Ken LaGrande is the founder of LaGrande Family Foods Group, a leading provider of food products and processes.
In 1851 the LaGrande family moved to the Sacramento Valley, where they run their fifth-generation family farm. Among other things they grow, dry, mill and market rice. Their businesses include:
- Sun Valley Rice
- Planet Rice
- Valley Select
- Foothill Warehouse
Planet Rice was recently voted “best whole grain” for Delicious Living Magazine’s Best Bite Award.
Ken is a longtime activist for California water issues and the former chairman of the board for the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority, the water service provider to over 130,000 acres of irrigated agriculture in the Sacramento Valley. Ken is also the former chairman of the Sites Project Authority, a public agency whose mission is to promote the development of off-stream storage reservoirs in Northern California.
Planet Rice was recently voted “best whole grain” for Delicious Living Magazine’s Best Bite Award.
In addition, Ken is a member of the board of the USA Rice Millers Association and Delta Water Fowl, an organization dedicated to the conservation of duck habitat in North America. Ken is also an active member of YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization), the world’s premier peer network of chief executives and business leaders.
Ken is the author of A Rice Conversation. He graduated from Santa Clara University with a bachelor’s degree in finance. Ken and his wife, Julie, grow rice and run a cow-calf operation.
