Last week, I attended The 2nd Annual Organic Summit at the St. Julien Hotel in Boulder, Colorado. It was quite and event and garnered a fair amount of media attention from public radio and Grist.org. But the event wasn’t about hype, it was about the issues facing the organic industry today.

Interestingly, this year’s organic summit seemed to be more about the groundbreaking newcomers in today’s organic industry as opposed to yesterdays enormously successful leaders. Daria Myers of Orgins Organics spoke about her company’s organic personal care line and a number of “organic groundbreakers” including Brahm Ahmadi of People’s Grocery and Patrice Gros of Foundation Farm & Farming School also spoke.

Breakout sessions on Thursday allowed attendees to hop in and out of discussions of social investing, nanotechnology, fair trade and organic research, to name a few.

The highlight for me, however, was the closing keynote: Maintaining the Integrity of an Organic Brand when Coa-Cola Calls. Seth Goldman, President and Co-Founder of Honest Tea and Michael Ohmstede, SVP of Business Development for Venturing & Emerging Brands of Coca-Cola together told the story of Honest Tea and the acquisition of 40% of its equity by Coca-Cola.

Though in my opinion, Seth and Michael are still on their “honeymoon”, the principles of the deal seem to make sense. Fortunately, Seth is mentored by Gary Hirshberg, the founder of Stonyfield Farm, who’s deal to sell part of Stonyfield Farm to Dannon - 40% ownership with control of the board staying in the hands of the founders for a period of time and a buyout tentatively planned for the future was the model for Honest Tea. Coke made a smart move and with their prior experience deep-sixing Mad River Traders beverages fresh in their minds, Ohmstede sounded like he’s approaching this deal with more respect of the Goldman’s wishes. Buying in when Honest Tea’s sales were only $27 million was a smart move too. Honest Tea is in dire need of distribution and Coke certainly gives them that. Honest Tea’s sales are projected to be $40 million by the end of 2008, so something is working already.

This is Jylle Lardaro, co-chair of The Organic Summit and New Hope Natural Media’s Director of Organic Industry Alliances. She reflects on what was presented and talked about at The Organic Summit.

This is Erica Stone, the conference director of The Organic Summit (and Natural Products Expo East). She talks about the attendees and the locations…as well as where The Organic Summit will be held in 2009.

For more information from NBJ on the Organic Markets, make sure you check out NBJ’s “Natural & Organic Foods” channel where all our natural & organic foods and beverages research is aggregated.

-Patrick

You may or may not know that New Hope (NBJ’s parent company) and Supermarket News launched a trade show June 18-19, 2008 called Healthy Foods International Expo.

As part of the education program, Nutrition Business Journal presented on the findings of a series of surveys of consumers, conventional retailers and conventional food manufacturers regarding their beliefs about healthy foods. The presentation was entitled New Insights into the Motivations, Attitudes and Behaviors of U.S. Grocery Consumers.

The presentation drew over 100 attendees and two breakouts on retailers and manufacturers were well attended as well. No matter how much credit we give them, conventional retailers and manufacturers of healthy foods still don’t completely get it. They have alot to learn, which made it all the more important that we were there to impart some of our industry knowledge to them over two days.

The show, though a launch, was perfectly produced and went off without a hitch (at least from my perspective). Attendance was a bit sparse, but understandably so in this economy, setting the stage for growth down the road. Approximately 100 exhibitors presented their latest healthy foods offerings to conventional retailer buyers and executives who pounded the floor.

While in the Dallas Convention Center, I took a few videos to show you what the show really looked like. Please excuse the fogginess of the video - my camera didn’t handle the humid climate so well.

This video is of the rush to get on the show floor when it opened Wednesday at 12 noon so you can get an idea of what the show looked like.

This video is of the crowd gathered to hear Samuel Fromartz, author of Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew, give the keynote address Wednesday evening after the show floor closed

This video is from celebrity& author Devin Alexander

To learn more about NBJ’s research on the healthy foods market, go to NBJ’s Healthy, Lesser-Evil and Functional Foods channel, where all of NBJ’s information on these categories is aggregated.

Enjoy.

-Patrick

Book your room at the St. Regis by calling Travel Planners at 800.221.3531 asap!

With over 175 of the top thought leaders and executives in the nutrition industry already registered for the NBJ Summit, there is no doubt that this year’s event will be the best ever.

If you are considering attending and don’t live within driving distance of the event, I HIGHLY recommend that your register and book your hotel before the end of this week. Last Friday, we sold out our hotel room block, but because of our great relationship with the fabulous St. Regis Resort where we’ve hosted the NBJ Summit for the last 3 years, we were able to expand our ability to have attendees register at the $299/night NBJ Summit rate through Friday, June 27th.

Everything is in place for the most impressive NBJ Summit ever….will you be there?

Register now

Book your hotel room before Friday by calling Travel Planners 800.221.3531

-Patrick

Did you know that fully 13% of nutrition products and 36% of dietary supplements are sold through non-retail channels in the United States. This is real business that, if approached correctly, can jumpstart your supplement business sales.

Increasingly, nutrition industry entrepreneurs are turning to the direct channels to launch new businesses and products via the Internet, multi-level/direct marketers, practitioners, direct response television, direct response radio, mail order and catalogs.

I along with Nutrition Business Journal co-founder, Tom Aarts, will be leading this webseminar on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - 11:00-12:30 pm MT. Register now!

Please join us as we cast light on the lesser-research, but incredibly important, direct channels of the U.S. nutrition industry….one of NBJ’s specialties!

-Patrick

With the help of Marine Nutraceuticals, the NBJ Summit will have a fully formed and organized spouse/guest program.

Highlights include shoping and visiting art galleries in Laguna, guided beach walks, participation in the regatta, cocktail parties and moonlit dinners with the NBJ Summit attendees.

Call 866.458.4935 to add your spouse/guest to your registration if you’ve registered already.

So don’t hesitate, register yourself and your spouse/guest, book your hotel room and enjoy a getaway while attending the leading retreat for executives in the nutrition industry - The NBJ Summit

-Patrick