Happy Planet

Happy Planet co-founder Randal Ius recalls that particular sunny day 15 years ago on an organic farm. It was like so many sunny days for he and high school pal Gregor Robertson. They were making juice. Natural and simple. Pure and organic. It sounds like myth today. A couple of friends mixing up concoctions in the kitchen, hoping to hit the happy formula, then hitting a home run and launching an organic behemoth in a company called Happy Planet. “That’s a true story,” says Ius.

Nuts To You Nut Butter

Sam Abrams makes no apologies for being a Luddite. Blackberries and iPhones aren’t ingredients in the Abrams mix of delicious, nutritious organic nut butters. “I have no website. I have no email. I talk on the phone,” laughs Abrams, the president and founder of Nuts to You Nut Butter. “I mastered the fax about 12 years ago and that’s all I care about.” It’s somewhat fitting, then, that Nuts To You operates out of a 20,000 sq. ft.

Vega

There were more than a few moments when Charles Chang thought about chucking it all. He could never have foreseen the incredible growth his modest natural supplement dynasty would put up eight years ago when he went for broke and started a company in his basement. Port Coquitlam-based Sequel Naturals has become a progressive, leading edge distributor of plant-based whole food supplements and natural health products with 30 full-time and 60 part-time staff. But the early days were more than humble for Chang.

Soya World Milk

A rise in lactose intolerance coupled with some bad publicity concerning milk and dairy products is fueling a burgeoning industry in soy beverages and giving milk lovers a healthy alternative to the taste and texture of their favourite drink.

Tara White, business development leader for Vancouver-based Soya World Inc., knows what it’s like to have to give up milk and find something… better.

“I’m a believer in alternatives to milk,” says White. “Human beings should not really be consuming cow’s milk. We’re the only species that consumes another animal’s by-product.”

Wild Rose

Dr. Terry Willard’s line of over 100 Wild Rose herbal products is more than another set of go-to natural health remedies. What comes out of the bottle is just a few drops of a small empire of wellness education and treatment that’s turning greater numbers onto the time-tested benefits of natural healing.

Winters Turkeys Dalemead

“We eat turkey here six times a week.”

Could there be a more glowing endorsement for an organic, free-range turkey farm than this? The testimonial is from the farmer himself as to the quality of the bird he raises.

Natural Factors Nutritional Products

Constant change, innovation, and discovery challenge any business wanting to remain a leader. It’s especially demanding when you’re one of the nation’s top manufacturers of nutritional supplements, a market rife with pretenders and fly-by-night Internet start-ups.

The Natural Factors brand is flourishing because they eschew complacency, acknowledging a strict allegiance to researching and developing new natural supplements.

Vada Natural Body Care

You are what you put on your skin

Talking with Natasha Prives is like sitting in on a science lecture. No surprise. The founder of skin care specialists Vada Natural Body Care studied biochemistry in her native Ukraine before emigrating to Canada 30 years ago. She laughs when told that her deep understanding of the hard science of skin care makes her sound a bit like an academic. “It’s just typical common sense,” she shrugs. "You are what you eat, so you are what you put on your skin."

Fraserland Farms

Like any farmer Shelly Harris keeps one eye on the sky. The weather is an ally and a nemesis. It can swell a crop as quickly as it can batter one into submission — and that usually means money.

Harris is waiting for warmth to start harvesting Fraserland Farms’ bounty of organic crops.

Calendula

When you hear Weleda, think Calendula. The 87-year-old, Swiss-based manufacturer of holistic body care products, natural supplements, and complementary medicines is so closely associated with that Weleda might not exist if it weren’t for this cousin of the marigold plant.