CPG Goes MAHA: Weiland, Moses, Fabricant Chew the Fat in D.C.

CPG industry leaders, including KeVita co-founder Bill Moses and Presence Marketing founder Bill Weiland, called for the food and beverage industry to embrace a healthier American diet at a roundtable conference hosted today by The MAHA Institute, a political group helping to promote and guide policy for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again initiative.

The panel, which also included Natural Products Association CEO Dan Fabricant and PERFECTRX CEO Steve Bullock, revolved around ways the natural products industry can promote the MAHA agenda to improve America’s food system and support healthy living through clean eating – and that includes becoming more overtly political, at least behind the scenes.

Moses, who introduced the session, suggested that MAHA is largely born out of a “subculture within the natural foods and supplements industry” that has existed for years and been driven by organic and clean label brands.

“This industry, which represents about $160 billion a year, is advocacy, is policy pushing, is getting local officials elected,” Moses said. “We believe that this particular group industry can advance the zeitgeist of the moment, which is MAHA, and make it into an institutional, legacy movement [that] goes well beyond this moment.”

He added, “My objective and agenda is to actually use this force, this political business energy, to continue to drive deeper [and] broader across all socio-economic places, across all communities in America.”

The one-day conference, hosted at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., highlighted a number of pillars of the MAHA movement – reflected in Kennedy’s agenda as head of HHS – including programs to encourage kids and teens to get outside more and spend less time on social media, and rethinking old nutrition guidelines such as the food pyramid, as well as more controversial subjects like anti-vaccination theories.

As it pertains to CPG, Weiland said he believes that the natural products industry has long been at the forefront of health and wellness and was ahead of the curve on trends that have now been embraced by MAHA such as a return to consuming natural, animal-based products. He added a dose of skepticism around proposed alternatives like cricket-based protein and lab-developed meat alternatives, the latter of which have faced increasing struggles in the market, and both of which have been proposed as alternatives to more resource-intensive animal proteins.

“I’ll tell you what else people don’t want: lab food,” Weiland said, following a declaration that consumers will also not buy or eat crickets. “Precision fermentation? No chance. Bio-identical dairy? No way. Cell-based meat? The cell ain’t gonna sell – and I promise you all of that is 100% accurate.”

Weiland, a longtime prognosticator of industry trends, touted products like bone broth and collagen as strong categories. Presence Marketing helped build those categories through partnerships with brands like Bonafide Provisions, Vital Proteins and Ancient Nutrition.

He also pointed to grain-free products as another strong trend that aligns with MAHA’s philosophy, as well as the rise of seed oil-free products. Weiland pointed to Presence’s relationship with chip brand Boulder Canyon, where he advised the startup to drop seed oils from its products and instead use avocado and coconut oils instead, which he credited with a rise in sales.

“[With] grain-free the biggest percentage of sales … it’s just people that say ‘Hey, I don’t want a carbohydrate bomb. I want my cracker or my tortilla to be calories of consequence.’”

Weiland promised that there will be “hundreds and hundreds of SKUs in the next three years” from food brands using beef and bison-based tallow, duck fat, pork lard and other animal-based fats, rather than vegetable and seed oils – despite numerous health concerns over the high levels of saturated fat present in tallow that has been linked to higher levels of coronary disease.

Introducing Fabricant, Moses said that the industry group leader was vital to securing Kennedy’s appointment as HHS secretary, sending about “40,000 emails” and taking personal meetings with Senators Susan Collins, Lindsay Graham and Lisa Murkowski to support his approval by the Senate.

“Whenever we saw that Bobby [Kennedy] was really advocating for natural products, supplements, etc., I went to Dan and I said, ‘Dan, we want to roll out grassroots support around the country to support Bobby and his nomination. Lend a hand.’ Dan stepped up in a second,” Moses said.

Fabricant cautioned that while they may have succeeded in helping appoint Kennedy to his position, the real work for the movement is just beginning: “It’s not time to go home. It’s time to stay involved,” he said.

In more partisan terms, Weiland also issued a call to action.

“Here’s what I want to say to our friends across the aisle, this is such a layup,” Weiland said. “Don’t fight us on this one, Democrats. I’ll tell you this, this train is coming and you have two choices – get on board or get out of the way. Let’s go MAHA!”