John Roulac, founder of Nutiva, the world’s leading organic brand of hemp, coconut, chia, and red palm superfoods, announced today that he is stepping down as CEO, a position he has held ever since founding the company in 1999.

Aside from being one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the organic industry, he is also one of the most longest tenured CEOs. So, his decision to pass the baton to CPG veteran Pankaj Talwar, who has held senior management roles at Goodman Fielder, Bimbo Bakeries and Procter & Gamble, and received his MBA from Harvard Business School, comes as a real surprise.

Under John’s leadership, Nutiva has certainly thrived, being named as one of Inc. magazine’s fastest-growing companies in America for seven years. Yet, his contributions extend far beyond bringing superfoods to supermarket shelves. Read more »

Well+Good, one of the country’s leading health & wellness websites and a personal favorite of mine, has just dipped its toes into the organic beverage market with the limited release of #99DaysofSummer, a fantastic and incredibly refreshing juice.

Launched in collaboration with New York City’s Juice Generation, this drink is being rolled out in conjunction with Well+Good’s summer editorial and social program, aptly named #99DaysofSummer. Read more »

(Co-Founders Jarrett McGovern and Grant Gyesky accepting their award at BevNET Live. Photo courtesy of Nathan Brescia/BevNET)

In all honesty, I am not a huge coffee drinker. So, when it comes to the up-and-coming trends in the coffee world, I am definitely not ahead of the curve.

Yet, when I was at BevNET Live recently and watched RISE Brewing Co. win the 13th Annual Beverage Showdown, it was clear that I was missing something. And I knew that I had to take a closer look.

After I did, I thought to myself that this could very well be the next big organic beverage success story to come out of New York City. Read more »

For the last few days here in New York City, I was attending the Fancy Food Show, one of my absolute favorite trade shows of the year.

What makes this show different from many of the others that I attend is the number of international exhibitors. This gives me the rare opportunity to discover organic products from abroad that I otherwise would not get to see. And two of my picks below are produced from countries outside of the U.S.

(If you’d like to get my full recap and analysis of Fancy Food Show, be sure to sign up for a free trial of Organic Insider – no cost, no obligation, no credit card required – and I will send it right over.)

Here are my Top 5 Organic Food Products from Fancy Food Show 2017.

HAVEN’S KITCHEN KALE WALNUT PESTO

Nearly every time I go to the refrigerated section of the supermarket, I go looking for an organic pesto sauce, knowing full well that I probably won’t find one. For some inexplicable reason, they barely exist.

So, when I saw that Haven’s Kitchen had introduced a kale walnut pesto – and an amazing one at that – I was beyond thrilled. Not only is it flavored perfectly and has great texture, but this product fills a massive void in the market.

Alison Cayne, owner of New York City’s Haven’s Kitchen and author of The Haven’s Kitchen Cooking School, has also rolled out a few other fantastic sauces, including an herby chimichurri and a red pepper romesco. Read more »

With Friday’s blockbuster news of Amazon buying Whole Foods Market for nearly $14 billion, I gave my own analysis on Organic Insider about how this would impact the organic food industry.

Yet, wanting to hear from the people who actually run organic food companies, I reached out to a handful of CEOs and founders, all of whom sell their products to Whole Foods, to see what they think of the deal.

It was important for me to get insight from CEOs and founders of small, medium and large organic brands since companies of varying size may view this acquisition in a different light. Read more »

Yesterday, in a blockbuster deal, Amazon agreed to purchase Whole Foods Market in an all-cash deal for $42 per share or nearly $14 billion.

While there is a tremendous amount of analysis about what Amazon’s plans will be for the stores and how this will forever change the overall grocery landscape, I took a different approach. Read more »

Each day, more and more news comes out about the harm that pesticides can do to our bodies.

This time, a report out of Europe says that pesticides can cause brain damage. Yes, brain damage. Read more »