during the Great Depression. As a practicing dentist, Lee witnessed nutritional deficiencies in his patients’ teeth and concluded that the processing of food was having an effect on people’s health, says Charles DuBois, the company’s president and third generation to own the business.

Lee developed and manufactured Catalyn, the company’s first product that continues to be one of Standard Process’ best sellers. His manufacturing process to start with whole foods, concentrate them down, extract the nutrients and put them in pill form is still being used 78 years later.

In the ‘30s and ‘40s everything was organic. “Back then it’s just they way they did,” DuBois says.

Today, the company offers more than 300 products through three product lines, Standard Process whole food supplements, Standard Process Veterinary Formulas n mainly for cats and dogs, and MediHerb herbal supplements. Available only through health care professionals, chiropractors are their No. 1 supplier.

Standard Process sells over 1 million bottles of supplements a year nationwide. The basis for the supplements is the food raised on the Standard Process farm less than one mile from the manufacturing plant. Other ingredients, such as animal tissues and honey, are purchased.

“The whole thing starts with the farm,” DuBois says. “Everything happens here, from the beginning all the way through.”

This vertically integrated company believes there are great growth opportunities in the United States and has reinvested in its facilities.

Growth in the 1980s forced Standard Process to look for a new home. It outgrew its facilities in Milwaukee and Brookfield and found what it needed in Palmyra. The company moved there in 1987 and found support in both the industrial and farming communities.

“I’m really glad they came this far out,” DuBois said. “We’ll be here for awhile.”

The trend in healthier lifestyles is a contributing factor in Standard Process’ robust growth. While U.S. nutritional supplement sales grew 5.4 percent between 2005 and 2006, Standard Process’ sales increased more than 20 percent. Recently, Inc. Magazine named Standard Process one of the fastest growing privately held companies in America and reported 2006 company revenues of $77 million. The magazine also ranked Standard Process fifth in percentage of revenue growth among companies identified as manufacturers of supplements, topping this segment in revenues and number of employees.

The 100,000 square-foot expansion houses new production suites and additional warehouse, shipping and office space. Standard Process has more than 240 employees and plans to add 30 more over the next five years.

Among the numerous improvements in the expanded facility are a robotic palletizer that streamlines the packaging process and a fluid bed granulator that improves product consistency and quality. The facility also contains new production suites designed to help Standard Process attain even higher levels of quality and cleanliness.

In a ceremony attended by more than 300 customers and public officials Thursday, the building expansion was dedicated to the late Frank DuBois Sr., former president, Standard Process. Frank DuBois was the nephew of Dr. Royal Lee and the father of current president, Charles DuBois. Frank’s daughter, Mary DuBois-Wisniewski, serves as Vice President nAdministration, and his widow, Sylvia DuBois, serves as vice president. Frank and Sylvia’s oldest son, Frank, Jr., chose not to return to the family business.

"We dedicated the new addition to my father because of his passion for engineering and the well-being of the company’s employees,” said Charles DuBois.

Charles DuBois started working for Standard Process in 1983 as a hand weeder in a beet field. Six years later with a degree in electrical engineering he was hired full-time as a manager and learned about the manufacturing end of the business.

“I enjoy manufacturing and making the product,” he says.

In 1995, he purchased the company along with his sister and brother and took over as president.

Charles DuBois continued his father’s focus on employee well-being. In 1999, a fitness room was added for employees and their spouses. Available 24 hours a day, the fitness center is used by more than 80 percent of the company’s employees. There is also a personal trainer, chiropractor and nutritional consultant on site. To keep with the family-oriented tradition, Standard Process opened Vita Kids Learning Center, a subsidized learning center exclusively for employee’s children.

However, what makes Standard Process unique in the nutritional supplement industry is that it grows crops on company-owned, organically-certified farms.

The company grows over 20 different crops on 450 certified organic acres and is one of the largest organic vegetable producers in the state, says Christine Mason, farm manager.

This year they had 21 production goals. These are set in January after a review of consumer trends. They will produce 4,300,000 pounds to meet their goals and average five tons of produce per acre.

“It is a very competitive farm,” Mason says, comparing their organic yields to conventional methods.

The week of St. Patrick’s Day, about 40,000 plants are started in the greenhouse, including broccoli, kale and Brussel sprouts. The planting season continues until harvest starts with alfalfa in June. They plan to finish harvest with beets this week.

Work at the farm starts early in the morning to harvest crops while they are at their peak, says Mason. Most harvest is done by 8:30 a.m. and the rest of the day is devoted to processing the plants.

Almost three million pounds of vegetables and alfalfa are sent through the juicing room. They squeeze out everything but the fiber. The remaining 1.1 million pounds of waste are spread back on the fields for fertilizer and the juice is vacuum dried into powder.

A force air dryer flash dries roots, such as carrots and radishes, at very large volumes in less than one minute.

They have their own mill room where they make carrot and beet flour for the supplements.

Some plants are field dried, then milled to powder form as well.

They own all of their own equipment used from start to finish so everything is self-contained, helping to abide by organic standards.

They also keep their barley, wheat, kidney bean and sweet pea seeds for planting the following year. They do not use any genetically-modified seed as people are growing more and more concerned about GMOs, she says. What they don’t need the mill makes into powder.

As part of the whole food philosophy, they try to use the entire plant whenever possible. What can’t be used is left in the field as green manure.

Most of their organic fields are in one area and naturally buffered from conventional operations so they don’t have to worry about maintaining buffer strips.

Standard Process has been farming organically since 1929. When the government began to regulate it about seven years ago, Mason says, “we didn’t have to change or practices. I just have to fill out more paperwork.”

It wasn’t a challenge back in 1929 to be organic. It is amazing, however, that they company has stayed true to it all these years, she says.

The farm has a lot of equipment for its 21 different crops. They use a crop flamer and old Allis Chalmers cultivator to control weeds. “Every day, all day we fight weeds,” she says.

They also have tillage equipment to incorporate the green manure.

Every acre has a cover crop in the spring or fall strictly for fertilizer. Mason says she prefers using chickling vetch or clover. Regulations for animal manure are very strict in vegetable production so they just don’t use it and don’t have to worry about the holding interval.

Crimson clover is a popular cover crop used on the farm. The nitrogen from this plant is so high, they must wait two weeks after tilling before they can plant.

Chickling vetch likes to germinate at 40 degrees. Mason likes it because they can get it in the ground early and still plant oats there for the year.

Mason prefers using annuals as cover crops because the winter weather will kill any stray seedlings that could become weeds for the next crop. “Our winter kills most of the pests and diseases we fight,” she says.

The cover crops are only used to improve the soil. They are tilled back into the ground instead of harvested.

They do have a large irrigation pivot that covers 160 acres at a time, but they try not to use it. Mason says, “if you take the very best care of the soil as you can, the crops will take care of themselves.” She likes that the crops grow deeper roots to seek out what they need.

To fight insects, they implement a minimum five-year rotation and avoid placing similar-type crops in the same field in consecutive years. They also rotate legumes for nitrogen.

Six people manage the organic farm. In addition to the acreage, test beds are planted each year for use in the research and development division.

Standard Process also embraces the organic movement and has hosted events for farmers looking to transition or University educators to get a better understanding.