Living Maxwell
Company Stories
Last week, I was in New York City to attend two fantastic trade shows — 2024 Summer Fancy Food Show and Good Food Mercantile.
Whenever I go to these shows, I always come across some outstanding organic products, and this year was no exception.
Here are my Top 10 Organic Products of the 2024 Summer Fancy Food Show and Good Food Mercantile.
Living Maxwell
Company Stories
For those of us who are fans of Dr. Bronner’s, the company’s products have a constant presence in our households, and we use them to clean our bodies and physical surroundings on a daily basis.
While this is unquestionably a critical component of our lives and imperative to maintain good health, cleaning transcends removing whatever is on our skin, on our clothes or on our kitchen countertops. It also affects our emotional well-being and directly impacts how we show up in the world.
And this is precisely why Lisa Bronner’s Soap & Soul: A Practical Guide to Minding Your Home, Your Body and Your Spirit with Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps spoke to me so much, as it squarely touches on the importance of cleaning both the tangible and intangible — an essential formula for a meaningful life.
Living Maxwell
Company Stories
For as long as I have been covering the organic food industry, I have attended Natural Products Expo East, with my first show in Boston in 2009.
So, it is very bittersweet to report that after last week’s show in Philadelphia, there will be no more Expo East moving forward. New Hope, the organizer of the event, has decided to launch something new in 2024 called Newtopia Now.
Living Maxwell
Better Choices
If you are looking for organic fish in the U.S., you will not find it. Why?
Because there is no such a thing as USDA certified organic fish, as national organic standards for fish have not yet been approved.
That being said, some fish are certainly better to eat than others, and Food & Water Watch recently released its Smart Seafood Guide.
The Smart Seafood Guide gives an excellent analysis of over 100 different fish, provides regional guides, and offers helpful suggestions so that consumers can make the healthiest and most sustainable choices possible.
A message from E3Live
The best testimonial that I can give is that I drink this every single day, as it impacts my mood in an incredibly positive way.
E3Live + BrainON is certified organic, fresh-frozen AFA (Aphanizomenon flos-aquae) with a concentrated, aqueous, organic extract of Phenylethylamine and Phycocyanin.
Living Maxwell
Personal
I got a call at about 8AM this morning from my good friend Karl, who lives in Miami.
It was very surprising to hear from him at that hour because we normally talk late at night. However, he had some interesting news to share – my Fox News Channel interview had made The Colbert Report.
Colbert reported on the loss of I-522, the GMO-labeling initiative in Washington State, and took serious aim at GMOs and the GMO-companies who are fighting against labeling.
Living Maxwell
Better Choices
Last April, I was in Denver attending the National Organic Standards Board meeting and went to dinner one night at True Food Kitchen.
Sitting at a community table, I struck up a conversation with a woman across from me and she proceeded to tell me that she had recently switched to a vegan diet.
“So, do you know Dr. Joel Kahn? The cardiologist from Detroit,” I asked.
Given that the plant-based world is a tight community and that Dr. Kahn is a social media star, I had a feeling that she might have known him.
“Do I know Dr. Kahn?” she responded with her face completely lit up. “He’s the reason I am a vegan today! Everything he talks about online and in his books convinced me to go plant-based!”
With the release of his excellent new book The Plant-Based Solution, Dr. Joel Kahn is looking to make a similar impact on many more people.
I recently caught up with my friend, and here is what he had to say.
Living Maxwell
Better Choices
For many people, switching to an all-organic diet is simply not practical or possible. And I completely understand this.
So, if a person can’t keep an entirely organic household, what organic foods should they buy?
My Top 3 Most Important Foods to Eat Organic
1) MILK If you have kids, organic milk should be the absolute number one priority for the entire household. Do whatever you need to do to make sure that the children are drinking organic milk.
Living Maxwell
Better Choices
As you may have already realized, CBD (short for cannabidiol — a cannabis compound) is exploding in popularity and is showing up in an increasing number of food, beverage and personal care products.
Despite the explosion of CBD oils and CBD-infused drinks, almost all of these products do not contain the USDA organic seal.
Boulder-based RE Botanicals has bucked this trend and has become the first national CBD brand to receive USDA organic certification for U.S.-grown hemp. Given who is behind RE Botanicals, the fact that it has achieved this milestone should not come as a surprise at all.
Living Maxwell
Better Choices
If you ever go to a talk by Dr. Brian Clement, founder of the Hippocrates Health Institute and the person in this video discussing the merits of Green Juice vs. Green Smoothies, you can be guaranteed to hear this: eat and juice sprouts.
The reason that he is saying this is because sprouts have incredibly important health properties. They have very high levels of nutrients and enzymes, which provide the body valuable energy to detox and strengthen the immune system.
According to the Hippocrates Health Institute, the other key benefits of sprouts include:
Living Maxwell
Company Stories
(The brain trust of Christie & Co — from l. to r., Alissa Sears, vice president of strategy & navigation; Gillian Christie, founder/CEO)
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When people think of the pioneers in the natural products industry, the founders of iconic CPG brands often come to mind.
However, what cannot be forgotten is that a select number of very savvy people were working behind the scenes to popularize these companies, in the media and with consumers, through storytelling. And without them, the success of the organic food sector would not be where it is today.
One such individual is Gillian Christie, the founder/CEO of Christie & Co., a marketing and communications firm based in Santa Barbara, CA. Along with her daughter Alissa Sears, vice president of strategy & navigation, Gillian leads this full-service agency, which has just celebrated its 30th anniversary.
