We’re inspired by REAL FOOD, and the people that promote real food. Strange to say, but these days real food seems painfully exotic. That’s because for the last 50 years, as our food supply has gotten more and more industrialized, real food has gotten harder and harder to find, while grocery stores and restaurants fill up more and more with food-like products. We won’t name names, but many snack makers would fill your belly with things that sort of resemble food, but which really don’t belong in your body. We’re inspired by people who are getting the word out about our food system, people like Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Nina Planck, and a big shout out to Mark Bittman, who’s "How to Cook Everything" could teach a squirrel how to cook. Manufacturers that commit to producing simple, real products also inspire us, and every year, more entrepreneurs are stepping up to that challenge.

Farmers. Unfortunately, farmers are a rare breed in today’s society (according to the Department of Labor, farmers make up less than 2% of the work force). We’re lucky in that we work every day with the farmers that grow the fruit and nuts for our snacks. Farmers offer insight into a rich world full of soil, seeds, and sunlight. We’re delighted to deliver the fruits of labor of the farmers with whom we work to people all over the country.

We sell real food, but most people today are more accustomed to buying food-like products, and food-like products cost less than real food. For instance, a product that contains corn syrup will cost around half as much as a product of similar weight that uses real food like fruit or vegetables. Convincing people that they should eat real food instead of cheaper, more processed products takes a great deal of patience.

The day someone walked into our office and told us that they wanted to put Peeled Snacks in 5,000 stores, making healthy snacks available to millions more Americans. That’s happening this winter.

To go organic, or NOT to go organic. Organic is obviously important, though when we were deciding whether or not to go organic, we weren’t sure that people were willing to pay the extra cost for products just because they are grown more sustainably. Also, some of the farmers we work with told us that they have been doing things the same way for generations, and they weren’t about to change in order to get the organic certification. Luckily, since we made the decision to go organic, organic food has grown by leaps and bounds, making sustainable products more available to everyone and many of those farmers have benefited from it.

We’d like to see our snacks available EVERYWHERE that people need snacks, from drug stores to school cafeterias, from vending machines to major movie theater chains. So long as people continue to seek out real food options, we’ll get there.