A longstanding advocate for the dietary supplement industry, Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, published a response to the Roger Clemens steroid scandal and the general argument “Supplements Made Me Do It” that so many professional athletes utilize when caught using dangerous & illegal steroids.

He eloquently writes, “As a child, I couldn’t get away with rule-breaking by saying, “The devil made me do it!” Yet this is essentially what some Major League Baseball players say when accused of steroid use: “The supplements made me do it.”"

This Washington Post article is very well written and worth a close read. This is surely not the last we will hear of steroid usage in professional and Olympic sports this year, but we can only hope that the monotonous blaming of supplements for positive steroid tests will grow as old in consumers ears as it does in ours.

-Patrick

-Patrick

You know the organic clothing movement is going mainstream, when you can roll up to your local Levi’s store and pickup a pair of organic jeans. Well, that’s just what I did last weekend at the Levi’s Boulder store in the 29th Street Mall. I wasn’t planning on buying organic jeans, but they were available in the style I was looking for and, by golly, they look just like my normal Levi’s 527s.

Little did I know that Levi’s had tried to launch organic cotton products back in 1993 (according to the store manager) and pulled back for reasons unknown.

Well Levi’s is back in the game now, offering a significant line of organic products via their website here.

We’re planning our March organic industry issue, so if you have input for our planning process, submit a comment and let me know what you think.

-Patrick

I’ve been researching the natural & organic personal care market for the last 3 weeks. It’s amazing how little information there is out there - even more surprising how some writers and market research firms completely miss the mark. This is one of the reasons that Nutrition Business Journal first researched the natural personal care market 10 years ago.

As with all the nutrition industry product sectors and sales channels that we research, our goal is to produce the most detailed analysis of the natural & organic personal care market.

On February 21st, we’ll be presenting the findings of over a month of research on the natural & organic personal market online. If you’re planning a new product launch, considering an investment or trying to get smart on the natural & organic personal care market, it is truly in your best interests to register for this web seminar.

For $495, you receive 6 login points to this web seminar for your team.

NBJ’s mission is to deliver more research per dollar than any other market research firm. So, get your whole team up to speed on the business issues facing the natural personal care industry. Register today.

It sure would be tough to be the marketer of a weight loss brand over the holidays…knowing that your prime business season sits just around the corner…January 1st.

The New York Times recently reported that Kellogg’s Special K and Weight Watchers will be advertising their products on billboards in Times Square this New Year’s Eve.

Nike and Coca-Cola are getting into the act too.

But that’s not it. Some brands are also launching MySpace pages and looking to digital media to educate consumers about their weight management plans…and the history of dieting. Interesting stuff coming from the big brands these days.

Myself, I enjoyed a few too many Christmas cookies, but worked them off in the Breckenridge, Colorado the week before New Year’s….snowboarding and cross country skiing. Wouldn’t Marion Nestle recommend balance in our diet and our lilves?

-Patrick

Though I feel for Tony LaRussa, manager of the MLB St. Louis Cardinals, you gotta get a chuckle from this story about his recent DUI charge.

Apparently Tony took some “vitamins” from one of his players that turned out to be HGH (human growth hormone). When he was pulled over, LaRussa blamed his state on the vitamins.

The Most Serious Sports News Network thankfully interviewed the arresting officer. His statement said, ““It was obvious Tony was drunk. He had dried vomit on his shirt and a bottle of Jim Beam in the passenger seat. But he kept going on and on about vitamins that he received from one of his players.”

SSN continued, “Despite his tricky defense strategy, LaRussa was sentenced to probation, including fifty hours of community service, for the misdemeanor infraction.”

No industry likes to be attacked…but I think this type of attack isn’t so bad.

-Patrick