• The New York Times, Thursday, July 15, 2010 10:57 AM

I get notified on Facebook every time a colleague of mine tills another opportunity in Farmville, a world populated by 20 million or so folks with virtual green thumbs. From next Monday through July 26, Elizabeth Olsen reports, those blueberries she plants will no longer be of the generic variety. They'll be organic offerings from General Mills' subsidiary Cascadian Farm.

"We're at a crossroads for the brand," says Cascadian Farm marketing manager Tim Goldsmid. "We're looking to get our message out in a bigger way, and we wanted a creative way to do that." He says that Allying with FarmVille will familiarize more people with why organic foods are different. "This is a great venue to have a discussion," he says.

It's not the first brand hookup for Zynga Game Network, the social network game's creator. It started a six-week partnership with 7-Eleven in June that allowed participants shopping at 7,000 stores to redeem codes found on Slurpees, Big Gulp drinks and other products for virtual goods on FarmVille and two other game sites.

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