• 🏛️ U.S. Gov Addresses Food Waste With Reduction Draft Strategy
• 💰 Kona Coffee Suit Lawyers to Receive $3.7M From Settlements
• NOSH Live 🤝 Balenciaga: Los Angeles’ Big Wellness Weekend

On its second and final day last Friday, NOSH Live Winter 2023 had a packed agenda which included a number of founders and industry thought leaders sharing insights on-stage and advice for entrepreneurs during the annual Natural Product Pitch Slam. If you weren’t in the room or watching on the livestream, here’s what you may have missed: 

To kick the day off, SPINS head of industry relations Kathryn Peters took the stage to discuss why building a disruptive brand has become a successful strategy to reach new audiences with an authentic position.

🤝 Following that, NOSH editor Carol Ortenberg brought three seasoned CPG leaders — Nature’s Bakery CMO Vilma Livas, Partake Foods founder and CEO Denise Woodard, and former CEO Alter Eco Foods and Beanfields Arnulfo Ventura – on stage to talk about how their shared experiences working at large CPG companies helped shaped their leadership strategies while running smaller brands.

💸 Two of the three founders of The Family Fund, former SnackNation CEO Sean Kelly and ForceBrands founder Josh Wand, spoke to the crowd about the fundraising environment right now and why their investment strategy is based in building community.

🧑‍💻 Founders from Maxon Dixie Ayeshah Abuelhiga, LesserEvil president Charles Coristine and CEO Tacombi & Vista Hermosa founder and CEO Dario Wolos all spoke throughout the day about the valuable lessons they learned building successful insurgent brands. 

🏆 Throughout the day NOSH Pitch Slam 14 finalists presented six brands – Lentiful, Lexington Bakes, Maazah, Fair & Square, Zwita and Confusion Snacks – to four judges while doing their best to sell their brands to the panel. In the end, Lentiful’s high protein, high fiber lentil-based cups won the competition and joined the ranks of previous Pitch Slam winners like Sunnie snack dippers, Ruani adaptogenic brownies and Cocina 54 frozen empanadas.

Check out the full day recap and read up on the Pitch Slam Winner on NOSH.

A joint report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was published Saturday, laying out draft guidance to reduce food loss and waste and cut current nationwide output in half by 2030. 

♻️ The plan includes prevention and recycling of organic waste across the entire supply chain.

💸 According to the report, the average family of four spends $1,500 annually year on food that ends up uneaten, about 66 million tons U.S. municipal waste is food and 61% of methane generated by landfilled food waste is not captured by landfill gas collection systems.

🥗 It also includes provisions to increase access to nutritious meals, create more sustainable solutions to waste, decrease water scarcity and increase soil nutrition.

Lawyers representing a group of Hawaiian coffee farmers will receive $3.7 million from a settlement fund with major retailers who allegedly sold falsely labeled “Kona” coffee. 

☕ The combined settlements, which total just over $122 million, followed a 2019 suit with coffee farmers in the Kona region accusing 21 companies – including Kroger and Costco – of falsely marketing coffee products as being from Hawaii’s Big Island Kona Region.

👨‍⚖️ The judge also approved counsel’s $170,000 cost and fees request and awarded to three class representatives – Rancho Aloha, Kanalani Ohana Farm and Smithfarms – $2,500 each.

💸 The injunctive relief secured in the deals will cause the price of the Kona farmer’s product to rise, ultimately providing $81.2 million in value over the next five years. 

Just down the road from NOSH Live 2023, fashion brand Balenciaga put together its own show, giving a (slightly more fashionable) take on LA wellness culture through a collaboration with Erewhon. 

📸 Celebs including Nicole Kidman, Salma Hayek Pinaul, Cole Sprouse, Eva Longoria, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and many more were invited to the street-level affair via silver energy bar-shaped sculptures that featured the simple engraving “Collection Balenciaga F24%,” the date and location: “Los Angeles.”

🛍️ During the event, new TRUFF equity holder (Kim K) carried a brown Erewhon bag – serving as her purse – and attendees were gifted bags with a charcoal juice drink, flowers and a range of other co-branded items.

👕 The show itself saw Balenciaga x Erewhon branded sweatshirts ($1,150), aprons ($550), hats ($450), totes ($425) and t-shirts ($725) on the catwalk, making the price of the store's infamous $20 smoothies look pennies.