In this podcast, Karen Howard, CEO and executive director, Organic & Natural Health Association, and Brian Terry, national sales manager, Nordic Naturals, join Sandy Almendarez, senior content director, Informa Markets, to discuss the importance of this program and the beneficial ripple effects it will have to improve the natural products industry.

• Murphy’s young son, Atlas, born with a terminal brain condition—and how, even in the cannabis capital of Colorado, he has been unable to legally use CBD to help.
• What the leading hemp companies are doing to stay ahead sustainably.
• The opportunities for hemp beyond medicinal—nutritional, textiles, biomaterials.

The merging of #BLM with COVID has created a moment where the Black community’s health outcomes with the pandemic is worse than most—as is vitamin D blood levels, and a slew of published research over the past year has shown at least a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and worse COVID-19 outcomes. Brian Terry, national sales manager at Nordic Naturals, saw opportunity. He sat down with Insider senior editor Todd Runestad to discuss:

• That an incredible 82% of Blacks are vitamin D deficient, compard to 63% Latinx and 31% White. What can vitamin D do to help peoples’ health status?
• Why supplementation is the only realistic solution.
• Terry is a Black man in a White industry. What has his experience been—are natural products people really full of peace and love?

• How EAS turned on the pro sports world with creatine and other power boosters. 
• Immunity supplements may be the new multivitamin, but can they also find a home in the sports nutrition aisle?
• How the latest sports ingredient, beta-alanine, increases exercise capacity—but is also an antioxidant and can enhance immunity.

• The challenges and indignities of being a Black-owned company, which makes this deal all the sweeter.
• What success looks like now—sales figures, time horizons, new demographic markets opened, and flying over the hurdle of Costco’s No. 1 concern.
• How hoops legends Magic Johnson and Grant Hill—along with strong assists from a pair of women on the back end—have helped this company earn the spotlight.

• How CBD companies don’t quite get that they are in the supplements business, not the marijuana business. Rules and regulations apply.
• Whether potential FDA commissioner in the Biden administration, David Kessler, has “evolved his thinking” from supplements enemy to hemp accepter if not promoter.
• Whether Congress can write laws to compel the FDA to stop its slow-dance of hemp CBD regulations. 

• How to make personalization work in the market (hint: no one is there yet).
• As we enter the second year of the colds-and-flu season, has immunity supplements supplanted multivitamins as the foundation of health?
• Is influencer marketing really losing its luster? What then, then?

• The five categories of one’s immune system personality—angry, confused, sensitive, withdrawn and balanced—and nutrients that support each one.
• Bland’s serendipitous journey of discovery of the next great superfood (and crop for carbon times), Himalayan tartary buckwheat.
• What the future of health care and functional medicine looks like in 2050.

• How to navigate a market with brands pirating ingredients and stifling innovation on one end and those that care about quality and evidence on the other.
• How to communicate all aspects of quality, from sustainable sourcing and clinically validated ingredients to lab test results.
• What the surge in immune products post-COVID looks like for consumers looking to support general wellness.

The last 10 months have changed our lives dramatically. Supply chains are being rewritten and remapped due to the pandemic. This is another opportunity to bring manufacturing to the agriculture center of production in this country because supply chains will require domestic supply because nobody wants supply disruption. How do we make sure we take care of the climate and take care of the sustainable story for the next 20 years? Senior editor Todd Runestad sits down with Simon Liegel, co-founder of Driftless Extracts, and Josh Hendrix, an established leader in the hemp industry sitting on major boards and managing BestBall CBD and Hendrix Holdings. They discuss: 

• How brands can qualify a supplier—what to look for, what questions to ask. 
• What kept the green rush from coming to fruition for many hemp farmers—and the opportunities that remain. 
• How Wisconsin is looking past cannabinoids and driving hemp usage toward the grain and fiber angle—packaging, textiles, paper and other industrial applications. 
• Traceabiliity. Sustainability. Verification. And other significant considerations.

• As one of the world’s great longevity botanicals, why schisandra berry “really needs its day.”
• Differentiation among the three great adaptogenic superstars today—ashwagandha, rhodiola, Schisandra—and why an adaptogen virtually unheard-of outside the West may be the “king of kings.”
• Why the herb with a well-built commercial infrastructure but was beaten down by a questionable safety study a decade ago is nevertheless poised for a return.
• Is he going to talk about cannabis and CBD? You know he is!

• Evolutionary biology and the kindom—no typo—that links plants and animals on this fair planet.
• The conflict between vitalism and reductionism in how herbalists think about health care.
• The List. Immunomodulators, sure, but also herbs for vitality.

• What kind of zinc, and at what dose, would work best in a spray delivery format.
• Formulation challenges around potency, contamination, flavor and shelf-stability.
• Microbial challenges, stability testing, and taste issues.

Yes, there was massive overproduction of hemp in 2019 in America. But hemp CBD is a worldwide sensation, and there are opportunities for hemp farmers around the world. Perhaps the largest vertically integrated hemp firm in the U.S. was formed in 2020 when CPG brand Kadenwood acquired Colorado-based supplier EcoGen. Garrett Bain is president of EcoGen and a veteran of the hemp supply business. Natural Products Insider senior editor Todd Runestad sat down with Bain to discuss:

• The evolving Asian markets, and how Australia is a stepping stone to Asia. 
• Specifics around the “complicated” regulatory environment in Canada. 
• How the European market improves the quality of U.S.-grown hemp. 

In this podcast, Dr. Redcross speaks with Sandy Almendarez, content director, Informa Markets, about the important of vitamin D for minority populations. They cover:

• The need for the medical community to foster and support the patient-doctor relationship.
• How Black and Latinx communities generally view supplements as part of their healthy lifestyles.
• How supplement brands can promote their vitamin D supplement to ethnic minority populations. 

• Safety concerns around liver toxicity, drug interactions and whether drowsiness is a side effect or an effect.
• The best way to take hemp CBD—a loading dose, or start low and go slow?
• What the science says around possible maximum upper intake dosages.

• The difference between lifespan and healthspan—and how the latter may be more important. 
• Biomarkers that can be regulated and which contribute to what is known as the biological clock. 
• What alpha-ketoglutarate (LifeAKG) did in study results in a landmark study published Sept. 1in Cell Metabolism.