Regenerative Renegades: Algae Omega-3s, Purpose-Driven Brands, and Living Well by Doing Good — Corinna Bellizzi on Forever Young Radio

Listen to the episode here:

Show Notes:

Something different this week: host Corinna Bellizzi appears as a guest on The Forever Young Radio Show, hosted by her longtime colleague Kelly Cappasola. In this wide-ranging conversation, Corinna shares the science behind her pivot from fish oil to algae omega-3s, why farmed fish are now higher in omega-6 than omega-3, how to get your omega-3 levels tested for $50, and the five natural products brands at the center of her PhD dissertation research at Prescott College. She introduces what she calls the “regenerative renegades” — purpose-driven companies that do it right not because it’s fashionable, but because it’s the only way they know how to operate — and shares where Circle B and her book project are heading next.

What we covered:

Corinna’s pivot from fish oil to algae omega-3s — and why farmed fish are the tipping point
VAXA Technologies and Örlö Nutrition — algae grown in Iceland in closed photobioreactors
How to test your omega-3 index for $50 through OmegaQuant
The Framingham Heart Study and what an 8% omega-3 index actually means
Corinna’s PhD dissertation research at Prescott College — five brands, cross-case comparison
Lotus Foods: heritage rice, the System of Rice Intensification, and regenerative organic certification
Kokoro Life: Rick Scalzo, regenerative farming in Costa Rica, living wages
The Organic Skin Co.: CO2 herbal extracts, 2% plastic packaging, naturopathic roots
EO Products: social equity as a foundational business value
Circle B: what it is, where it’s heading, and what comes next
The book Corinna is working on finishing

Resources

Support the show: caremorebebetter.com/support

Cause partner: Prescott College — prescott.edu

Regenerative Renegades: Algae Omega-3s, Purpose-Driven Brands, and Living Well by Doing Good — Corinna Bellizzi on Forever Young Radio

Corinna Bellizzi's Dissertation Research Poster, summarizing key takeaways. It is titled: Through A Regenerative Lens: Care, Equity, and Justice as Foundational Ethics of Sustainable Enterprise — Corinna Bellizzi’s dissertation research poster, summarizes key takeaways from her work.

Over the past two decades, we have had the opportunity to serve and help so many listeners. We do that by bringing on respected educators in all fields of health and wellness. We pride ourselves on keeping consumers in the know about our ever-changing healthcare system and ways to support the body.

Each week, with the help of our special guests and experts, we have one goal in mind, and that’s to ensure every listener has the most up-to-date information on ways to support all aspects of health. Now, here’s your host.

Kelly Cappasola: Hello, everyone. So glad you could join us today, and welcome to Forever Young. If it’s the first time you have found our show, we’ve been showing up here for around 29 years with the hopes of encouraging and educating all of the listeners on what’s going on in the science world when it comes to our health, when it comes to our eating, and so much more.

If you’d like to learn more about us, it’s very easy to do so. You can do that by visiting our website, and that website is foreveryoungradio.com. Again, that’s foreveryoungradio.com. There you can listen to over 670 podcast episodes ranging on all aspects of your health. You can read some really fantastic articles that can kinda help you get up back on a path, or if you have some questions, you can go through that.

Maybe it’s a product, a raw material, a fish oil, an aloe vera product, all kinds of things of what is it correlating and how can it be combined to help you kind of on your health journey. Today is gonna be no different. We’re bringing on a very special guest who’s been coming on this show actually two decades and has been integral in educating us in different components when it comes to our health.

That very special guest is Corinna Bilizzi. She is a brand strategist, nutrition industry executive, and sustainability scholar. With a career spanning more than 25 years, she built Nordic Naturals into the dominant force in the omega-3 category before pivoting her focus to algae-based nutrition, ethical brand strategy, and doctorial research into what makes purpose-driven enterprises genuinely regenerative.

Corinna now leads sales and marketing at Örlö Nutrition through her consultancy, Circle B. In 2021, she founded Care More Be Better, an interview format podcast that explores the social and ecological issues that shape our lives. It now ranks in the top 0.1% of podcasts globally with over 1.5 million downloads.

And holds the number one spot in earth sciences on Apple Podcasts. She’s currently pursuing her PhD at Prescott College. Her doctoral research argues that equality and justice are not parallel dimensions of regenerative enterprise, but its foundational origin. Corinna, thank you so much for agreeing to be with me.

It’s always fun to catch up. Welcome back to the show.

Corinna Bellizzi: It’s so good to be here, Kelly. And geez, you make me sound like I should be ready to retire.

Kelly Cappasola: No, I mean, you should, you know what I mean? And move on to the next forest. And that’s one of the things that I love about you most. When I first met you, you were working with Nordic Naturals, and again, we all know the success you had there.

Wonderful, you know, way to introduce people to omega-3s, especially a really clean source at that time. But, you know, I, I’ve learned about you. You know, you became a runner back then because one of your friends ultimately came down with an illness. You wanted to run for him to be able to show that. And, you know, I recently saw another Facebook post, here we are 20 years later, and you ran into a, a previous person that you knew and they became homeless, and then you took it upon yourself to try to help.

So I just wanna… What makes you tick? What makes you continually always wanna do the right thing and come up with such a great concept of your podcast, Care More, Be Better? Let’s just hear, hear it out a little bit.

Corinna Bellizzi: You know, I think when you frame it that way, I have always come from the perspective of wanting to live well by doing good.

And this is something I actually discovered during my time at Nordic Naturals when we were doing deep dives and trying to find your purpose and write your personal mission statement, and things along those lines. And I really realized, I identified with this one thing, that I really just wanted to ensure that my impact on the world was one that was positive.

I’ve done that through the space of health and nutrition, namely because I felt like I was doing good by helping people correct a lot of these insufficiencies. We don’t consume enough omega-3, so we can’t realize optimal health. And so I stayed engaged in this natural channel business largely because of that internal mission of wanting to live well by doing good.

I found something that I kind of fell into. I mean, I went to school for archeology and anthropology. Right. I studied French language studies because I thought I’ll end up moving to France and studying Neanderthal, maybe with University- … of Bourgogne or something. But, you know, our aspirations as young kids in college can sometimes shift when we find a different purpose.

And so that’s the, the real role I’ve been living ever since, and I do think that connects to my podcast. My podcast is a invitation to people to care more about specific social and sustainability issues, some of which obviously connect to health, so that we can create a better world together.

Kelly Cappasola: I love that.

And, you know, in that process, when I met you, you, you and Matt weren’t even married yet. You were just about to get married, and you have two lovely boys now that, gosh, it’s like the years have gone by. They’re aging pretty quickly and doing really cool things in their life. So it’s just been one of those things to really be able to watch, not only as a friendship watch you evolve, but have admiration for you.

Because so many people in our industry just keep clicking along. Well, that’s the way, you know. People don’t wanna recycle. People don’t really care about the planet. People don’t care about microplastics. But it’s the small group of people who do, uh, that make that really big change in our life and then drive others by education to be able to make changes within their own.

So I’m re- really excited. I know we’re gonna unpack a lot today, hear about your PhD program, other things that you’re doing. Care More, Be Better, really great podcast. If you’ve not listened to it, please go and check that out. They have over 1.5 million downloads, and that is a really big success story. I know you have put a lot in, Corinna.

Again, I appreciate you coming on. I think last week you interviewed, like, a really big name, someone from Greenpeace. All kinds of huge people you’re bringing on your show to talk about social impacts. Would you like to speak to that at all?

Corinna Bellizzi: I’m just so thrilled that I get to connect with people that I would consider icons in their space, even if they may be little known to the public, right?

So the example that you just gave. You may have seen the video online, The Story of Stuff. Right? Now, The Story of Stuff is an animated video that walks you through a history of really what it takes to manufacture the goods that you buy, how you might become burdened by them, and the fact that our capitalistic society has really kind of built all of that.

Well, that was started by Annie Leonard. She’s a lifelong activist. She’s somebody who has actually collaborated with Jane Fonda to develop her environmentally based PAC that lobbies Congress. I mean, Jane Fonda has been arrested more than most people would ever be comfortable with- … but she’s also living that activism.

Kelly Cappasola: Yeah.

Corinna Bellizzi: And so to get to have deep conversations with people like that about our civil liberties, about, you know, what it takes to show up for the things that you believe in is just a privilege. It’s something I feel honored to do, and if I can play a part in inspiring other people to live their truths and to take a chance in some way in their lives, to take a chance e- even on themselves, to really say, you know, “This is something that I want in order for me to be happy,” like, “I need to give back in this way.”

From left to right: Trebora Morales, Ranice Innocent, Corinna Bellizzi, Alex Johnson, and Becky Schnekser, Prescott College’s PhD students, enjoying time together at The Raven Cafe, Prescott, AZ.

And lean into what might be a little bit scary at first to try something new. I see that as something that it’s an incredible privilege, and it’s something I’m thrilled to be able to do.

Kelly Cappasola: Yeah, and one of the things of being your friend over the course of these years is you don’t shy away from anything.

I think that’s one of the things that I really appreciate about you. Even the toughest conversations where most people are like, “I don’t wanna get involved,” you stand up for the people who aren’t willing to stand up for themselves. And I think when you do something like that, but you’re so enthralled by science and research, and you actually know what you’re talking about and can back it up, I think it encourages more people to wanna care more and be better.

So I, I love the whole thought process behind it because it doesn’t just impact certain conversations. This is something that you’re completely owning, and implying, and implementing in, uh, the whole course of your life, whether it be the way you raise your children, whether it be the way you treat your friendships or business dealings.

And let’s be honest, you’ve taken some really hard products that took a tremendous amount of education and built them into very successful companies. And again, you’ve done that based on science, based on research, based on wanting to put the best products out there. I mean, our most recent conversations over the years has been surrounded by Vacca.

I still, I have my bag right here. Do you hear it? I’m, I take my Örlö still every single day, my Algae Omega, but that was a hard space to get into. I mean, you came from a place of Nordic Naturals fish oil, you know, best of the best back in the day, and how did you pivot? Like, why was it so important for you to wanna pivot from a fish source to an algae source?

Corinna Bellizzi: Well, my husband would call me a fish oil or omega-3 evangelist. So, you know, what, what can I say there? I, I- Yeah … feel very strongly that people can benefit their health, their lives, and their mental clarity, and so much more if they just consume enough omega-3s in their diets and through supplementation.

The fact is that we don’t get enough from the food sources really anymore, and most of the fish that people are consuming now is farmed. Now, the problem there is that we feed farmed fish the foods that we feed to pigs and cows. Does that make sense?

Kelly Cappasola: No. Not at all.

Corinna Bellizzi: It really doesn’t, right? So they actually are now developing higher levels of omega-6 than omega-3.

So what does that mean? It means that we really need to go to supplementation if we’re going to get our levels of omega-3s up. And at the same time, we have declining health species of fish in the oceans, and all the fish oil companies are essentially trying to sweep that under the rug and deny the changes that are happening in our oceans that are impacting the health of our marine ecosystems and that will invariably mean that we have challenges continuing to supply the omega-3s that we need to consumers around the globe.

I made the pivot to algae with intention because I understood that fish get all of their omega-3s from the algae they consume. I also understood that some companies, like Baxa Technologies, who is the parent company of Örlö Nutrition, the consumer-facing brand, have figured out how to extract both EPA and DHA from algal sources, and that’s where fish get all of their omega-3s in the first place.

So we can go directly to that source without impacting marine ecosystems, without having to clean the oil afterwards because our oceans have become a bit of toxic soup too, unfortunately. It’s the reality of our world. You know, you can control the conditions you’re growing something when it’s indoors in a closed system, and that’s what we do at Baxa and Örlö.

So to have the privilege to be able to be kind of on the back end to help them develop this consumer-facing brand and then bring products to market that can change people’s health for the better has been an amazing journey. Now, do consumers automatically get that they don’t need to take quite as much of this omega-3 because it’s in the polar lipid form than the stuff in fish oil?

No, it’s a harder sell. It’s education based. There’s a lot of effort that has to go into that. But that’s also the challenge that I find inspiring because ultimately I’m creating a product through Örlö that is- easier to consume, that doesn’t burp back on you, that is absorbed better, and that ultimately isn’t negatively impacting the environment either, while also sequestering carbon, while also creating as a byproduct a soil amendment that can benefit the growth of plants for generations.

I mean, all of that is amazing. You know, to be able to create something that is actually creating cycles of good as opposed to cycles of degradation.

Kelly Cappasola: And that ended up landing you in Iceland, which is so great because when we talk about Vaxa and we talk about Isaac Berzin, he’s been on the show. You’ve brought him on. He was on the cover of Time Magazine. To be able to visually go there when you’ve learned so much about it must’ve been an amazing trip.

Corinna Bellizzi: Yeah, and you know, it is an incredible space to visit because you get to see how biotechnology has advanced to grow algae in these photobioreactors.

Essentially think about their process like vertical farming, but for algae that’s in, immersed in these little tubes, and then exposing it to the perfect amount of light and to the perfect amount of nutrients so that you can actually double its mass every two days. Algae grows exponentially when you optimize its conditions.

So this can become a resource that is one that generations can thrive consuming. I know people aren’t necessarily sticking a spoon into the water to slurp up algae out of a, um, you know, directly there. We do have to run some processing, but because we’ve controlled every input, that means that that processing is really minimal.

We can only use water and then an organic alcohol. So alcohol evaporates off, everything’s fine in the end, and you have something that is basically the first nutrition that ever existed on Earth, because algae were among the first species of life on Earth.

Kelly Cappasola: I always think about how creative you are too, like in some of the marketing campaigns, to really educate consumer versus that, you know, that has been done in the past, saying cut out the middle fish, saying that, you know, like that you shared with us minutes before where, you know, fish are essentially eating algae.

Algae is where they’re getting their omega-3s, so why would we wanna deal with some of the other things that could potentially come up? But I also like, we only have about two minutes before we have to run out to a break, but I wanted to speak to how much you believe in the science, and that was really clear about a year and a half ago when we would talk about Örlö and the omega products and the different line that you had, and you would encourage people to get their omegas tested.

And that’s, that again just shows that you believe and you n- have the knowledge that if people get proper levels… I mean, we’ve shared the studies. There’s been tons of them where if you have proper levels of omega-3s, you have a lower incidence of death. And i- you know, I wish it was as easy as telling people, “Just take a couple of these a day, get your EPA and DHA,” but it seems like it takes a lot of education behind that for people to find the value.

Corinna Bellizzi: Yeah, that’s certainly true, and they do have to make certain choices. You know, what are you going to budget every month for supplements? Are you taking a laundry basket full of pills every day? I know people who do. I used to be there too. Yeah. I’ve really refined it down to the ones that I know impact my health positively, and you can get to that by doing a little bit of research and sometimes a test or two a year.

And that doesn’t have to break the bank, but it can give you really meaningful information to say, “I’m taking enough. I’m not taking enough. I can refine this. I can do this differently,” and then your whole health picture can transform.

Kelly Cappasola: I think a lot of people just don’t get tested, and they kind of guess and they hope for the best.

And then as we age and during those certain processes where maybe we’re not able to absorb or even eliminate certain things, then we’re seeing that, “Oh, my gosh, is this how you’re supposed to feel when you’re aging?” No, get your numbers checked. See where you’re at. When we’re talking about all versions of health, not only your omegas, but also your vitamin D level.

You know, highlighting a really good friend, and that’s Corinna Belizzi, MBA, who’s now working through her PhD, by the way. So again, always about education, always about improvement. We were talking about the importance of testing, and I think when it comes to education, look, I told you, I talked to Jen Aliano.

We put a vitamin D test out there from OmegaQuant. It’s $65. You can learn more at checkyourd.org. But y- why do consumers sometimes not feel that it’s important to know their numbers, and what tests are really important when it comes down to maybe if they have insurance or if they don’t have insurance?

Corinna Bellizzi: Well, I think it’s important to understand the basics. One is that some of these tests can be quite expensive even if you have insurance and you try to go through insurance. I’ll give you a for instance. I have an HMO plan, and I just wanted to add an omega-3 panel onto my blood test since I had to do that anyway.

They’ll usually take your vitamin D, maybe look at my B vitamins. You know, there are certain things that would be included in that physical, and that can be different based on what your insurance is, right? But I asked about adding omega-3, and they said it would cost $150. Mm. Now, that seemed high to me, but mainly because I understand that I can go to omegaquant.com directly and get their omega-3 test, get EPA and DHA levels verified, and they’ll do so in just a couple of weeks’ time, and it costs $50.

Wow. Simple finger prick test, and then they give to me a report that helps me to understand what the data actually means. They’ll let me know where I sit by reference to this omega-3 index, and I can see easily if I’m under ideal or if I’m right in the sweet spot or if I need to improve just a little bit.

So spending that $50 was instrumental in defining for me that I needed to take a little bit more omega-3, but less than I might have gone up to if I didn’t know. If that makes sense. I think that’s an incredible asset. People can also get some other tests from OmegaQuant. I think they do D3, a K2, and a couple of others, if I remember correctly.

Kelly Cappasola: I think it’s Bill Harris, if I’m remembering right. I learned about him many, many years ago when Nordic was doing this in the early- Yeah … 2009s, 2010s, and then really, you know, following how… I, I just wanna be honest, there’s so many tests online. I mean, you can’t even go on, like, social media without somebody giving you a test, and they’re ranging from $75 to $250 for people who don’t see a doctor annually.

And some of those tests don’t really share that report, as you said, where, “Hey, you know where you’re at now with your le- levels. This is what you have to do to get back up to the proper level of what research is showing.” The Framingham study, I believe, is what it was called. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Corinna Bellizzi: the Framingham, yeah. Yeah. And it was, you know, um, a measurable challenge. I mean, if people got at least 8% of omega-3, like, their, their tissue levels got to 8%, they saw a dramatic drop in all-cause mortality. When you see that, it’s like, “Okay, well, death by any means and I’m doing better?

That’s a very good thing.

Kelly Cappasola: Yeah, 100%. I know it gets hard. There’s always the new latest trend. There’s always the new thing going on, and consumers at time are so desperate to be like, “How do I feel better? I heard about this weird berry that’s growing on the side of the mountain.” Not all of those have science.

Like, when we speak of anything on this program or recommend a nutritional supplement, that’s our number one thing, is first we use it privately for 60 to 90 days before we even talk about it to ensure that we don’t have problems with the product, that we’re feeling okay after taking it. And then after the sci- science is valid and we know how they’re manufacturing and we know that there’s not a bunch of additional additives or chemicals or things within that bottle, then we recommend it to consumers.

But you and I have been in this game a long time, and there’s a lot of supplements out there, especially when something becomes famous. Like, let’s talk about CBD. Mm. In the early stages, CBD Again, if you went with the science base, uh, what had some validity behind it, of course, we didn’t know how the endocannabinoid system worked, or you couldn’t dose, you had to figure out where your number was.

Very similar to some of these other things. But then came a lot of bad actors, people selling, you know, things they were making at a farmer’s market, or, you know, u- upping the numbers and the games. People were getting sick. You know, it kind of fell off very quickly. What do you think about when there’s hot trends and acquisition companies come in and they just wanna ride that trend, but they’re not doing anything to really create a sustainable product?

Corinna Bellizzi: I mean, that’s a big question, Kelly, and one of the first things I do is I look at who the company is. If it’s some night operation, mcould not even be. I’m just saying, if it’s something that’s only available on, let’s say, Amazon or other third-party sellers, then I tend to not gravitate towards those products.

I would do a little bit of an investigation behind the company, make sure that they were actually real, because I know too much about manufacturing. And the reality is, so many companies do not spend the resources to create something that’s really worthy. Now, you do a great job of vetting the companies you’ll accept as sponsors on this show.

So I know that any brand that I hear on Forever Young Radio is one that I can have trust in, and I think that’s really important. People need to understand that they can develop some relationships with key people in the industry that are in the know and follow their lead. I really like Dr. Rhonda Patrick for that reason.

She doesn’t accept sponsors on her show, and she’s very science-based, and it is, you know, a medical doctor and researcher leading these conversations with other scientists that are investigating health. They every once in a while will mention a product, but she does not accept any advertisers, so there’s no reason for her to.

She’s not benefiting from it, is what I’m getting at. So I think following people like that, that are not simply selling their soul to present a brand, um, there are a few of those, I don’t wanna name names, but I think if you really listen to your gut, you can figure that out pretty quickly, too.

Kelly Cappasola: And, you know, having some honesty, you know? Like, there’s been… I’m, I’m not gonna say that a company in the last 29 years I’ve been on air didn’t start out great. And have all the science and be really mindful of how they’re manufacturing, and then perhaps sold. And during that selling process, that brand and everything wasn’t the same as back in the day.

And we’ve cut partnerships with relationships like that. If, you know, a billion-dollar company is buying a small fry, uh, they’re not looking at the people half the time. And I think that’s really sad, especially when you see some of these family-owned and operated companies that get bought up by big conglomerates.

We all see a modification or a change along the way. Would you agree?

Corinna Bellizzi: I do. I mean, this is at the root of my research too. I spent the last few years really interviewing a lot of founders on my podcast and learning through that space, you know, who was real, who was authentically sharing the same story front stage that they’ll tell behind a closed door.

And, you know, really leading with authentic ethics that were rooted in what I would call ethics of care. Like, they’re in it for the right reasons. They’re leading with their values. And so the five brands that I featured in my research, I’m doing a cross case comparison study specifically on five brands in the natural product space, and I chose them through connections to them.

They were each individuals I had interviewed on my podcast. And one of them was, of course, Isaac Berzin, VAXA and ORLO. Now, I’m directly affiliated because I’m also a contractor for them. And so then I had to look really deeply, and just as deeply at the other brands that I was going to be assessing to check my own prejudice in a way and say, “Okay, um, am I believing this thing about this company because I’m just too close to it?”

And then how do I keep a, a researcher’s perspective as opposed to somebody who’s behind closed doors with the organization? Um, so it was a really, a stretch in a way. Like, you know, make sure I’m centering myself and I’m critically reviewing my own assumptions about these organizations, and then asking deeper questions and really diving in.

So the brands I ended up looking at were Kokoro Life, led by Rick Scalzo, and he had started Gaia Herbs. Many people know Gaia Herbs. He’s no longer affiliated with them. Have they changed? I’m sure they’ve changed a bit, and he’s been out of that company for a few years. He wasn’t done. He came back, he founded Kokoro Life.

They’ve been in business for three years. They’re taking the industry by storm it would seem. They’re getting placement all over on retail shelves, and they’re creating some very interesting products, most of which are fueled with ingredients that he grows regeneratively on his own farm in Costa Rica with really exacting standards and care for the people that are growing his crops, paying a living wage and doing things- Just right

Kelly Cappasola: Absolutely. And we’ve had Dr. Jeffrey Burke on the show. He had a 40-plus year radio show. I mean, there’s not much that the guy doesn’t know. And then him explaining to me, we’re doing all this in Costa Rica, we’re doing it in the manner of how it was done back in the old day.

You know? Maybe we’re doing coconut hull, maybe we’re tilling like they tilled 150 years ago to make sure we’re reinoculating and adding back into that soil. Because that’s the whole thing, Corinna, if we keep voiding our soils of so many things that we need, how are we actively creating a good crop that eventually would go into a food or a raw material that would go into a supplement?

But there were some other brands. I know we mentioned Vaxa and, and you know, we talked about that, but you picked five brands to really do a deep dive on, especially when we’re talking about the ethics behind sustainable enterprise and regenerative. So let’s talk a little bit about that if you don’t mind, ’cause this is really your life’s work.

Corinna Bellizzi: Oh gosh, you put it that way. Yes, it is.

Kelly Cappasola: Yeah.

Corinna Bellizzi: So, um, let me start with the first brand I chose, and that was Lotus Foods. Lotus Foods is led by two incredible individuals that founded the company back in 1995 after they spent some time in China and were looking at rice strains to import into the United States.

And essentially what they noticed at that time was that there were certain strains of rice that were being under-leveraged, that weren’t really present in the marketplace, and that they felt were almost culturally dying off in these smaller villages. And so they are the people behind that forbidden rice, that black rice that has- Mm

made its way into our cuisine. It’s delightful and amazing. And ultimately, they’ve say, stayed so true to this early mission of wanting to preserve and protect these culturally bound heritage rices. And then as they got deeper into that business and deeper into that business over the years, they really started advocating for the small holder farmers they were working with.

They started to see not only the backbreaking labor that went into growing rice, but that there were other methods coming out of research at places like Cornell with the System of Rice Intensification where they could grow more crop per drop with less backbreaking labor. And so they built entire systems around getting this information out there.

They even partnered with Black farmers in the United States to really bring this reparative agriculture through partnerships to them as well, to teach them a better way of doing things. And now on a per acre basis, 300 hours fewer are needed in the way of labor. That’s backbreaking labor that is not needed. 300 hours fewer per acre of rice.

Kelly Cappasola: Wow.

Corinna Bellizzi: The yields are improved, the soil health is improved. The fact that there’s roughly half again as much, um, methane being released into the atmosphere because they’re not having to flood the fields, which creates an anaerobic condition under the soil and, you know, there’ll be some rot of vegetation.

So they’ve just developed a better way. And then they actually partnered with other companies that were building the regenerative organic certification, and as they did so, they advocated for those smallholder farmers to make sure that those individuals that were growing crops in these smaller plots of lands could also qualify to be ROK certified.

Mm. And now they were the first company to come out with a regenerative orga- organic certified level gold rice product on the market at all. And so you can now find their rices, um, at places like Costco. They have a noodle that they sell there, like a, an unflavored ramen that you can juice up however you want it.

Mm. Um, their products in, um, are available in health food stores nationally. You can order direct. They even created a book, Rice Is Life, which is, like, this cookbook and exploration of rice around the world. They’re just incredibly ethically based people, and Carol Levine and Ken Lee served as co-CEOs for 30 years before- Mm

passing the torch to a professional management team. They’re still on the board. They’re still out there advocating. They’re still forming partnerships, and they’re committed to the work. Right. So I love them. It’s so easy to say, I think, like, “Oh, it’s just rice.”

Kelly Cappasola: Yeah.

Corinna Bellizzi: And, and that’s not how they saw it. They saw it as culture and protection of people, and they saw it as a much bigger thing.

Yeah. And I love that. I think it’s definitely on point with what people want. They want to partner with companies like that, that live their ethics and that are not just putting lipstick on a pig, so to speak.

Kelly Cappasola: Now, you had another one, the Organic Skin Company. I’m interested in that one. What did you, what did you kinda learn about them?

Corinna Bellizzi: You know, one of the problems in skincare, there, there are many, but one primary problem is that people are looking for a quick fix. And they won’t necessarily have the patience to stick around with something that will actually improve their skin health and the skin barrier with time. But what this brand has done with their products is create something that feels so nice, smells so nice, is so nice on the skin, that even though you get improving, uh, effects with time- especially if you use multiple products of theirs.

It’s just a joy to utilize their products. Yeah. At the same time, they’ve dramatically reduced the plastics that are used in their products. Everything’s packaged in glass or this kind of aluminum tube. Only 2% of their packaging is plastic. The ingredients are so clean. They’re using CO2 extracts of herbs in all of their formulas, and, uh, the founder, Megan Douglas, she really built these products to be part of her naturopathic approach, right?

She was working in natural skincare, she was serving people, and through her clinic essentially doing this, and then decided to scale it with the creation of The Organic Skin Co. They’re based out of New Zealand, and one of the things I just simply love about her is that she is also making some of these same choices, which is often just saying, “I refuse to do it the easy way.

I’m going to do it the right way.” That is a common thread that you will see with every company I featured in my research, from Lotus Foods, to Cocoro Life, to The Organic Skin Co., to Everyone or EO Products, to Vexa and Örlö. I mean, they are committed to doing it the right way. I would call them privately regenerative renegades.

They see the path clearly, they’re committed to it, kind of like, “Come with me or get out of the way.” Yeah. “I’m gonna figure this out.”

Kelly Cappasola: Tell us a little bit about Circle B.

Corinna Bellizzi: Well, my intention with Circle B was to essentially work as a contractor for a variety of companies to help them develop the best messaging platform to reach the right consumers, and ultimately live their values the way these five companies have.

And so that is going to be my next path. I have been working for the last five years with Vexa Technologies and Örlö Nutrition, and I’m continuing to do that, but I look at it as maintenance phase now.

So I’m seeking the next partners that I’ll work with once I complete my degree, and that’s the platform that also brings you my podcast, Care More, Be Better.

So all of these things are connected, and, um, I consider this, like, not like I’m retiring from work in the natural channel. I’m just moving on to the next phase. I’m likely to finish a book, um, sometime before the end of the year, and so I’ll be looking for a book deal as well that connects to my research.

Kelly Cappasola: I love it. I love that you get out of bed every day and you think about first how can I prioritize my family, my two young boys, my two rescue dogs, you know, being married to a great guy named Matt. But how do you- find the motivation and the drive, especially as we’re aging, going through menopause. Like, just how do you keep going?

I mean, it’s one of the things that I admire most about you. I’m like, “She’s a dog on a bone. She gets it done.” But what is your passion and motivation that keeps you going every single day when things like life get in the way? Like, you had to have a massive knee surgery, uh, gosh, a year ago. I mean, there’s things that are always popping up, but it never slows you down.

How, how does that work, Corinna?

Corinna Bellizzi: I think it’s sickness.

Kelly Cappasola: A type A sickness that I love.

Corinna Bellizzi: I often wish I could slow down a little bit more. One of the things I’m really forcing myself to do right now is take the time to put the fit and finish on my dissertation. To really think deeply about these companies and what makes them so incredible, to understand that it takes time to build a really authentic brand and a really authentic company.

Too often we see an organization that’s got a really nice marketing campaign, but there’s really no substance to it, you know?

And so I really wanna be focused on that substance, on getting leaders to think about how to lead from this position of genuine love for what their role in the world is, and for how they can introduce ethics of care into their business in a way that is not performative, that is not just slapping a label on.

So that we can all move forward with more faith in the reasons we spend money on the things that we do, you know? It’s knowing that every person in the chain of creation of that product had some ethics surrounding them, that it’s not just another product on the shelf, that you didn’t have child labor infused in its manufacture.

I mean, these are things that should matter to everybody.

Kelly Cappasola: Listeners, you can l- go learn more about the wonderful podcast, Care More, Be Better. We have some links as well for you to learn a little bit more about Corinna. Please go and do that at the weekly highlight page at foreveryoungradio.com.

Corinna, always a pleasure. Thank you for the time today.

Corinna Bellizzi: Thank you.

Kelly Cappasola: All right, listeners. Hope you have a happy and healthy week, and we’ll catch you next time right here on Forever Young.

Resources

Author

Corinna Bellizzi

Corinna is a natural products industry executive who has earned a reputation for leading the development and growth of responsible brands (e.g. Nordic Naturals, iwi, NutriGold). In her professional life, she champions social benefit programs to enhance company impact while preserving and protecting our home planet. She’s presently working tirelessly on the development of a new pre-market that seeks to achieve a carbon-negative impact. In January 2021 she launched her show, Care More, Be Better: A Social Impact + Sustainability Podcast to amplify the efforts of inspired individuals and conscious companies. Through Care More Be Better, she shares their stories in an effort to show us all that one person with one idea can have a big impact. As part of her lifelong education journey, she earned her MBA from Santa Clara University, graduating at the top of her class with a triple focus in Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Marketing in June 2021.

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