To achieve USDA organic certification, several standards must be met. The land needs to have been free of pesticides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers for three years prior to certification, and none of these may be used in growing organic crops. Also prohibited is the use of sewage sludge (commonly used as fertilizer), irradiation (which subjects crops to radiation), and genetic engineering (which injects the genes of one species into another).

Clearly, organic crops are superior — in terms of both environmental protection and human health — to their conventional counterparts. Therefore, Denali BioTechnologies Inc. is pleased to harvest our organic blueberries from a 58,000-acre area of land owned by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska. It is the largest parcel of certified-organic land in the world.

Yet this particular parcel, and all of the land from which we wild-harvest, goes above and beyond the requirements for organic certification. The land is completely unsullied. It has never been exposed to pesticides, not just in the past three years, but ever. It has never been cultivated. It is far removed from industry. And the harvests frequently take place hundreds of miles from any road system. As a result, what you get is Nature at its absolute cleanest and finest.