As consumers continue hunkering down in the safety of their own homes, many have ditched their make-up sets and are leaning hard into pampering skin care routines. According to NPD, skin care sales within the natural beauty segment have risen an impressive 11% over the course of the pandemic. Taking the time out of one’s day to focus on cleansing, toning and moisturizing may seem trivial amid today’s catastrophes, but neuroscientific research backs the anxiety-reducing benefits such rituals have on consumers. Masking in particular requires a person to slow down and take at least 15 minutes to themself; it is also a vital component of the at-home spa experience, which shoppers have had to construct as spas and facialists remain closed for business.
Kaibae Baobob Leaf Face Mask
Disposable sheet masks are notorious for their wasteful nature, but this new one from Kaibae is fully compostable after use. The ingredients here are both organic and wildcrafted, two rising trends as consumers become more conscious of their products' environmental impacts. Kaibae's signature use of the Baobob leaf infuses the mask with vitamin C, minerals and antioxidants. The company notably works in direct partnership with indigenous communities in Ghana to both advance social welfare and preserve biodiversity.
New Hope Network featured KAIBAE's baobab leaf face mask in an article about how retailers help mission-driven brands like KAIBAE to communicate their mission to consumers. Products are highlighted from companies working in the areas of disadvantaged communities (People first); sustainability and biodiversity (Planet first), upcycled solutions (Ingredient first) and supply chain transparency (Farmer first). Our story spans each of these categories, but the face mask is featured in the Farmer First section of the slide show (slide 32) .
Read the article: https://www.newhope.com/food-and-beverage/aisle-retailers-key-next-gen-brands-fulfilling-their-missions
]]>Patagonia Provisions recently introduced KAIBAE Baobab Fruit Powder and Baobab Tea in their Regenerative Organic MarketPlace.
As part of their goal to fix our broken food chain, the MarketPlace is...
"a gathering place for the insurgency. A revolt against industrial food production and its destructive practices. A line in the sand for what we choose to buy and eat. In addition to our own expanding collection of food products, we’re proud to bring together a growing selection of foods from like-minded farmers and ranchers, artisans and producers who are working to fix our broken food chain. What we share is a commitment to flavorful, nutritious foods that regenerate, rather than deplete, the environment. Support for these products is a vote to save our home planet."
We are so proud to be a part of this movement. Check it out: https://www.patagoniaprovisions.com/collections/marketplace
]]>The future of food will be more environmentally sustainable and biodiverse, according to industry experts and new research, reports USChamber.com.
Sustainability has been a much-discussed topic inside and outside the food industry over the last few years. Food activists and consumers, too, are increasingly demanding — and voting with their food shopping dollars — that food companies practice better sustainability and environmental stewardship.
In the photo above, The Future Market and Alpha Food Labs have created the Biodiverse Foods Shelf installation at Mista, the future-focused food optimization and innovation center in San Francisco. Note KAIBAE'S red bag of Baobab Fruit Powder on the right shelf, second from the bottom.
–Tensie Whelan, professor, NYU Stern School of Business, and director, Stern Center for Sustainable Business
Read the article: https://www.uschamber.com/co/good-company/the-leap/rise-of-sustainable-food-brands
]]>"...the mask is a baobab leaf that is full of plant extracts which has been redesigned for maximum transfer of natural regenerating active ingredients such as antioxidants, minerals and vitamin C onto the skin’s surface. Baobab tea leaves do their work through molecular exchanges, as well as through more subtle aromatherapy techniques. To start your home spa session, all you need to do is soak the mask in a few drops of clean water."
Read the full article at Vogue Paris.
From January 7 – February 8, Food+Tech Connect and The Future Market are hosting Biodiversity: The Intersection of Taste & Sustainability, an editorial series featuring interviews with over 45 leading food industry CEOs, executives, farmers, investors and researchers on the role of biodiversity in the food industry. See the full list of participants and read about why biodiversity in food is important here.
There is a huge amount of opportunity for companies to capitalize on underutilized crops from around the globe that are full of flavor, beneficial for health and support local ecosystems and communities. KAIBAE is a beauty and nutrition company doing just that. KAIBAE works directly with indigenous communities to bring plants like Baobab, Cacay and Seaweed to the US market through its powders, teas, oils and beauty products.
Food+Tech Connect spoke with KAIBAE co-founders Dr. Luc Maes, Thomas Cole and Barbara Berger Maes about revaluing “Lost Crops,” establishing supply chains for biodiverse ingredients and how biodiversity is tied to our microbiome.
Read the article: How KAIBAE is Improving Microbiomes With ‘Lost Crops’ Like Baobab & Cacay
]]>...Thomas Cole knows that part of the process all too well. Cole is titled a “Botanist Humanitarian” on the founders’ page for Kaibae, makers of products from the baobab tree and other “lost crops,” and says building a supply chain and a marketing plan simultaneously was no small task. Baobab was all-but-unknown in U.S. markets when the company launched five years ago. “There’s a huge learning curve and educational curve around public relations and marketing and really getting the consumer understanding what it is we’re talking about,” Cole says. Connecting with farmers, untangling logistical challenges, building a processing infrastructure and “getting organically certified in the middle of nowhere” was simpler in comparison, he recalls.
Read the article: Africa by the Numbers
]]>Read the article: Baobab Powder Boosts Performance.
]]>From Beauty Independent
Independent beauty companies are on a mission to change the industry from the outside, so it’s no surprise that there are so many mission-driven brands among them. Beauty brands align themselves with particular health issues or production processes and, frequently, support various causes with brand stories and marketing. Increasingly, a number of emerging brand founders are gauging success as much on their external missions as they are on growing their brands’ sales.
After attending a dinner celebrating the anniversary of the Well + Good Council hosted by Donna Karan, I became determined to draw attention to mission-driven brands. During the event, Well+Good co-founders Melisse Gelula and Alexia Brue asked the audience about wellness goals for 2019. While the range of answers reflected the diversity of the group, which included health and wellness leaders Kimberly Snyder, Gabrielle Bernstein, Mark Hyman, Alisa Vitti and Kelsey Patel, a universal theme was the importance of environmental issues and taking care of what we’ve been given.
Since then, I’ve reached out to brand founders I met through Indie Beauty Expo, parent company of Beauty Independent, doing great things for the environment. I connected with people like Kapua Browning, founder of Honua Skincare, who, together with Jeannie Jarnot, founder of Beauty Heroes, started the Blue Beauty movement as a way to organize beach cleanups in their childhood home of Hawaii; Kaibae co-founders Tom Cole, Barbara Berger Maes and Luc Maes; and Lanima Beauty founder Debbi Symes. They are just a few of the founders dedicated to developing ecologically-sound ways of living and doing business.
Kaibae
Kaibae, producer of skincare and prebiotics from the fruit of the baobab tree, is dedicated to spreading the healing benefits of an indigenous staple while benefiting the cultures that have preserved traditional knowledge. The founders refer to baobab and ingredients like it that are often ignored or unknown in Western and industrialized cultures as Lost Crops.
What has been the greatest impact to communities you are trying to support through the harvesting of Kaibae’s key ingredients?
Berger Maes: Hope. For years, the small-scale farmers who wild-harvest our baobab [in Central Africa] have been entirely reliant on unstable rainfall and degraded soils to grow their sorghum and other grains, essentially their entire food [allotment] and income for the year. Partnering with Kaibae provides income-generating opportunities for baobab harvesters and producers at times of the year when income and access to food are at their seasonal low, helping households move from struggling with subsistence and climate instability to a space of confidence and greater control.
What positive change does this kind of harvesting and sourcing yield?
A key message that has reverberated throughout our harvesting communities is that it pays to conserve their baobab trees and look after their natural environment. The management and stewardship of their natural resources can now be felt across multiple levels—economically, nutritionally, socially, ecologically. The income generated from baobab gives these communities better access to food, healthcare and educational opportunities for their families, and provides a strong environmental case for both preserving and regenerating the natural resource base from which these properties are derived. This is the foundation of Kaibae’s supply-chain management.
What other domino effects do you anticipate?
Kaibae’s mission is to push beyond organic, building partnerships and collaborations that model the regenerative lens of promoting holistic practices that support people and the planet. These systems are those that keep giving to the soil, the environment and the economy.
For local communities in Ghana, Colombia, Kenya, Uganda and Zanzibar, Kaibae creates and builds networks of opportunity by taking time to listen to their concerns and stories, then consciously weaving that narrative into business decisions that are made with the best interests of everyone in mind. This strategy not only ensures lasting relationships, but resonates with our wholesale and retail customer base. We have spent the last six years nurturing and developing partnerships with community-based organizations in those countries to ensure there is a solid economic base from which to make sound ecological and financial decisions.
The next stage is both regenerative and resilient. Moving beyond the commodity-based, factory-farmed ingredients that most brands, labels and products are based upon to those that are natural and wild-harvested or cultivated in healthy and productive ways. The key to making agriculture regenerative is ensuring that the water and mineral cycles of the soil are being restored and built even as we or our partners farm the land. This involves enhancing biodiversity, increasing soil fertility and ensuring that the ecosystem that supports the whole farming process is healthy and productive.
This process from the Kaibae standpoint is about building and nurturing relationships, whether between organisms in the soil or between communities harvesting baobab and companies in the U.S. These things take time, but are infinitely more powerful and sustainable than many of the systems we currently have in place producing our food. Understanding that consumers are actively choosing mission-driven brands that align with their own values, Kaibae is well-positioned to help guide and show the way forward.
]]>The Million Year Old Diet
The Hadza seek out the same animals and plants that humans have hunted and gathered for millions of years. Importantly, the human-microbe tango that played out here for aeons probably shaped aspects of our immune system and made us who we are today. The significance of being in Hadza-land was not lost on me.
Unlike the Hadza, who sleep around the fire or in grass huts, I was given a tent and told to zip it up tight as there were scorpions and snakes about. I had to be careful where I stepped if I needed a nocturnal pee. After an interesting but restless night's sleep, a large pile of baobab pods had been collected for my breakfast.
The baobab fruit is the staple of the Hadza diet, packed with vitamins, fat in the seeds, and, of course, significant amounts of fibre. We were surrounded by baobab trees stretching in the distance as far as I could see. Baobab fruit have a hard coconut-like shell that cracks easily to reveal a chalky flesh around a large, fat-rich seed. The high levels of vitamin C provided an unexpected citrus tang.
The Hadza mixed the chalky bits with water and whisked it vigorously for two to three minutes with a stick until it was a thick, milky porridge that was filtered -- somewhat -- into a mug for my breakfast. It was surprisingly pleasant and refreshing. As I wasn't sure what else I would be eating on my first day, I drank two mugs and suddenly felt very full.
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In an interview with New Hope Network, Dr. Maes discusses Kaibae's mission, the excellent opportunity to do good by sourcing Baobab fruit from Africa, recent successes, and plans for growth in 2016!
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There are so many great things that have come from our amazing experience at Natural Product Expo West. We were thrilled to be named as an Editor's Pick. Now we have been included in an amazing article from Food Business News. According to the article, natural and organic foods will represent 14% of the overall market by 2020. People are catching on! We are so proud to be included in this piece with our organic baobab products.
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We are extremely excited to be named to the Editor's Picks list at the Natural Product Expo West! This recent NewHope360 article outlining all of the Editor's Picks as well as other trends at the show ws just released. Help spread the word about the benefits of Baobab!
]]>There are lots of exciting things going on here at Kaibae. The natural foods industry just got a big bump from the recent Natural Expo West and baobab was a huge hit! Lots more to come, but check out this exciting article from CNN.com. Baobab is featured among many other exciting ingredients that originate in Africa. Check out the article here.
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We are extremely excited to annouce that Kaibae's own Barbara and Luc Maes have been featured in the current edition of Mantra Magazine. The founders of Kaibae have been selected as a cool couple, citing teamwork and togetherness as core virtues for their relationship. This awesome magazine is available all over, including Whole Foods Markets. To find where you can pick one up, follow this link.
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