Clover Sonoma

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Clover Sonoma

Type	Privately held
Industry	Dairy
Founded	1916; 105 years ago (1916)
Founder	Gene Benedetti
Headquarters	Petaluma, California , United States
Area served	California
Products	Milk, yogurt, ice cream, dairy products
Website	cloversonoma.com

Clover Sonoma, formerly Clover Stornetta Farms (and also Clover Organic Farms or simply, Clover) is a dairy company located in Sonoma County, California, along the Pacific coast in Northern California. It is a brand that has existed since the early 1900s, when the Petaluma Cooperative Creamery served the city of Petaluma. In 1977, Clover Stornetta Farms, Inc. was formed from the joining of two separate companies: Stornetta's Dairy and the Petaluma Cooperative Creamery (which distributed Clover brand dairy products). Clover Sonoma currently has farms in Sonoma County, Marin County, and Mendocino County, California.

History[]

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 sold their products throughout Sonoma County and Marin County. The population of both counties grew rapidly and eventually "Clover" brand products were being sold to almost every grocery store in the four counties of the North Bay, but, in 1975, the largest fire in Petaluma's history occurred, causing some destruction to the dairy cooperative, destroying the processing and bottling line along with the cooler.

In August 1977, the owners of Clover bought the wholesale distribution from the co-op after deciding not to rebuild their own co-op facility. Clover also bought the Stornetta Dairy in the city of Sonoma. In 1984, the owners of Clover Stornetta decided to move their company and the whole distribution back to the company's original city of Petaluma. In June 1991, Clover Stornetta opened a new milk processing facility at their current location in Petaluma. (The Stornetta Dairy in Sonoma was Clover's only bottling plant at the time.) The equipment in Sonoma had been antiquated and a large amount of the work had had to be done manually. With the new automated plant run by computerized controls, Clover became able to triple the output of the former plant with the same amount of manpower.

Clover Sonoma introduced their "Clover Promise of Excellence" program in 1994 (as the North Coast Excellence Certified program) and a full third-party certification was added in 1999. Clover Promise of Excellence guarantees that Clover Sonoma's milk is produced by cows that were not treated with artificial growth hormones.

In 2016, Clover Sonoma became a Certified B Corporation and attained a 96.9 score. In 2020, Clover Sonoma announced its B Corporation recertification. Each year as part of its B Corp Certification, Clover Sonoma delivers an Impact Report which highlights its goals and progress.

In 2017, the company rebranded itself as Clover Sonoma.

Clo the Cow[]

In 1969, Clo the Cow made her debut as the Clover Stornetta mascot when she started appearing on billboards. Every year, numerous designs and a variety of wordplay are designed for billboard advertising.^[1]

Sustainability[]

Clover Sonoma was one of the first dairies to eliminate the use of growth hormones, and the first U.S. dairy to be named American Humane Certified.^[2]

All Clover Sonoma dairies recycle 100% of their manure production, either using it on the farm as fertilizer or other capacities, or providing it to local organic farms. Clover Sonoma's dairy sustainability efforts also include rotational grazing, fresh water recycling and crop rotation. All of Clover Sonoma organic dairies perform rotational grazing to protect soils, crop vigor, and biodiversity. Clean water used for cooling is later diverted to the animal drinking water system. Pastures are seeded annually, adjusting the blend of grasses to maintain diversity and high soil quality.

References[]