Each year when the Environmental Working Group (EWG) releases its “Dirty Dozen”  – the 12 most pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables that people should avoid – the major pesticide companies and their front groups launch a major PR campaign demanding that EWG stop publishing these annual lists, insisting that chemicals are not harmful.

The organic industry and health advocates completely scoff at these ridiculous claims. Furthermore, the State of California has declared that glyphosate, the most widely used chemical in the world and one that is routinely sprayed on our food supply, causes cancer.

And now we have a new report out of Harvard which reinforces the notion that pesticides can cause real harm, particularly for women. Read more »

Despite the fact that the organic food industry continues to experience rapid growth, operating in the sector today may be more difficult and complex than ever.

This is because tremendous structural shifts in the industry have been taking place, which has forced companies to continually readjust how they are approaching the market.

I recently caught up with Tyler Lowell, Managing Partner at C.A. Fortune, one of the country’s leading full-service consumer products sales and marketing agencies, to get his take on the state of the industry and how organic food companies can best position themselves moving forward.

What has been the driving force in the sales and distribution landscape over the past few years?

One of the prevailing trends in the industry today is consolidation, and this has had a dramatic impact on how companies are approaching their sales and marketing initiatives.

Whether it’s large food conglomerates (General Mills, Conagra, Campbell’s, Hormel, Unilever, etc.) acquiring innovative, trend-forward organic brands, retailers joining forces (Albertsons/Safeway, Amazon/Whole Foods, Kroger/Mariano’s, etc.), national distributors narrowing in on regional players (KeHE/Monterrey, UNFI/Haddon House), or agencies (our space) seeking to build out their territory platform, each sector of the industry is applying keen focus on strategic moves that will position themselves well into the future. Companies cannot afford to be left behind. Read more »

One of the most important aspects of building an organic food brand is developing effective packaging.

What the box, bottle, bowl, bag, wrapper or pouch looks like and feels like plays a critical role in building brand loyalty, and organic companies should never underestimate just how attached consumers become to a brand’s packaging.

Wanting to get some expert insight on this subject, I spoke with Becky Nelson, partner at Bex Brands, one of the industry’s leading packaging and design firms. Its current roster list includes Suja, Foodstirs, Once Upon a Farm, Temple Turmeric, Big Tree Farms, Back to the Roots, Bonafide Provisions, and Chameleon Cold-Brew, among many others. Read more »

With his New York Times best seller The School of Greatness and his Top 50 podcast of the same name, there is no question that Lewis Howes has had a major impact on the lives of millions of people around the world.

However, it is his brand new book, The Mask of Masculinity, that I believe to be his most important piece of work yet.

In The Mask of Masculinity, he urges men to release the one, or many, of numerous masks that they may be wearing. As he points out, embracing vulnerability is critical to creating strong relationships and to living a fulfilling life.

I recently caught up with my friend and had many questions for him about the book.

On your podcast and in your NYT best-selling book The School of Greatness, the main themes are success, achievement and excellence. How does The Mask of Masculinity fit into those themes?

I was always motivated to chase success through my achievements. But I kept coming up feeling empty when I would accomplish something big, like getting on the NYT best-seller list. I realized it was because I was not at peace with who I was and how I was showing up as a man in my relationships. That’s what motivated me to dive into this topic and to understand what I had locked up inside of me, and it’s been one of my most powerful achievements to date. Read more »

I first learned about guayusa tea and met fellow Brown University alum and Runa co-founder Tyler Gage at NYC’s Fancy Food Show 2010. 

Over the years, I  have watched the company grow from a scrappy start-up into a multi-million dollar innovator in the tea category, responsible for introducing guayusa to the global market. Yet, it wasn’t until I read Tyler Gage’s excellent book Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life did I come to appreciate what an awe-inspiring feat that he and his co-founder Dan MaCombie accomplished.

To build a guayusa supply chain from scratch in the middle of the jungle in Ecuador, where you know no one, have very little resources and are not a native speaker, is one of the most impressive things I have seen in my eight years of covering the organic food industry. Creating and growing a successful organic business is hard enough but to do it under these conditions takes the meaning of ‘difficult’ to a whole new level.

I recently caught up with Tyler Gage to talk to him about Fully Alive and asked him to share his insight about being an organic food entrepreneur. Read more »

(The San Francisco Skyline, filled with smoke and smog from the fires in Northern California. Photo courtesy of AP/Eric Risberg)

PLEASE SHARE THIS POST WITH ANYONE WHO LIVES IN SAN FRANCISCO OR NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. IT IS OF CRITICAL IMPORTANCE TO THEIR HEALTH.

FOR THE NEXT FIVE DAYS, I HAVE NOTIFIED THE COMPANY THAT I WILL WAIVE ALL OF MY AFFILIATE FEES GENERATED FROM THE SALES OF ANY INTELLIPURE MACHINE. I WANT PEOPLE TO HAVE THE BEST AIR PURIFICATION MACHINE ON THE MARKET TO DEAL WITH THIS SERIOUS HEALTH ISSUE.

* Because of the fires in Northern California, there are “unprecedented levels of smoke and particles in the air.”

* Officials warned that very fine smoke particles, thinner than a human hair, can get lodged in the lungs and into the bloodstream, causing “irreparable damage to the body.”

* Yesterday, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said that “air quality throughout the Bay Area could be impacted for many days to come” and that “outside of the active fire areas, air quality will be variable and unpredictable.”

* Intellipure machines are 40x more efficient than the standard HEPA air machines.

* The patented DFS kill zone technology is proven to remove 99.99% of all harmful particles as small as .007 micron in size.

* Each unit is made, assembled and tested in the U.S. — upstate New York.

* Use the code LIVINGMAXWELL to get 10% off your machine.

____

The fires in Northern California have not only caused dozens of deaths and massive destruction of both communities and farmland, but they have created a situation with the air quality that it has become incredibly toxic and dangerous.

According to Ralph Borrmann, a spokesman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, there have been “unprecedented levels of smoke and particles in the air” and “the worst air quality ever recorded in many parts of the Bay Area.”

Furthermore, officials warned that very fine smoke particles, thinner than a human hair, can get lodged in the lungs and into the bloodstream, causing irreparable damage to the body.

For people living and working in Northern California, addressing the air quality in their homes and offices MUST be a priority. Read more »

On Wednesday, I wrote about the very controversial issue of hydroponics in organic and how allowing it to be certified as organic is a complete violation of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990.

This issue is so problematic that some of the organic industry’s leading companies have jumped into the debate and asked the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), which is meeting at the end of this month, to recommend that hydroponics be removed from organic immediately. Read more »