Windset Farms Marks 10 Years of Collaboration, Safety and Growth with EFI Certification

Equitable Food Initiative, the capacity-building and certification organization that partners with growers, farmworkers and retailers, announced today that Windset Farms is celebrating its 10th anniversary as an EFI-certified operation. Marking this milestone recognizes all the changes and accomplishments that have strengthened the workforce, enhanced operational efficiency and elevated its reputation for responsible agriculture.

Since first achieving certification in 2015, Windset Farms has demonstrated consistent leadership in labor practices, food safety and pest management. With significant data meticulously collected by Windset Farms’ teams and EFI audits, the greenhouse grower can prove that EFI’s worker-manager collaboration model has been integrated into every part of the operations, creating lasting cultural change and boosting operational excellence. The results speak for themselves:

• $5.5 million in bonuses distributed to farmworkers since 2017
• 98 percent seasonal workers come back each year
• 70-plus workers trained in communication, conflict resolution and problem-solving through the EFI program
• Safety upgrades, including 10 certified first aiders, improved equipment training and multilingual safety materials and training in English, Spanish and Punjabi
• Quality-of-life improvements such as better drinking water access and responsive problem-solving through the worker-manager collaboration teams
• Streamlined qualification for the Certificate of Recognition, a voluntary program audited and approved by WorkSafeBC to ensure excellent health and safety standards.

“Social responsibility allows the workers in our greenhouse to have ownership, to be part of the team,” said Jeff Madu, SVP of Operations at Windset Farms. “EFI allows them to have a voice back to management. If there’s an issue or something they don’t like in their workplace, they can access the worker-manager collaborative teams to make sure their voice is heard.”

“Over the past decade, Windset Farms has consistently stood at the top of the class for meeting our rigorous standards,” said LeAnne Ruzzamenti, director of marketing and communications for EFI. “Their high rate of compliance during audits is truly a testament to their commitment to excellence, and they set a high bar for all EFI-certified farms.”

Windset Farms has also leveraged EFI to increase transparency and safety by encouraging full incident reporting, including minor issues. This shift has created a safer workplace, reduced worker injuries, led to fewer missed workdays, lowered turnover and improved morale. By sharing best practices across multiple sites, the company has accelerated the adoption of proven solutions even before new sites undergo certification.

For Operations Manager Tony Pacheco, who is responsible for the health and safety of more than 300 workers at Windset Farms’ Delta greenhouse, EFI’s training has been a game changer. It transformed a traditional safety committee into a worker-manager collaboration team, which includes workers from across all departments of the organization and allows workers and managers to dissect issues together, create solutions and track results.

One project that stands out was about improving access to drinking water in the greenhouse. Workers raised the issue through the worker-manager collaboration team, noting they had to leave the greenhouse to hydrate. The team worked through every challenge, from sourcing the fountains to running electricity, water lines and drainage and placing them where they wouldn’t interfere with existing equipment and work processes. Workers were informed of the budget, timeline and process at every step so that they knew their request was being acted on and which turned a simple idea into a shared success.

“These projects sound so simple in nature, but they are never easy to implement,” Pacheco said. “The key is that EFI’s approach involves everyone in the process. People know why it’s taking time and they see their ideas turn into reality.”

Windset Farms’ commitment to EFI goes beyond its own operations; it extends to industrywide sustainability leadership. Starting in 2021, Windset Farms partnered with EFI and sustainability expert Measure to Improve on the Produce & Reduce Program, a pilot funded by the California Workforce Development Board’s High Road Training Partnerships initiative.

At Windset Farms and two other pilot farming operations, 50 Green Team members were trained and more than 2,500 indirect trainees were reached through the program, empowering them to identify waste reduction opportunities, conduct physical waste audits and implement custom plans. At Windset Farms, specifically, these efforts resulted in:

• Increasing the amount of recycled corrugated cardboard from 256 tons to 314 tons in one year.
• Diverting more than 1,300 pounds of recyclable materials from the landfill.
• Ensuring organic waste bins were filled to capacity to reduce the number of truck trips to the composting site.
• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 17 metric tons of CO₂e.
• Generated financial savings through recycling and waste reduction initiatives.

“Every single company should get started on these types of environmentally focused initiatives,” Madu said after the waste reduction pilot program. “There are financial savings along with positive environmental impacts – and our teams are proud to be part of the solution.”

Operating in Delta, BC and Santa Maria, CA, Windset Farms has grown into one of North America’s largest sustainable produce suppliers, providing long English cucumbers, mini cucumbers, European cucumbers, mini peppers, Roma tomatoes, round tomatoes, small tomatoes, vine tomatoes, peppers and cherry tomatoes to consumers year-round.

“This is the first company I’ve worked for that truly listens to and takes care of its employees,” said Socorro Mendoza, packhouse worker at Windset Farms. “Our voices matter here, and that makes all the difference.”

With consistently high EFI audit scores for an entire decade, Windset Farms stands as a model for how responsible agriculture benefits workers, businesses, communities and the planet. Explore Windset Farms’ 10-year EFI journey, including worker stories, project photos and sustainability highlights here.