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.

* 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.

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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 »

(Hydroponic growing system – does this look “organic” to you?)

Please tell the NOSB to recommend that hydroponics be removed from organic. To do so, you can sign the Organic Consumers Association’s e-petition by clicking HERE.

Important: The deadline to act is 11:59pm tonight, so don’t delay.

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One of the most controversial aspects of organic is that hydroponically-grown vegetables are being allowed under the USDA’s National Organic Program.

Why is this a problem?

Organic was founded on the basis of growing plants in the soil. Period.

People buy organic because it tastes better, has superior nutrition, and is optimal for the environment. And this is all the result of the rich soil in organic farms. Read more »

With carbon dioxide readings exceeding 400 parts per million, a dangerous threshold that has not been breached in millions of years, the climate is warming at an alarming pace. This is causing, among many other things, sea levels to rise, the oceans to become more acidified and nutrient levels in plants to decrease.

Needless to say, organic food companies are tackling this problem aggressively. Read more »

After 30 years at The New York Times, Stephanie Strom recently resigned from the newspaper, having garnered the reputation as the most influential food business journalist in the country.

In this week’s Organic Insider, I interviewed Stephanie Strom and we discussed a variety of subjects, including:

– What food companies should NOT do when pitching to The New York Times

– Whether she dealt with editorial pressure to cover GMOs or organic in a certain way

– How the NYT’s view of GMOs and pesticides changed over the years

– The biggest challenges that the organic industry is facing right now

– How the organic industry can improve, from a PR perspective

To read my full interview with Stephanie Strom, just sign up for a free trial of Organic Insider (no credit card required), and I will send it right over to you.

Wishing you a great day!
Max

For quite a while, I had been hearing all about the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity, Maine and decided to finally make the trip up north last week to see what the enthusiasm was all about.

Needless to say, the event exceeded all of my expectations, and it proved to be a truly special weekend. Not only is it rare that you can go to an event of this size and be able to eat organic food all day (there are no organic meal options at Expo West or Expo East), but you are surrounded by thousands of people who are also deeply committed to this way of life. Read more »