The Strawberry Strategy
Rootstock founder Julia Sunderland is building connections, community, and a better local food system
By Matthew Beebe
Long before Rootstock, Julia Sunderland was in the habit of spotting the best strawberries.
“As a kid, my family spent a lot of time hiking in the mountains of Switzerland,” she recalls. “A favorite memory is finding wild strawberries along the trail—carefully scrambling up steep climbs to reach the tiny, intensely flavorful gems.”
Sunderland enjoyed childhod family hikes and wild strawberry foraging.
That instinct for seeking out nature’s sweetest offerings eventually grew into something bigger: a vision for connecting people to healthy, local food while supporting the farmers and natural ecosystems that grow it.
In recent years, Sunderland has focused on the links between soil health, food quality, and ecological resilience. The global food system accounts for roughly 33% of climate emissions—including those from waste, methane, transportation, and processing.¹ Industrial agriculture, she notes, can accelerate land degradation and biodiversity loss. Ecological farming, by contrast, supports healthy soil, sequesters carbon, fosters biodiversity, and produces tastier, more nutrient-dense food.
She also saw how hard it is for sustainable growers to stay afloat. Traditional supply chains leave farmers with just a fraction of the retail price—often only 16 cents of every consumer dollar—making it difficult to reinvest in sustainable practices.²
Sunderland brings a rare blend of expertise: a background in supply chain technology, experience launching mission-driven ventures at Google, and a track record of managing highly functional operations and teams.
“Connecting growers and eaters in a smarter, more human way—that’s something I wanted to take on.”
“I think we can use tech to bring more efficiency and transparency to the food system,” Sunderland says. “Connecting growers and eaters in a smarter, more human way—that’s something I wanted to take on.”
With Rootstock, she’s applying her systems thinking to build a values-driven supply chain: one that pays farmers fairly, streamlines logistics, and delivers high-quality, peak-season produce directly to consumers. Rootstock manages customer acquisition, sales, marketing, logistics, and support—so farmers can focus on farming. But Rootstock also puts the farms up front, so their people and brands are known to the consumer.
Through direct sourcing, community programs, and educational events, Rootstock invites members to connect with nature, taste, nutrition, and a more resilient local food system.
“When we pay farmers fairly for differentiated produce, they can invest in their people, regenerative practices, equipment, and mentorship,” Sunderland explains. “Our members aren’t just buying berries—they’re supporting people who care for the land.”
“We’re planting something better for those who come after us,” she adds with a smile. “And we get to eat these spectacular berries.”
Picking up after Mum.
Sources:
1 ) Crippa, M., Solazzo, E., Guizzardi, D., et al. (2021). Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Nature Food. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00225-9
2) National Farmers Union. (2017). Farmers Receive Less Than Sixteen Cents of the American Food Dollar. Retrieved from https://nfu.org/2017/09/22/farmers-receive-less-than-sixteen-cents-of-the-american-food-dollar/
This story also appears in the May 22 edition of the Rootstock Gazette
