The Opposition
Monsanto, DuPont, & Pepsi Co. are behind a campaign against Proposition 37 that has spent over 47 MILLION dollars (over 1 Million per day recently) to keep the bill from passing. Consumer Advocates say that “No on 37” proponents have used many of the same tactics used by big tobacco this summer in a campaign to defeat Proposition 29 requiring an additional tax on cigarettes to fund research into related cancers. Their strategy was to spend a lot of money flooding TV and radio waves with campaign messaging to vote it down—and they won.

No Sales Ban
Despite the claims from the opposition that 37 will “ban the sale of thousands of groceries”, the fact is it wouldn’t. The only change would be a packaging requirement labeling GM products with the phrase “partially produced with genetic engineering” anywhere on the back or front of the packages.

No Price Hikes
An economic study on Proposition 37 conducted by Joanna Shepherd Bailey, Ph.D., a tenured professor at Emory University School of Law, found that “Consumers will likely see no increases in prices as a result of the relabeling required.” “California consumers know that putting a little ink on a label is not going to change food prices,” said Stacy Malkan, Media Director of California Right to Know.

Friends & Profits
In the US, corporations are considered people in the eyes of the law. The question is what kind of people are Monsanto, DuPont, and Pepsi Co? Would they look out for your best health interests when making decisions about labeling your food—or is there a chance that their campaign to keep GM food unlabeled could have anything to do with generating profits or minding the best interests of their shareholders?

Motivations
In 2009 a CBS poll found that 53% of Americans would not buy food that was genetically modified. In recent polls 90% of Americans would like to see GMO products labeled. Currently 94% of all soy products, 72% of all corn products, and 80% of all pre-packaged foods contain genetically modified material.

Meanwhile
In 61 other countries including Japan, Australia, and Switzerland governments have already passed laws requiring GMO labeling. Yet in the United States, Congress has never even held a vote on the issue to give shoppers the opportunity to exercise their most basic right – to choose.

Make History
Passing 37 would be a landmark win for advocates of food transparency. If California passed a GMO labeling bill it would make history by setting a president as the first US state to require labeling laws for GM food which could lead the way for other states and even national policy changes.

Today you have the chance to make a difference. By voting yes on 37 you’ll be supporting food transparency and standing up for your right to know what’s in your food. Large food and chemical companies selling sugar water and pesticides would tell you to vote no—however, proponents of Yes on 37 such as the Center for Food Safety, Organic Consumers Association, and American Public Health Association do not stand to make a profit from your vote, they are simply concerned citizens like you that believe we should have the right to know what we’re eating.

Let’s make history today! Learn more at California Right to Know & Vote!

On Friday, August 2^nd, Ola’s founder left Sonoma County for the San Francisco airport; he’d be arriving in the southwest United States that evening to meet our bottling team for DragoNoni’s first production run. On the plane Brett checked and re-checked blend ratios and inventory lists; he finished reading Jonah Lehrer’s Imagine and tried to settle his anticipation and excitement surrounding the run. Brett says the feeling was like “being a kid waiting for morning the night before Christmas”.

Our bottlers facilities are huge, Brett says. Over 40 million dollars of high-tech specialty robotics and automated bottling equipment made us feel like we were in the hands of professionals. After a quick tour of the facilities, the first phase of bottling was ready to begin—batching. First however, the folks at the plant swapped Brett’s Hawaiian tie-dye for some full coverage bottling gear, which would be stained in superfruit juice before the process was complete.

Batching began at 8pm—odd hours are typical for large production facilities like this; upon a thorough pre-inspection of the ingredients, Brett was disappointed to find some of the packages had been damaged in transit and would not be usable for this batch. So they made the best of it and moved forward, changing the total number of shots being run to match the ingredients that were available and began blending. The mixture was tested many times until Brett was satisfied with it. In the end Brett and the batcher stayed at the plant until 3am that night getting it perfect—this was the bottlers longest batching session to date.

The batcher said, “usually the CEO comes to take pictures, and stands behind the glass while we do the blending…they don’t really get their hands dirty”. But Brett preferred to be hands on, working through the night to stay in touch with the process and ensure quality above all. Looking back at the many hours he’d spent over the last year honing his palate and blending different versions of the juice, Brett was thankful for all the time he’d spent designing the flavor and taking feedback from every taster he could find.

Back at the hotel that night Brett slept for two hours before starting again at a sunrise meeting with one of the plants managers to begin the real fun—bottling! After a brief meeting to nail down some final production details, Brett and the team were ready to go. The factory environment is a busy place with lots of moving parts; filled bottles are sleeved (at 180 per minute) and carefully placed into their 12-pack boxes by hand, which are then placed in larger shipper cases to be neatly stacked onto pallets.

As the day came to a close and production was nearing its end Brett couldn’t help himself—wanting to be a part of the process he found himself in line packing boxes with the friendly staff before rushing to the airport for a midnight arrival back in California. Needless to say our first bottling run was a success!

From an idea that started at a small working Noni farm in Hawaii to the first ever organic Noni energy shot, the past 18 months have been full of hard work and good times finding creative solutions to new challenges, all leading to the day we could finally share Ola with the world. Cheers and many thanks to our friends at the plant and everyone else who helped us reach this exciting milestone.

Order Ola at our online store & tell us what you think on facebook

Mahalo!

Marking the first EVER organic product to roll off of their production lines, Ola’s co-packer bottles our first run of Hawaiian Ola tomorrow! Six months ago, when we first heard of our bottling partners, we knew they’d be a great fit; the management and staff were knowledgeable, experienced and friendly; the facilities were top notch; and best of all they were fans of Noni!! The only problem was that the facility wasn’t certified organic. So we did the only thing that made sense, and funded the organic certification.

Over the summer our friends at the plant have worked hard to integrate a long list of new processes and procedures needed to adapt the facilities to a new organic life. A core part of our mission at Hawaiian Ola is to do everything we can to expand the demand and availability of healthy organic goods. Our hope with their certification is that we’ve opened up another avenue for organic products like Ola to make their way into peoples daily lives. Today, the plant will undergo an organic makeover meaning; their facility and equipment will be cleaned of all things un-organic prior to beginning the first phase of bottling (batching) which starts tonight at around 7pm. Throughout the entire process, Ola will be onsite to report on each step with photos and updates so stay tuned for more!