My Visit To Natural Products Expo West

On 23 March 2006, I spoke at at seminar at the Natural Products Expo West, which is the yearly gathering for the natural products industry. This is where manufacturers of natural products get to show their wares to owners of natural food stores and other natural-minded retailers. Manufacturers also give educational seminars and the Expo also sponsors educational events. I was invited by the Expo to speak to the industry about toxic chemicals in household products.

I led a panel discussion called "Toxic Exposure: Keys to a Safe Home." The scheduled panelists were all eco-minded Hollywood stars: Ed Begley Jr, Amy Smart, Wendie Malick, and Debbie Levin, President of the Environmental Media Association. At the last minute, Amy and Wendie were unable to attend, so actress Daryl Hannah stepped in.

We had a great time using a mock "game show" format. After giving a short introduction about general toxic effects of household products, I asked the panelists questions about the toxic effects of specific household products and what kinds of natural products they used. Ed Begley Jr spoke about his own natural cleaning product Begley's Best. The audience was very appreciative.

The Natural Products Industry

The next day my husband Larry and I spent most of the day touring the product booths at the Expo, looking for new products.

First, I want to say I have great appreciation for the world of natural products manufacturers and the network of natural food stores across the country, for they have been the ones who pioneered the availability of more natural and less toxic products of all kinds. Because these people have been doing just what they have been doing, the number and variety of natural products has dramatically increased in the last twenty years.

That said, what struck me most profoundly about this event was that it was about the natural product industry, with the emphasis on industry.

I realized that when I hear the word "natural" I think of nature, like a natural product is made up of plants and animals and minerals. I have this idea that ingredients in their whole form--as they exist in nature--get the kind of minimal processing we might do at home to become a useful product.

But what was clearly evident to me was that the majority of the natural products industry is industrial and consumer-oriented first, and "natural" by virtue of the fact that the raw materials that go into the industrial-consumer process are plants, animals, and minerals, rather than petrochemicals. The exhibits were primarily for manufactured products geared to a consumer audience who wants to purchase everything.

One product that made me think twice was new fresh, refrigerated organic baby food. At first I thought, what a great idea. And then I started thinking about the packaging and the energy for refrigeration required and began wondering if it really took that long to grind up food at home for the baby that mothers couldn't make their own baby food.

It just showed me how much our lives are geared to industrial production, that even natural products are conceived, produced, and sold in this context.

The industry also includes allergen-free foods, ethnic foods, dietetic foods, energy snacks, kosher foods, low-carb foods, salt-free products, soy foods, and vegetarian and vegan foods--all "health" oriented, but which may or may not be natural. Natural food stores, for example, now sell food items containing artificial sweeteners because they are low in carbohydrates.

The Expo

The floor of the Expo was divided into six areas: natural foods (with subareas of organic, vegetarian, and specialty foods), personal care, natural home and pet products, supplements, and supply.

I happened to enter through a back door from the parking lot right in to the supply area. It was a strange world. Instead of seeing the finished consumer products as you would on the shelf in a natural food store, these booths belonged to food ingredient manufacturers selling items such as plant sterols that "could qualify you to use the FDA-approved plant sterol heart health claim on your label," geneistein, tomato lycopene, starches, fibers, flours, peptides, and a thousand other fractionated manufactured ingredients, all considered "natural" because their source is plant, animal, or mineral. Yes, they have a source in nature, but once removed from their natural context, isolated, and recombined into new forms, they are hardly the same as eating an apple.

Adjacent to supply was the supplements area, which was the largest single area of the Expo. Since I didn't have time to see everything, I skipped this area.

I started my explorations in the Personal Care area. There I found a good trend toward simpler formulations, more organic ingredients, and interestingly, more personal care products formulated specifically for children.

Next I went to the Natural Home area, where I picked up literature on a number of natural cleaning products, candles, textiles, and other household products.

I ended with the natural foods area. Originally, the idea of a "natural food" was a food product made without artificial additives and that still holds true. It was fun to go from booth to booth tasting all the samples, but most did not contain organic ingredients and many were still sweetened with sugar.

The Good Stuff

While there were some products I thought didn't belong at the Expo at all (like 100% vinyl plastic "massage mitts"--how are these "natural"?), at the other end of the spectrum it was wonderful to see how many whole organic foods and beverages and personal care products are now available.

Like the marketplace itself, the Natural Products Expo West had a wide variety of products to cater to many different people with many different criteria. I was happy that I found quite a number of products that met my own personal standards and picked up some good additions for Debra's List.