One of the most unheralded but important aspects of Natural Products Expo West are the trade show booths themselves.

Some companies put a tremendous amount of thought and effort into their booths, and I like to acknowledge those brands that go above and beyond what is generally expected.

As such, after each Natural Products Expo West, I give awards to my the best trade show booths. For me, the themes of this year’s winners were originality, artistic creativity, and interactive experiences.

Here are my best trade show booths from Natural Products Expo West 2017.

KASHI

What might very well be the most unusual but arguably the most compelling trade show booth I have ever seen was from Kashi.

Not only was there no traditional booth, but the company wasn’t even passing out samples of its food! Literally, it had absolutely no samples to give out, which is unheard of at a food trade show. Read more »

As I do after each Natural Products Expo West, I name my top 5 organic food products of the show.

This year, it was especially difficult to choose just five. Not only did this year’s Expo West have nearly 2,800 vendors, but the quality of products from organic food companies has never been better.

To get my full recap of Expo West and to learn about the key trends at this year’s show, be sure to sign up for a FREE trial of Organic Insider (no cost, no obligation, no credit card required) and I’ll send it over to you.

Here are My Top 5 Organic Food Products from Natural Products Expo West 2017.

NUTIVA’S ORGANIC MCT OIL

If you are familiar with MCT oil, popularized by the Bulletproof coffee craze, and are an organic food person, you are also aware that there has been no organic MCT oil on the market. Until now.
Read more »

New & Noteworthy in Organic is a monthly column that I officially launched today, and it will tell you about new and interesting organic products, drinks, restaurants, juice bars, books, events, and special promotions.

If you have something new and interesting that people should know about, please e-mail me.

(Suja’s drinking vinegars)

* The world’s leading pressed organic juice company has just launched 4 new flavors of its drinking vinegars –Ginger Turmeric, Lemongrass Lime, Grapefruit Jalapeño and Blueberry Lemon. However, what is fascinating about these new flavors is that Suja is using coconut vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar. Read more »

(Photo courtesy of Acosta)

Acosta, a sales and marketing organization for the food industry, recently published an interesting research report called Back to our Roots: The Rise of the Natural/Organic Shopper.

While it is common knowledge that the macro trends of the organic industry are very favorable and conventional supermarkets are embracing organic more than ever, the report takes a deeper look at the habits, motivation and preferences of organic shoppers. Read more »

(John Foraker, President of Annie’s)

At the 2015 Natural Products Expo East trade show in Baltimore, I was invited to a private dinner with a handful of other journalists, hosted by Annie’s and General Mills.

At the time, there was an incredible amount of acrimony between Big Food and the organic community, primarily over GMO-labeling. Most, if not all, of the major food companies had contributed hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to defeat GMO-labeling campaigns in various states throughout the country, and organic consumers were furious. Read more »

(Promotional video funded by the Beef Checkoff Board. We need something similar for organic.)

A few days ago, the USDA officially announced a proposed Organic Check-Off program, something that we have been hearing about for several years already.

Other industries have used a check-off program in the past, such as milk, beef, and pork, primarily to conduct national advertising campaigns and to fund research activities. Since 1966, Congress has authorized the establishment of 22 of these programs within the agricultural industry. Read more »

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 »