Every Tuesday at 8pm EST, we host an organic-related conversation on Clubhouse (be sure to follow @organicinsider and @gregfleishman).

In last night’s room, New Hope’s Carlotta Mast and Elliot Howell took questions and gave us some information about this year’s Expo West Virtual Week and Expo East in Philadelphia.

Below are the highlights from the discussion.

EXPO WEST VIRTUAL WEEK, MAY 24-27

Expo West Virtual Week will be focused on product discovery and fostering connection between the exhibiting brands, retail buyers and the press and influencers. One-on-one networking, community breakout rooms, online concierge services and other digital tools will be available to support audience engagement and deepen community relationships. Read more »

Dr. Bronner’s, the beloved soap brand that donates 8.6% of its revenues to social and environmental causes, has released a limited-edition, cannabis-scented fragrance of its classic bar soap to support a new consumer education and crowdfunding campaign for Sun+Earth Certified.

Founded by the International Cannabis Farmers Association, Cannabis Conservancy and Certified Kind, along with deep support from Dr. Bronner’s, Sun+Earth is a program inspired by and aligned with the Regenerative Organic Certification standard but tailored to the way cannabis is grown and produced. Read more »

When you mention the name REBBL to most people, the first thing that usually pops up is their favorite flavor of the company’s adaptogenic coconut elixirs.

After all, these drinks are incredibly delicious and nutritious. And addictive.

Yet, when you dig deeper and peel back the layers of this brand, a very inspirational story emerges. Read more »

If you haven’t noticed by now, organic is under constant attack in the media for one simple reason — healthy, organic food has become a serious threat to the business model of Big Ag and their chemical-laden GMOs.

That is why you will see pieces such as the recent Wall Street Journal op-ed The Organic Industry is Lying to You  and The Boston Globe’s article on agriculture which tells you to “learn to love” GMOs.

While critics will often say that organic is a waste of money and that the nutritional differences between organic and conventional are negligible, here are three reasons why you should completely dismiss their words — glyphosate, atrazine and chlorpyrifos. Read more »

(All images courtesy of the USDA)

To me, it is incredibly suspicious that after a mere two weeks of the DARK Act passing, a new “negative claim” GMO label was just put forth by the USDA. And who is going to benefit the most from it?

Big Food, of course. Read more »

(To follow my day-to-day organic food adventures, please be sure to add me on Snapchat: maxorganic)

Last week in New York City, I attended the Fancy Food Show 2016, one of the best food shows of the year.

While it is not an organic food show per se, there is an increasing amount of organic vendors and I would estimate that about 15-20% of the booths there do offer some type of organic product.  Read more »

Following in the footsteps of Campbell’s Soup, General Mills has just announced that it will label all GMOs in its products.

In its press release, the company says that with Vermont’s GMO-labeling bill going into effect on July 1st, it wouldn’t make sense to label GMOs in its products just for that state. So, whatever GMO-labeling requirements that Vermont will mandate, General Mills will put those same labels on its products for every state in the country. Read more »