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Natural-product makers\nlearn the rules of the jungle

By Andrew Martin
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, MONTEVERDE, COSTA RICA
Sunday, Mar 02, 2008, Page 12

A member of a hiking group consisting of business executives crosses a shaky bridge in Bosque Eterno de Los Ninos in Monteverde, Costa Rica, last month. Many executives of ``green'' businesses are facing difficulties as they transform from niche marketers to big businessmen. PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE

A group of pioneers in the "green business" were getting back to their roots with a two-day hike through a pristine rain forest in Costa Rica when they hit Fer-de-lance Hill.

"Dare I ask why this hill is called Fer-de-lance Hill?" one of the hikers, Tom Newmark, had asked another, Frank Joyce, a University of California biologist.

"Well, this is where they hang out," Frank answered.

"They" were aggressive and deadly snakes.

"Sure enough, we round this bend and this fer-de-lance is rattling away at us," recalled Newmark, the chief organizer of the hike and co-chief executive of the organic vitamin maker New Chapter. "It was about as thick as Albert Pujols' baseball bat."

One hiker, Stephen Brooks of Kopali Organics, was attacked, but his boot kept the snake's fangs from digging into his skin.

The trouble did not stop there. The hike was so physically taxing -- 28km up and down mountains -- that some members of the entourage barely made it.

There was even talk about trying to bring in horses or a helicopter to rescue the stragglers. That did not happen, but Newmark ultimately was hauled out of the jungle on a stretcher after injuring his knee.

Stephen Brooks, cofounder of Kopali Organics, stands in Bosque Eterno de Los Ninos in Costa Rica last month. PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE

The trek, intentionally or not, served as a metaphor for the difficulty many of the executives are having as they transition from niche marketers to big-business leaders who have grown wealthy as demand for their products has surged.

That is a good problem to have, of course, but it has stirred worries among them about selling out and reaffirmed a desire to stay true to their cause.

"The whole landscape is shifting and I think everyone is struggling to redefine their strategy in the midst of huge change that ain't finished," said Jeffrey Hollender, the president of Seventh Generation, which makes nontoxic household products like cleaners and diapers. "It's still sort of in the early stages."

The hike was organized, in part, to help raise US$10 million to expand a swath of preserved forest in the northwest part of the country that includes the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and the Children's Eternal Rain Forest. Among those on the trip on Feb. 5 and Feb. 6 were Walter Robb, co-president of Whole Foods; Anthony Zolezzi, a founder of Pet Promise, a natural pet food company; and Bryan Meehan, the founder of Fresh & Wild Stores in Britain who is now chief executive of Nude Skincare.

They are, Newmark said, "the true spiritual warriors and visionaries of our industry."

They also invited a reporter and photographer from the New York Times -- who paid their own way. They joined the eight green business leaders, as well as Joyce and his wife, Katie; two conservationists; two Costa Rican medical doctors; and three local guides.

Newmark said the idea for the hike came to him last summer when he invited Michael Besancon, who oversees the environmental task force at Whole Foods, to visit his company's spice farm and lodge nearby.

"I really had no idea how daunting a task it was going to be," Newmark said.

The hike began in a remote and picturesque mountain town, Monteverde, on a sunny and crisp morning. We shoved sandwiches in our backpacks, grabbed walking sticks and set off through the cloud forest that runs along the tops of mountain ridges. On a wooden platform above the tree line that straddled the Continental Divide, Newmark pointed out the corridor of land running to the Pacific Ocean that conservationists hope to buy and turn back into a rain forest.

The preservationists are also planning to raise money at a fundraiser in Hollywood in May and have just released a children's book, The Forever Forest: Kids Save a Tropical Treasure.

As the hike continued through the morning and became more grueling, the hikers splintered into groups and the talk turned to the state of the natural products industry.

A recurring theme was authenticity and how to maintain it as big companies try to burnish their green credentials. Some of the hikers also scoffed at the notion of companies and consumers buying carbon offsets, as a sign of their concern about the environment, without making any real effort to reduce their carbon footprints. Zolezzi, who sold Pet Promise to Nestle Purina Pet Care in 2004, argued that such offsets allow people to buy a few trees so they can drive their sport utility vehicles without guilt.

His opinion was seconded by Meehan, who sold his Fresh & Wild grocery stores to Whole Foods in 2004.

"I call it the ethical pat on the back," he said.

Hollender said he believed that some of the founding principles of the organic and natural movement could be diluted as larger companies bought up those companies or started their own competing brands.

He also maintained that some companies have started corporate social responsibility departments even as they pursue goals that directly contradict them.

Seventh Generation, the maker of nontoxic household products, is facing its own quandary. The company made its name at Whole Foods Market, but with a flood of new competitors, including a line of natural cleaners from Clorox, Seventh Generation is now debating whether to sell its products at Wal-Mart, a company once reviled by environmentalists that now has embraced green products and sustainability programs.

"We are viewed in some respects, and it's not entirely fair, as this pure and virginal idea of what a business can be," Hollender said. "And a lot of people believe we would taint ourselves by doing business at Wal-Mart."

Whole Foods, meanwhile, is striving to remain unique as the small upstart brands that have come to define the store are being lured by buyout offers and bigger grocery chains.

Robb said he was so frustrated with companies making their names at Whole Foods and then cashing out that the company is changing its procurement practices.

While selling to Wal-Mart may be a natural evolution for Seventh Generation, it creates problems for Whole Foods, which does not want to compete on price with discount retailers.

"We are just not going to be taken for granted," Robb said, adding that the company may drop brands that have "migrated in not a sustainable direction."

The chain, he said, is "going to look for people who want to partner primarily with Whole Foods."

The second day of hiking was shorter but no less difficult, because of blisters and one painful case of chafing.

There was also Newmark's left knee, which kept him on the trail well after dark. He finally refused to go any farther while climbing down a hill known as La Mona, a name he that he said later in an e-mail message described the feeling in his knee.

"It gave and gave but finally gave out," he said.

He arrived at the lodge at 11pm, having been carried on a stretcher for the last three kilometers by local guides.

For all the unpleasant surprises on the trail, Newmark retained a Zen-like calm befitting a former instructor of transcendental meditation and he proclaimed the hike a success.

No one died and the participants had contributed US$190,000 toward preserving more of the rain forest.

"It was altogether too close of a brush with mortality," Newmark said. "I can guarantee that raising that US$10 million will be easy compared to that hike."
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