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Nell Newman's Organic Thanksgiving

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What was the catalyst that made you want to eat organic?

In 1968, when I was 8, I was given a pet kestrel—a sparrow hawk—by our gardener. The hawk sparked my interest in becoming an ornithologist. Within a couple of years ornithologists realized that peregrine falcons were extinct east of the Mississippi due to DDT, and becoming extinct across the rest of the United States. It’s just a shock for a kid to hear that this incredible falcon, which can dive at 200 mph, was disappearing. What is DDT? What is it used for? I would ask.

As a child, it was very difficult for me to understand the effects of mankind on the earth but it really got the whole ball rolling for me. I didn’t know at that age what organic food was but once I found out, I decided that’s what I was going to eat.

What do you see as the main argument for eating organic? Health or the environment?

Well, you can’t separate the two. What you’re spraying on your food has a direct effect on the environment. Pesticides are poisons that kill insects and plants. Number one, you are killing everything in the soil, and two, the pesticides don’t just go away, they go into the water, then the soil and move up the food chain.

One of my biggest concerns is the accumulation of all these poisons and chemicals in our bodies, as we don’t know what their effects are, especially when combined. I had a blood test done about 15 years ago just to see what was there. They found DDT, PCBs and a termite pesticide!

How did you start the organic line of Newman’s Own?

In 1992 I was a frustrated fundraiser for a small nonprofit, the Predatory Bird Research Group. I was looking at what my father was doing by giving 100 percent of his profits from Newman’s Own to charity and thought: Gee, why don’t I do something like that, start a line of organic products and support worthy organizations?

I was very naive about what I was getting into so I asked my friend Peter Meehan, who had a business degree, to help me out. We convinced Pop through the famous “Thanksgiving Dinner” that organic food was delicious and a worthy cause. He said, “OK, I’ll pay you each $15,000 plus expenses to get this off the ground but you have to pay me back.”

Did you pay your dad back?

Yes! The organic line started in 1993, with pretzels. Carbs were in back then and pretzels were my dad’s favorite snack and the number-one-selling snack food. I paid him back in one year. Today, Newman’s Own Organics is an independent company with 80 products. This year marks $250 million donated by Paul Newman and the Newman’s Own Foundation to educational and charitable organizations, including to my top three nonprofits: the Organic Farming Research Foundation in Santa Cruz, the Homeless Garden Project, which provides resources for the homeless through organic gardening, and Shared Adventures, which serves the physically and developmentally challenged.

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