One of the major challenges that organic farmers face is the transition period in switching from a conventional farm to a certified organic farm. Under current USDA rules, the soil on a farm needs to be verified by an organic certifier that it has not been sprayed with toxic pesticides for the previous 36 months.

This presents a serious financial hurdle for farmers because they are essentially being asked to farm organically yet must sell their products in the marketplace at conventional prices for three years.

An excellent new program called the National Certified Transitional Program (NCTP), developed by the Organic Trade Association (OTA) and in partnership with the USDA, is seeking to make this transition period less burdensome for farmers, with the goal of getting more of them to switch to organic. Read more »

As I do at the beginning of each January, I give my top 5 organic food trends for the new year, predicting what I think will be popular with consumers and in the marketplace.

These organic food trends are centered around the themes of food as medicine, convenience and authenticity, and some are poised for a very significant year.

Here are my Top 5 Organic Food Trends for 2017.

SMALLER SIZES

Have you ever gone into the store and said “I’d really like some of those nuts but don’t feel like spending $9 on that bag? I just want a handful of them right now.”

If so, you are certainly not alone. And organic food and juice companies have definitely been listening. Read more »

As 2016 comes to a close, many of us are strategizing, planning and visualizing how we would like 2017 to unfold. More specifically, we are giving serious thought about what we want to accomplish, how we want to be better and what kind of impact we want to have on the world.

With this in mind, I have been blown away by two things over the past few weeks that I’d like to share with you. And in my view, these are two absolute must-listen and must-read pieces of information.

LEWIS HOWES’ INTERVIEW WITH JOHN ASSARAF

My friend Lewis Howes has one of the most popular podcasts on the planet – The School of Greatness – and he has interviewed some incredibly accomplished and successful people, ranging from Tony Robbins to Scooter Braun to NFL great Ray Lewis.

Yet out of the 400+ podcasts he has done, it was his very recent one with John Assaraf that impacted me the most.

Not only was it one of the best podcasts that Lewis has done, but it was one of the most impactful podcasts that I have ever listened to. How good was it?

I cannot remember ever listening to a podcast multiple times and taking notes throughout the entire interview. Furthermore, I plan on replaying it at least once a month just for the reminders. Read more »

The U.S. government approved GMOs under the premise that they were “substantially equivalent” to Non-GMOs, which means that they are compositionally the same as Non-GMOs, in terms of safety and nutritional profile.

More than anything, however, this substantial equivalence term was a way for Big Seed companies to get their products to market quickly without any long-term safety studies or scientific scrutiny. This was corporate influence and manipulation over the regulatory process at its finest. Read more »

The Pew Research Center recently released its findings from a new report called The New Food Fights: U.S. Public Divides Over Food Science, which largely focused on Americans’ perceptions of organic and genetically-modified foods (GMOs).

It surveyed 1,500 nationally representative adults (whatever that means), and I found the data to be both encouraging and worrisome. Read more »

Here are some of my best healthy gift ideas. Enjoy!

THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION FROM SAKARA LIFE

My friends at Sakara Life, the amazing plant-based organic meal delivery service, have put together The Ultimate Collection from their Clean Boutique.

Not only are you getting a wide array of Saraka Life’s most delicious products, but they are packed with “functional ingredients,” which go beyond nutritional science to also encompass the best of traditional medicine, folk remedies and spiritual healing.

Read more »

Serial entrepreneur Sheryl O’Loughlin has just come out with a phenomenal new book called Killing It: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Head Without Losing Your Heart, and it should be at the top of the reading list for all founders of organic food companies, regardless of whether you’re in start-up mode or well on your way to generating $100 million in revenues.

Aside from the fact that Sheryl O’Loughlin has some serious street cred in the organic food industry – CEO of Clif Bar, Co-Founder of Plum Organics and now CEO of REBBL – and has plenty of experience to draw upon as an entrepreneur, this book focuses on the most important aspect of building a company that rarely gets discussed – the human element.

While strategy, branding, operations, and interfacing with customers are critical components of running a company, Sheryl has us look at the human emotions of being an entrepreneur and how it can be enthralling, debilitating and rewarding all at once.

Love, communication, support, honesty, presence, curiosity, self-reflection and radical self-acceptance must all be a part of the business journey. Yet, so many of us get caught up in the grind thinking that start-ups are nothing more than 16-hour days, rushing from to meeting to meeting, and pitching to investors. As a result, our health suffers and our companies do not thrive. Read more »