Back to the Roots

Back to the Roots is an Oakland, California based company founded in 2009 by two UC Berkeley seniors, Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora, who gave up corporate jobs to become urban mushroom farmers. Since that time, Back to the Roots has evolved from a single product to a thriving business dedicated to the disruptive proposition of "undoing food" through the creation of innovative products that inspire curiosity and reconnect families to their food.

Our first product was the Mushroom Kit that allowed anyone to grow fresh, organic mushrooms right out of a little brown box in just ten days. We next developed and pioneered the WaterGarden, a self-cleaning fish tank that grows food. Our products are across sold in thousands of locations categories including Whole Foods, Costco, Nordstrom, The Home Depot, Safeway, Kroger, and many other fine retail locations nationwide. Back to the Roots was a Martha Stewart American Made Awards winner and named as one of Forbes 25 Most Innovative Consumer Brands.

Back to the Roots is now working towards re-defining the "future of food" - one that is all about the "undoing of food" back to its simplest ingredients and least processed versions. How do we create and promote food that is made in a kitchen not a lab, and reconnect families back to their food? Our R&D team isn't biochemists and food scientists, it's our grandparents! We think there's a powerful movement that's just starting up around simplicity and un-doing. It is our vision that what "organic brands" were for baby-boomers, radically transparent and simple brands will be for millennials and our kids. Food is the most personal thing there is - it's what we put into our bodies 3x a day - and yet we're so disconnected from it and have so much trust around "new invented foods". We know what works, simple, real food and ingredients - we want to inspire a whole new generation to get excited about that!