Our love story began when we first tasted an amazing black rice during our travels in China. It was called “tribute rice”, or “longevity rice” because it was reserved for Chinese Emperors to ensure their good health and long life. That story, then became our story.

In 1995, we began importing black rice, calling it Forbidden Rice® after the Forbidden City, the Chinese Imperial palace. Since then our goals have been high, but we’re proud to say we’ve stayed true to them along the way.

Little did we know that eventually we’d find ourselves trying to change how the world grows rice! We’ve built strong partnerships around the world to bring you the highest quality heirloom, organic rice, rice noodles and rice snacks. All while promoting organic agriculture, rice biodiversity and supporting producers.

We’re proud of the amazing products we’ve made, the many awards we’ve won and the people we’ve met and impacted. Watch the video below to learn more about what we do and why.

We believe that by pursuing smart product innovation, better growing practices, and delicious whole grain heirloom rice varieties we’ll lessen our environmental impact, improve nutrition for our consumers and create more social and economic justice for small farmers.

In 2008 we committed to partnering with small-scale farmers who radically changed how they grow rice, using less to produce more.  With a set of practices that we call More Crop Per Drop farmers can double and even triple their yields using up to 50% less water on average and 80-90% less seed. 

In 2016 we became a fully certified B Corp or benefit corporation. B corporations are legally obligated to consider the impact of their decisions on their employees, suppliers, community, consumers, and environment.  It’s our conviction that we can change the world for the better by how we conduct our business.