Vitamer Labs introduces Prenatal Once Daily, a new addition to its line of natural and organic premium private label dietary supplements.
Zach Adelman started out in the import-export business, which answered his love for travel and led him to Peru, home of maca root—the mineral-rich plant that would steer the career change he'd been seeking.
From his extra-curriculars, you might think T.J. McIntyre already spent a little too much time with energizing drinks when he was in school.
Tierra Forte is transforming the notion of American denim, adding compassion and environmental consciousness to fashion, one pair of jeans at a time.
Steve Siegel was appointed vice president of Ecuadorian Rainforest, a supplier of global natural products, in July 2004, and, in addition to overseeing all facets of the business, is responsible for marketing and communication initiatives.
As a harmonica player with a band that plays local, environmentally friendly benefits, along with having run a lip-balm business for more than 10 years, Steve Shriver knows something about chapped lips.
Steve Savage has spent nearly half his life developing and selling sustainable products. He and his father started Eco-Products in 1990, right after Steve graduated from college.
Furry visitors at Wylie Wagg are in for a natural treat
Happy Baby founder Shazi Visram and her business partner, Jessica Rolph, graduated from business school at about the same time—Visram from Columbia and Rolph from Cornell. Both wanted to offer a healthy, socially responsible product, but at first it wasn't clear what that product would be.
From the time they met a dozen years ago, Shannon Swanson and Liane Weintraub felt like sisters. They bonded instantly over their love of food and family, but it wasn't until more recently that a phone conversation launched them into a new career.
At just 30 years old, Shaheen Majeed has already earned the title of marketing director at his father's company, Sabinsa Corp., which produces phytonutrients, Ayurvedic herbal extracts and other ingredients.
As captain of the football team and a business major at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Ryan Black might not have seemed like the most likely pick to be at the helm of a sustainable, fair-trade "superfruit" company.
After graduating from the Hass School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, Haji traveled for six months in the Third World, trying to decide where she could do the most good.
Some people see a problem but only complain about it. Nicole Bernard Dawes actually does something.
There probably aren't many resumes in the naturals industry boasting "underwater welder," but Nathan Jones' does. Perhaps it was the five years he spent in this dangerous line of work that inspired Jones to take his savings and found xylitol company Xlear.
Mitch Propster is the quintessential American entrepreneur. Largely responsible for bringing salba, an Aztec seed with cardiovascular and other benefits, to the U.S. naturals market, Propster got his business start as a paperboy in Southern California.
Manitoba Harvest co-founder Mike Fata is happy that his hemp-foods business is finally enjoying success.
In an industry full of passionate people, fresh ideas and high ideals, Michael Burgmaier adds the practical, take-the-bull-by-the-horns attitude that companies require to launch them from the great-idea phase to the nationwide-success phase.
At first glance, one might not associate Megan Thompson with the word "executive." But a chat with this enthusiastic young woman reveals a driving passion that's tempered by her friendly personality.
As a seventh-generation Floridian, Matt McLean knows about the days when his home state was more famous for navel oranges than tourist navels.
It could be said that premium vodka runs in Matthew Baris' veins. His great-great-grandfather distilled vodka in Eastern Europe before his family immigrated to America, and Matthew and his father decided to renew the tradition by launching a vodka company in 2005.
Homeopathy is not exactly mainstream in the U.S. Even in the naturals industry, the healing modality is often misunderstood. So the U.S. president of the world's largest homeopathic manufacturer has his work cut out for him. But since his appointment in 2006, Ludovic Rassat has risen to the challenge.
What happens when nonprofit groups working for progressive change gain access to the kind of creative firepower that giant corporations use to dominate the media with their messages? You get wildly popular Web advocacy ads like Free Range Studios' " Grocery Store Wars" and " The Meatrix," which has been viewed more than 16 million times, translated into more than 20 languages and received a 2005 Webby Award.
Laura Howard's story reads like a lactose-free " Eat, Pray, Love," if you add 350 goats frolicking on the rolling hills of Sonoma County.
In a world of ubiquitous convenience foods, rampant obesity and type 2 diabetes, Laryn Callaway, N.D., has pioneered a path for health-conscious, on-the-go shoppers.
Inspired by eco-friendly products and the socially responsible companies making them, LeBel left her public relations job in the outdoor industry and brought the concepts, strategies and tools she was using there to the natural products marketplace.
Justin Gold was one of those little kids running around Natural Products Expo East jacked up on organic cookie samples.
In 2001, Joshua Onysko founded Pangea Organics, initially selling homemade soap from his garage. Fewer than seven years later, the company is the largest cold-pressed organic soap manufacturer in the country, with a growth rate of more than 600 percent during the past two years, and an international brand with a presence in 17 countries.
When Jordan Rubin's weight plummeted to 114 pounds due to Crohn's disease, the notion of founding a whole-foods supplements empire was far from his mind. He simply wanted to get his health back.
Jon Cadoux stumbled into organics. He'd started home brewing with a couple friends, and it didn't take long to realize that hops and barley grown without chemical pesticides and fertilizers tasted better. The business he founded—Peak Organic Brewing Co. in Portland, Maine—is all about enjoying great beer after " peak" adventures in the outdoors or quality time spent with friends and family. He believes knowing that tasty beer is also good for the planet makes it that much more enjoyable.
Like many kids who grew up on family farms, Jessica Lundberg yearned to do anything but plant rice when she grew up. She imagined herself as a veterinarian, pilot or surgeon, and majored in biological sciences at California State University at Chico with the idea of going to med school. But the pull of the paddies turned out to be too strong.
Jessica Jensen has set out to help environmentally-conscious consumers make the best decisions in a world awash with green marketing.
Jenny Poupa Marashi leads a diverse life. Born in Iran, she moved to the U.S. at age 3. Marashi later studied philosophy and earned a law degree from Cardozo School of Law in New York. In law school, she helped support her mother and sister, worked with Amnesty International and interned with the United Nations. After graduation, she tested her belief that economic development and fair, free trade can help create peace between nations: She began working as a legal adviser at Iran's Investment Banking Group Middle East, and helped establish the country's first national credit bureau.
When a bad experience with a chemical relaxer caused middle-schooler Jasmine Lawrence's hair to fall out, she didn't just send " Dude! My hair!" texts to friends and post before-and-after pictures on her MySpace page. She developed an all-natural hair oil to regrow her tresses and founded her own company to market it—all at age 13.
Devin Ryerson, already a chiropractor, embraced fully the naturals world after a battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma and his father's unsuccessful battle with leukemia. It was this self-education while battling cancer that led him to make his life's work advocating a natural lifestyle and selling supplements and natural products.
When David Wolfe wrote his first book about raw foods 15 years ago, he single-handedly began a trend that has since spread to kitchens everywhere, from communal hippie crash pads to the mansions of the Hollywood elite.
In 1996, David Karr raised a gourd to his lips and tasted his future. The ancient "drink of the gods" made him feel good, and, he realized, along with Guayaki co-founder Alex Pryor, it could fuel a strategy that could help do good as well.
Author. Activist. Chef. Food and Policy Fellow with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. And he's not even 35 years old.
Brendan Brazier became a vegan at age 15, mostly to improve sports performance. He became passionate about nutrition and seriously stepped up his athletic program, participating in the Ironman Triathlon for six years. Then, in 2003, he was hit by a car while cycling and while recuperating, wrote a book, The Thrive Diet, outlining the eating program that boosted his athletic accomplishments.
Brahm Ahmadi is co-founder and executive director of People's Grocery, a nonprofit organization founded in West Oakland, Calif., in 2002 that works to transform inner-city food systems.
Angela Ichwan worked in product development for Heinz and then Kellogg before she and her husband, Hermanto Hidajat, started Arico Natural Foods Co. in 2004.
In 2005, beginning on the first day of spring, Alisa Smith and James (J.B.) MacKinnon began an experiment to challenge this statistic: For the next year, the two would only consume food or beverages with traceable origins within 100 miles of their apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.