Organic Insider Newsletter Archive

This past weekend, I was in Pennsylvania for a farm tour and to attend the 7th annual Organic Pioneer Awards dinner at the Rodale Institute. In all of my years covering the organic industry, this was one of the most special days that I have experienced. If you've never been to Rodale and you love organic, absolutely make a visit to this place....

As the Internet was abuzz last week with prices at Whole Foods down by as much as 43%, let’s remember one thing -- there is no free lunch. In today's Organic Insider, we take a look at what this margin pressure means for the industry and how competitors, such as Lidl, are making lower prices work.

With organic and natural personal care category exploding, Indie Beauty Expo is my favorite showcase for learning what is new and interesting in the space. Here is the best of what I found at last week's show in New York City.

As one of the most important and beloved leaders in the organic food industry, John Foraker stepped down last week from Annie's, and the news caught a lot of us by shock. In tody's column, I spoke with John and he gave us some clues as to what is coming next.

Armed with $50 million from Silicon Valley venture capitalists, Brandless sells organic and Non-GMO food and household items, almost all of which are $3. With this powerful new entrant into the market, there is a lot that brands can learn from this company.

Meant as an alternative to the Organic Trade Association and viewed as a vehicle to give small organic farmers representation in Washington, D.C., the Organic Farmers Association is an important development in our industry. I check in with Kate Mendenhall, Executive Director of the OFA, who gives me an update on where things stand.

In an Organic Insider alert, the iconic organic yogurt company Stonyfield has been sold to French-owned Lactalis for $875M.

Amazon's announcement that it would purchase Whole Foods for $14 billion was blockbuster news. So, I approached three former senior executives at Whole Foods, who, combined, have many decades of experience not only at the company but also in the natural products industry, and posed the following question to them: "You have five minutes,...

With retailing giant Amazon now owning Whole Foods, I discuss what this sale means for the organic industry and explore possible scenarios. Also, recent coverage in the Washington Post about organic gives a reason to be somewhat optimistic.

With the recently released 2016 OTA report about the size of the organic industry, we saw growth of U.S organic food sales from 2015 to 2016 of 8.4%, down from 11% from the year before. We take a look at what caused this slowdown.

What has transpired in the organic industry over the last month is cause for serious concern and should force all of us to acknowledge that we need to start doing things differently. While consumer demand for organic has never been stronger, the underpinnings of our industry are fraying at the seams. Here is what has taken place and what I think...

With organic food already mainstream and organic beauty products gaining serious traction, organic clothing is the next frontier. And given that fashion is an environmental disaster, with its highly toxic dyes and the massive problems with genetically-modified cotton, particularly in India, we desperately need organic clothing to take hold. That...

Greg Fleishman, co-founder of Purely Righteous Brands and the most sought-after brand building consultant in the organic food industry today, talks about what it takes to successfully launch a product and how brands fail to develop a strong identity.