RODALE NEWS, ANAHEIM, CA—With the bulk of 2009 layoffs affecting men, more women are becoming the family breadwinners. But they're still the ones in grocery stores pushing shopping carts and, well, buying the bread, too—women make up to 85 percent of all consumer purchases. Which is why so many of this year's new, greener products on display over the weekend at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA, are being marketed toward women.
THE DETAILS: The event is the largest trade show of its kind in the United States. More than 56,000 attendees, many of them buyers and distributors who determine what will wind up on store shelves this year, visited the show's 3,000-plus exhibitor booths. They saw and sampled countless new and upcoming products with a "natural" spin, everything from organic burritos and glass baby bottles to customized produce bags to extend the life of fruits and vegetables.
WHAT IT MEANS: Despite a faltering economy, the organic industry continued to hold its ground in 2009, with sales of organic food and products growing by 5 percent. (Overall growth was measured at just 2.2 percent, so organics' growth was double that of conventional products.) The Fresh Ideas Group, an agency specializing in new-product trends, identified some of the trends for 2010, and predicted that this will be a year of women voting for healthier choices with their dollars (although they'll sometimes send men to the store with a shopping list). Other predictions for this year include the rise of "non-precious organic," that is, lower prices for private-label organic food, and also "nutritionally charged foods." That is, foods with fewer processed ingredients and more whole grains.
Read on for three key trends in natural products that will affect you and your family.
Even as organic takes a stronger hold, it still only accounts for less than 5 percent of food sales. And as Chuck Benbrook, PhD, chief scientist for The Organic Center, warned in a news conference held in conjunction with Natural Products Expo West, all of the pesticides and antibiotics still being used will lead to dire consequences in 2010 and beyond, including autism, birth defects, ADHD, and allergies, along with a continued decrease in the efficacy of lifesaving antibiotics.
So while the organic movement has come a long way, the need for more consumers to demand organic, and more farmers to convert to organic, is a pressing human health and environmental issue. Trends that we saw this year at Natural Products Expo West suggest things are moving in the right direction, though.
Here are three trends we noticed at the Expo:
• Organic matters. More than ever, consumers are turning to organic for a variety of reasons, chief among them, avoidance of toxic chemicals linked to reproductive problems, diabetes, ADHD, and other ailments. In fact, while moderating a panel at the show, Rodale CEO Maria Rodale, whose book, Organic Manifesto launches tomorrow, suggested maybe the show name should be changed to Organic Products Expo.
But while organic food is tightly regulated for quality, a lot of organic greenwashing occurs in the retail sectors involving personal-care products like shampoo, soap, and lotions. Unlike regulations for food, marketers can use the term "organic" on personal-care products without meeting U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic standards. To call attention to this situation, the Organic Consumers Association protested outside of Natural Products Expo West, with activists holding life-size bottles of shampoo brands that use the word organic in the product or company name but actually contain harmful nonorganic chemicals.
What you can do: When shopping for organic soaps, shampoos, and lotions, only trust ones with the USDA-certified organic seal. This ensures that ingredients are organically grown and no harmful synthetic chemicals are allowed in the mix, such as man-made fragrances or nasty foaming agents.
• An increased interest in green packaging. More and more companies are using certified-organic products, but a few of them are also taking it to the next level and greening their packaging, too. After seeing a beached juvenile whale on the West Coast, who starved to death after eating plastic, the owners of Organic Essence decided to green their packaging. Their USDA-certified organic moisturizing body balms and lip balms are now in sold in paper-based, biodegradable containers. The company won a green packaging award at Expo West.
Nature's Path, an organic breakfast-food company, also won an award for reducing the size of its packaging (but not the amount of cereal you get inside it).
What you can do: Support companies that promote more efficient packaging, and when you go to the grocery store, use reuseable bags. You can even find reusable produce bags now, such as those from ChicoBag.
• Down with GMOs. Retailers are starting to pay more attention to food made with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as more and more research ties the altered foods to health problems like food allergies and autoimmune diseases. Biotech companies argue that we need GMOs to feed the world, but research has shown that organic farming methods actually increase yields, especially in places like Africa and areas that suffer severe droughts. (The USDA organic-certification program does not allow GMOs, so you can trust the organic seal to mean those foods are GMO free.)
What you can do: Opt for USDA-certified organic products, food from a farmer who does not use GMO seed, or food labeled as non-GMO. For more information, and to find food companies that vow to avoid using GMO ingredients (corn, soy, canola, and cotton are the main GMO crops), visit the Non-GMO Project.