Tag Archives: Ted Nordquist

Green Entrepreneur Ted Nordquist Brings a Sustainable Philosophy to the Business World (Part 2)

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This is the second part of my interview with WholeSoy founder Ted A. Nordquist. (You can read Part 1 here.) In addition to running his soy yogurt company, Mr. Nordquist serves on the technical advisory board for the Non-GMO Project. So it’s not surprising that a large part of the discussion focused on the risks and ethics of genetically engineered foods.

GMO stands for genetically modified organism, a life form created by combining genes that would not come together in nature.

“The best example is a tomato that is resistant to frost,” Nordquist says. To create this plant, “[biotech researchers] take a gene from the DNA of an arctic fish that is cold-resistant and inject it into the DNA of a tomato plant. But the tomato plant DNA won’t accept the gene, so they take a virus called a marker gene,  attach it to the fish gene, and shoot it into the DNA of the tomato plant.”

While people have been hybridizing plants for centuries, genetic engineering is different. Using traditional breeding methods, you could combine separate tomato plants to produce a desired characteristic, such as larger fruit. But you couldn’t combine a fish with a tomato.

Genetic engineering is a way of breaking the rules, or “reprogramming the operating system of nature,” as Nordquist puts it. Because this form of genetics is relatively new, its consequences are largely unknown.

The problem, Nordquist says, is that DNA is extremely complex (one strand has enough information to fill the Library of Congress), and researchers don’t completely understand its workings. Many people, including Nordquist, believe there is not enough evidence to declare genetically engineered food safe. “It’s a huge human experiment.”

Due to the uncertainty surrounding GMOs, several countries have banned or restricted them, and the European Union requires GMO foods to be labeled. But no such measures have been passed in the United States, thanks to lobbying by the biotech industry.

What advantages do GMO plants offer? In many cases, they can increase productivity. For instance, a farmer who plants herbicide-resistant corn can spray Roundup on his fields without killing the crop. GM has also been used to make vegetables more nutritious and to give them a longer shelf life.

Even for farmers, GMOs have their downsides. When using conventional plants, a farmer can collect the seeds and replant them year after year. However, Nordquist explains that this is not possible with GMO plants, because the engineered organisms are considered the property of the company that invented them. No one else has the right to reproduce the “name-brand” plant varieties.

“What [biotech companies] are after,” Nordquist warns, “is control of the food chain.” If the industry keeps progressing the way it is, “someday in the future, some guys in black suits will show up at a small Asian farm and tell the farmer that he has to pay them a dollar an acre, or they will sue him” because he is planting a seed they created.

The power to change the GMO situation lies in the hands of consumers. That is why groups like the Non-GMO Project are working to educate shoppers. The Non-GMO project is also pioneering a labeling system for certified GMO-free foods.

Third-party certification is an important tool for buyers that want to support Non-GMO foods. Many people do not realize that up to 90 percent of corn and 92 percent of soybean acreage in the U.S. is genetically modified. And the “USDA organic” sticker does not necessarily indicate a GMO-free product.

After discussing the concrete issues of green business and genetic engineering, Nordquist returns to philosophy—a subject with which he seems fittingly comfortable.

“The only way people will be able to survive on the planet,” he says, “is if they can come in contact with their fundamental natural essence, a sense of comfort, being at peace with themselves.”

It is this deeper sense of nature than makes Nordquist stand out among other green business leaders. For him, social responsibility isn’t just a buzzword. He is committed to sustainability because he believes it’s the right thing to do—and he isn’t afraid to say so.

Nordquist closes with a hopeful message for the future: “Everyone has inside them the essential program that runs the universe. If people become one with that innate essence, that essence of love and joy… everything will be all right.”

Green Entrepreneur Ted Nordquist Brings a Sustainable Philosophy to the Business World (Part 1)

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The founder of WholeSoy & Co. talks about GMO food, responsible business, and right livelihood.

When it comes to eco-friendly food choices, some folks buy organic, while others go vegan. WholeSoy & Company, an independent business based in San Francisco, has everybody covered with their organic, non-GMO soy yogurt. Food doesn’t get much greener than that.

I recently had the chance to talk with the founder and CEO of WholeSoy & Co., Ted A. Nordquist, PhD. He shared his thoughts on sustainable business, social change, and genetically modified food.  And, as a former scholar of Asian religion, Dr. Nordquist wasn’t afraid to delve into the philosophical roots of his green endeavors.

Ted Nordquist, PhD

Nordquist’s adventures with soyfood began in 1975, when he met William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, authors of the Book of Tofu, a work credited with awakening Western interest in tofu. After learning from them the traditional Asian methods of crafting soyfoods, Nordquist founded Sweden’s first tofu plant, Aros Sojaprodukter KB, where he and five employees made from two to four tons of tofu products each week.

In 1994 Nordquist moved back to the United States, founding WholeSoy & Co a few years later. Although WholeSoy & Co now has the bestselling non-dairy yogurt on the market, Nordquist is eager to point out that the company has not outgrown its green values.

To many business leaders, sustainability is a tool for marketing products and improving public relations. Ted Nordquist is different, in that respect; sustainability is an essential piece of his personal philosophy.

Nordquist thinks of Earth as a mother. “Everything people do in relation to the plant and animal kingdoms has to somehow contribute to the health and wellbeing of the planet.”

Nordquist’s commitment to social and environmental responsibility is inspired, in part, by his studies of Eastern spirituality. In his former job as a professor of Asian philosophy at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, he focused on the history of religion. Although he has a degree in political science, he has found that “politics is not really where change occurs.” Instead, “politics reflects changes in the fundamental values” of a society. “Fundamental beliefs steer how a culture evolves.”

His own beliefs about sustainability are rooted in the concept of right livelihood—the idea that one’s occupation should influence the planet and its life in a positive way. While right livelihood is part of Buddhism’s teachings, Nordquist sees it as universal, not restricted to a certain belief system. “Living peacefully and wholesomely,” he says, is a “fundamental aspect” of all religions. “It’s just common sense.”

What Nordquist calls “common sense” may sound like an impractically high standard in today’s business world. But Nordquist is determined to set an example through his own company by recognizing the triple bottom line: not just profits, but also people and planet.

How does this thinking apply to a soy yogurt company? To start, WholeSoy & Co uses organic, non-genetically modified soybeans, processing them with a chemical-free method. The company sources fruit locally and donates money to dozens of nonprofits. Also, because of the office’s location, the entire staff can commute via public transportation.

Nordquist points out that the family-owned, independent nature of WholeSoy & Co has allowed it to develop a flexible policy with its employees. For example, he says, one woman worked from home during her pregnancy and continues to do so while caring for her child.

How does the philosophy of right livelihood translate to large-scale business? “A problem is size,” Nordquist says. As businesses swell, they tend to become less personal and less sincerely committed to responsibility. “I do think companies with a high level of social responsibility and sustainability will be smaller.”

Right now, the market is controlled by multinational giants that focus on operating with the lowest cost, often at the expense of people and nature.  But Nordquist sees the beginnings of a shift in consumer values. He hopes that buyers will “start looking at their local community and start purchasing goods and services from people they know and trust. If this trend continues… more of these companies will be able to be socially responsible and the economy overall will be more sustainable.”

Continue to Part 2 of the interview with Dr. Nordquist.