ExpoWest Is This Weekend!

Just a reminder to you guys: If you have any questions I can try to answer for you at this weekend’s ExpoWest, let me know! In a few days, I’ll be hoofing it down the aisles at the biggest natural products show in the U.S. with my notebook in hand and a digital recorder in my pocket. This is a great opportunity to find new companies, see what products are coming out this year, and most importantly, seek answers to long-held questions. I know I’ve already pointed all of this out to you, but I guess I’m just trying to get myself worked up about going. Seriously, Expo is one of those love/hate things, skewing more towards “hate” before it starts, and swinging over to “love” once I actually get there. I do love seeing friends in the industry, though, so that should be enough to get me through the doors on Friday morning.

For Expo’s part, they say they’re going “greener” this year. This means they’re buying wind and solar credits (meh), encouraging car pooling (seriously, when has this ever worked?), using biodegradable utensils at events and features (good), providing biodegradable table liners to each booth (better), and a number of other things that range from the actually-effective to the environmentally-questionable-in-practice-though-it-sounds-great-in-theory. The “green” Expo page also offers water-saving tips, which is appropriate for the show’s Southern California location, a place where you can frequently see people using their hoses to wash off their driveways. Seriously, SoCal is like the worst environmental offender, EVER. I doubt that Expo’s list of water-saving tips will actually encourage people to make changes they’ve already been told to make thousands of times, though I commend their efforts. For my part, I’ve got Number Ten nailed: “Washing your car less often.” I haven’t washed my dusty beast of a Volkswagen for ages; does that make me a better environmentalist?

As far as the “greening” of Expo goes, my feeling is that all of the changes they’re making should never have been done otherwise in the first place. Exhibitors (and attendees) pay a lot of money to the Expo overseers, so I’m sure they could have afforded some of these changes at an earlier show. It’s the NATURAL PRODUCTS Expo, for crap’s sake. Though there is a weird dichotomy that exists within the industry: To get to the exhibitors I’m looking most forward to seeing, I’ll have to pass countless supplement and “nutraceutical” booths along the way. There will be plenty of awful “soy crisp”-type products available to sample, and highly-processed “organic” foods will be in abundance. At Expo, the industrialization of organics is alive and well.

I do stop by some of these booths out of curiosity or criticism, though not many. My real mission at this show is to find the people and companies who are the antithesis of industrial organic. I’m talking about companies like Juniper Ridge, Pangea Organics, To-Go Ware, and Hugo Naturals. These companies (and several others) inspire me, giving me hope that it is indeed possible to successfully make and sell products that aspire to a higher purpose. And, though I might have to look a little harder, there are still people who attend this show who are the “crazies,” the people who are totally die-hard about the environment and health. I have one friend whom I see every year, and the first year I met him he refused to use sample cups or utensils. At a show where samples are the reason for living, this was a major stance: he ended up eating samples out of his hand with his fingers. This guy is one of my favorites. I also seek out the raw-foodists, people for whom the label “die-hard” doesn’t even begin to do justice. Yes, there are beacons of hope and joy at Expo, even if I will have to wade through the muddy ethical swamp where companies like Metromint and Batter Blaster dwell.

It’s worth trudging through a mass of horsecrap with my waders on for may reasons, not the least of which is to find new great stuff to tell you about on this website. Most of you aren’t going to Expo, and you probably never will. It’s expensive for consumers to attend, and it’s unrealistic for many of you who live across the country to attend. I say, save you money for next year’s SXSW, and I’ll do the work at Expo for you. After all, I’ve been building up my tolerance for exposure to soy crisps for several years now; those of you without such a tolerance would surely implode. Take it from me, there are only so many tables displaying row upon row of crappy soy products tat you can pass without eventually wanting to go back to your hotel room and curl up into a ball in the corner. For a show that’s dedicated to natural products, there’s amazingly little “real food” to be found. As for the people who ARE selling real food, I’ll be telling you all about them.

And in case you don’t believe me about the glut of soy crisps on the market:



My body will absorb the stink of soy crisp through osmosis, I’m sure of it. I will be washing the stench out of my clothes and hair for weeks. At least Ted will be there too, so we’ll both smell like soy crisps when we go back to our hotel room. In that way, it’s kind of like eating garlic on dates: if you both do it, you’re in the clear.