Amway’s farming history

Amway’s farming history started with Nutrilite™ founder Carl Rehnborg more than 90 years ago. He insisted on controlling the growing process of plants used in his supplements from the seed through the final harvest, ensuring the soil was healthy and that no chemical-based herbicides or pesticides were used on the plants that went into his products.

Those sustainable farming practices remained a priority as the Nutrilite business grew and was acquired by Amway in 1972. Now Amway owns and operates nearly 6,000 acres of certified organic farmland in Mexico, Brazil and the U.S. state of Washington with a focus on sustainable and restorative farming practices such as crop rotation, cover cropping, sustainable orchard management, water conservation and reduced tillage.

Traceable, sustainable ingredient quality

Amway’s organic farms bring together Carl’s original farming principles with the best of modern, knowledge-intensive, organic farming practices; high-tech, satellite-guided equipment and a focus on traceability to ensure that its products are pure, safe and effective.

Traceability is the ability to follow the steps of a product’s creation from raw materials to finished product, verifying its safety and quality. It is a priority for Amway because the company believes that consumers have a right to know where their products come from and whether they are responsibly sourced.

It includes extensive documentation of each process. For products containing botanical ingredients from Amway farms or certified partner farms, traceability means going all the way back to the plot where the plant was grown and all the details of its nurturing, harvesting and processing.

Amway currently traces ingredients and product creation steps for its Nutrilite supplements as well as Artistry™ skin care, g&h™ body care and Glister™ oral care products. Having this kind of visibility throughout the vertical supply chain allows the company to enforce Amway sustainability, safety and quality standards.

NutriCert-certified partner farms

Part of choosing the best botanical ingredients is finding nature’s richest, purest source of those botanicals. Not all plants can flourish in the climates of Amway’s organic farms. In those cases, the company seeks out carefully selected partner farms.

Amway currently has partner farms in 27 different countries and on every continent except Antarctica. They are in environments as diverse as deserts, forests, glacial waters and algae farms and their harvests include cistanche, marigold, calcified seaweed, spirulina and many other high-quality sources of plant nutrients.

NutriCert™ is the exclusive certification program for those partner farms. It requires them to be traceable, ecologically sustainable and socially responsible. They must pass a third-party audit verifying that they meet NutriCert requirements for sustainable farming and traceability practices before they can become a partner farm.

For botanical ingredients, traceability is required down to the exact parcel of land where it was grown. Documentation guarantees the botanical variety and helps ensure that only non-GMO seeds are used. In the case of wildcrafting where botanicals are sustainably harvested from the wild, Amway asks partner farms to provide the exact GPS location of the harvest.

Each year, an Amway representative visits 30 to 50 partner farms during peak growing season, conducting audits to verify that they continue to meet the strict NutriCert certification standards. Holding partner farms to Amway’s own rigorous farming practices yields quality crops with maximum effectiveness. While some companies are satisfied that the manufacturer of their ingredient is following Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Amway’s NutriCert process requires more, going above and beyond to bring high quality ingredients to consumers.