New Hope Natural Media and a division of Penton Media Inc. announced the sixth annual Natural Products Expo Asia and set new attendance and exhibition records. The 2008 tradeshow and conference was held in June at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. The event showcased more than 10,000 natural, organic and eco-products in the industry’s largest event in Asia.
Exhibitors came from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan Korea, Canada, U.S. Japan, Argentina, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Philippines, New Zealand, India and Sri Lanka. The floor space also expanded and reflecting a growing range of product offerings including natural and organic food and beverages.
The top ten attendee countries were Korea, Taiwan, Mainland China, Philippines, Malaysia, U.S., Thailand, Japan, Singapore and Australia. The event received U.S. Department of Commerce certification and as well as support from the Organic Food Development Centre Ministry of Environmental Protection, Nippon Pharmacy Association, Korea Health Supplement Association and Austrade. The seventh annual Natural Products Expo Asia will be held next June 25-27, 2009 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.
Penton Media, Inc. is the largest independent business-to-business media company in the U.S. and serving more than six million business professionals every month. The company’s market-leading brands are focused on 30 industries and include 113 trade magazines, 145 Web sites, 150 industry trade shows and conferences and more than 500 information data products.

Ph.D. Pam G. Marrone is reports a development of a new “green” pesticide obtained from an extract of the giant knotweed, in a report scheduled for presentation at the 236th national meeting of the American Chemical Society. The booming consumption of organic foods creates a pressing need for natural insecticides and herbicides that can be used on crops certified as “organic”.
Founder and CEO of Marrone Organic Innovations Inc., Marrone said, “the product is safe to humans, animals, and the environment.” The new biopesticide have an active compound that alerts plant defenses to a range of diseases, including powdery mildew, gray mold and bacterial blight that affect fruits and vegetables. Marja Koivunen, Ph.D., director of research and development for Marrone Organic Innovations said that the product will be available this coming October for conventional growers and a new formulation has also develop for organic farmers and will be available in 2009.
Biopesticides are derived from plants, microbes, and other natural materials and are proven to be safer for humans and the environment. The Marrone Organic Innovations or MOI R&D team is working on an organic rice herbicide based on an extract from a marine microorganism, and also on insecticides and nematocides to kill insect pests and soil inhabiting, like parasitic roundworms that affect plants and animals.
The synthetic pesticides sales dominate the $30 billion pesticide market and the use of biopesticides is increasing. Marrone Organic Innovations officials estimate that global sales will hit $1 billion by 2010 and grow 10 percent a year on average and the biopesticide could make up 4.25 percent of the global pesticide business in 2010, up from 2.5 percent in 2005

“To provide a healthy alternative while educating our community and securing our place in the organic culture.” This is the mission of Chad Cherry, Roosevelt Desir, Kirk Nelson and Andre Walker. Cherry said “We want people to live a more organic lifestyle,” “Not necessarily 100 percent, but to incorporate being green, sustainability, taking care of your body and mind.” At least two of the four, that last admonition is more than trend-speak. Chad Cherry a 28 year old has type II diabetes, and in 2006 Roosevelt Desir a 26 year old developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in remission since a bone marrow transplant last year.
Roosevelt Desir said “As soon as I finished treatment, my best friend introduced me to Kirk and Chad about organic,” “I took the opportunity and ran with it. I always loved to cook and took some of what I know and what I learned from the guys and clicked right off the bat.”
Kirk Nelson is 27 and a head chef his come up with the sauces for all the dishes. Pineapple jerks sauce, mango peppercorn sauce and a honey mango that is perfect for holiday baked ham. Andre Walker age 34 he said “I jump in wherever needed marketing strategies, for instance. But cooking is a love of mine” and his specialty are codfish fritters. Roosevelt Desir specialty is a dish called legumes, long steamed eggplant and cabbage, sometimes with carrots and parsley. And Chad Cherry makes a mango mousse with fresh strawberries and a strawberry reduction and also says that “We plan to be the new face of organic.”