Rincon-Vitova Insectaries, headquartered in Ventura, won the top prize for “fooding” from the Seattle-based Regenerative Business Alliance.

Recipients showed “a deep and extended scope of aspiration to pursue and achieve shifts in one or more industries, show transformation in a social system, work to unravel and evolve cultural paradigms, and leverage governing agreements to give them new life and meaning,” said Regenerative Business Alliance founder Carol Sanford.

A total of nine businesses throughout North and South America and Europe won prizes in seven categories, which will be presented Oct. 18 in Seattle, when the Global Honoree will be announced.

The Ventura company has produced and marketed beneficial insects as a means of pest control in agriculture since it was founded in the late 1950s. It also offers insect monitoring equipment, seed blends, soil inoculants and pesticides for organic growers.

Insects are diverse and require intense study at all life stages, said Jan Dietrick, co-owner of Rincon-Vitova, in a news release.

“Effective management strategies are multi-pronged and interrelated rather than silver bullets,” Dietrick said. “This might include particular cultural, mechanical, trapping or mating disruption technology, one or more beneficial insects attacking different life stages of the pest and possibly a botanical or microbial application as another line of defense.”

Warmer temperatures are also a driving factor in pest proliferation, Dietrick and co-owner Ron Whitehurst said, explaining the company’s efforts to fight climate change and promote regenerative agriculture. It also uses solar energy, composting and water conservation practices.

“To stay optimistic, I am learning how biologically based farming will pull CO2 out of the atmosphere,” Dietrick said. “But first, we have to get a federal carbon tax on the fossil fuels that are driving climate chaos and human suffering. Then, farmers will be able to regenerate the planet.”

• Contact Marissa Nall at mnall@pacbiztimes.com.