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If you were one of the lucky 85,000 attendees who attended the 38th annual Natural Products Expo West & Engredea, your head is likely spinning. The show, held March 7th-11th at the Anaheim Convention Center, brought together 3,521 exhibiting companies, including more than 600 first-time exhibitors.
This Expo continues to be the world's largest natural and organic event and this year’s event highlighted industry pioneers while promoting the new generation of innovators shaping the future of healthy products.
It is also a venue for meaningful celebrations and powerful messages.
Last Thursday, The Organic Farming Research Foundation held its 21st Annual Benefit Luncheon, which raised $110,000 and highlighted OFRF’s 26 years of funding on-farm research projects for organic production practices. The underlying goal of their research programs is the improvement and widespread adoption of organic farming systems.
Executive Director, Brise Tenser, told the audience that while the grants are relatively small---between $15-20,000----- they enable researchers to successfully apply and leverage significant additional federal grant dollars.
(L-R) Mark Lipson, OFRF, Brise Tencer, OFRF, Deb Eshmeyer, Danone North America
“We are able to support innovate farmer researcher collaborations and innovative concepts in their infancy that produce real results. One example is a project led by UCSC on how to produce strawberries without fumigants such as methyl bromide. A relatively small grant started that work, “Tenser said. “This initial grant was so successful that the research team went on to get millions of federal dollars for methods now used in many acres of strawberry production. We were the first ones to make that investment to get their work underway. They wouldn’t have been able to get that additional funding if we hadn’t made that initial investment.”
Brise also highlighted the policy work OFRF does in Washington DC. Most recently, they helped move forward the Organic Agriculture Research Act, which will renew the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), the USDA’s flagship organic research program, and increase the funding to $50M annually over the life of the next Farm Bill.
With this increased funding, OREI can continue to lead the way in research, education, and extension for American farmers.
The keynote speaker was Debra Eschmeyer who served as Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition Policy, and advised the Obama Administration on food, agriculture, and nutrition issues.
Debra Eschmeyer, Vice President of Communications & Community Affairs, Danone North America
Eschmeyer is currently the Vice President of Communications & Community Affairs, Danone North America, and she shared her infectious vision for changing the way we eat and think about food and organic farming.
She described going into an organic grocery store with her young husband. They filled their cart and did the math on what everything would cost. They then put everything back on the shelves because they felt they couldn’t afford it.
Not long afterward, getting ready to go into the Peace Corps her husband, Jeff, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 25.
She had her “ah-ha” moment and realized she couldn’t completely heal Jeff but she could help others and prevent their suffering. It all starts with the premise that food is medicine.
They went back to that organic grocery store and unabashedly filled up their grocery cart, because the cost didn’t matter anymore.
Eschmeyer said, “If you think about the big picture, obesity in America exceeds over $1.4 trillion annually. I want to challenge ourselves when you think about access to healthy organic food. It’s not about the cost of food, but the cost of healthcare.”
She continued, “We have 45 million Americans on SNAP and 2/3 of those are households with children that’s a $75 Billion program – imagine if we were all tapping into that serving families better healthier food.”
From there, Eschmeyer started an organic farm in her home town and cofounded FoodCorps, a national non-profit which places AmeriCorps service members in schools to teach kids nutrition education.
Her powerful message tied to healthy eating earned an invitation to join the Obama administration as the Executive Director of Let's Move! an imitative headed by former First Lady Michelle Obama's work to help America raise a healthier generation of kids.
Eschmeyer reminded the audience of the opportunity to feed healthy food to people across America remains and it’s the responsibility of each of us to carry on the mission.
