Several important updates regarding the NuManna fiasco that broke yesterday:
- We have heard back from CCOF, the organic certifier, who confirms that NuManna-branded products are certified by CCOF, but that they cannot release any details of the organic certs. NuManna owner Daniel Brigman tells us he is going to publicly post the organic certificates. This action is still pending. We are asking for proof of the last organic audit, and the audit date. If this gets posted, we will consider the organic question resolved. We have posted an update to our original article from yesterday in order to reflect this.
- Importantly, understand that organic certification requires NO lab testing whatsoever. "Organic" doesn't mean anything is tested for heavy metals, GMOs or pesticides. The USDA organic certification system is a paperwork audit of inputs onto food or farms. No lab testing whatsoever is carried out during organic certification of end products. That's why pesticide and heavy metals testing must be conducted in addition to organic certification.
- NuManna is refunding some customers who are requesting refunds on the Organic Family Pack products which carried the fraudulent, misleading labels as we reported yesterday. We do not know how many refunds are being issued, or what NuManna says qualifies a customer for a refund. Note that our story from yesterday is focused entirely on the "Organic Family Pack" product from NuManna and does not pertain to NuManna's other, non-organic products.
- One distributor reached out to us and has cut off all ties to NuManna after learning what we reported yesterday. They have removed all NuManna products from their website and will no longer represent the NuManna brand, they tell us. From a conversation with that distributor, they said, "We had no idea NuManna was using your name and lab certification without permission. Had we known, we would have demanded immediate action from NuManna." This distributor is one of many that have contacted us via our whistleblower email that you can use to reach us about this story: [email protected]
- If you have information regarding NuManna that you believe is relevant to this ongoing investigation, you can reach us at the same email: [email protected]
Note that we are protecting the identities of whistleblowers so you may contact us in confidence. We are continuing to investigate this story and have spoken with five distributors so far.
Do not blame distributors or retailers - they did not know
Despite our best efforts to inform people -- both in our podcast and in our article -- that distributors of this product were surely unaware of the NuManna label / marketing fraud and deception, and that distributors or retailers of the NuManna products deserve no blame whatsoever for the inception of this situation, we are hearing from some distributors that their customers are extremely frustrated and blaming them for this situation.
Note that we also were not aware until just a few days ago that our badges, logos, lab claims, etc., were still being carried on new production "Organic Family Pack" buckets which were being recently received in new inventory by distributors, despite the promises of NuManna from late 2021 that they would remove all such labeling at that time. (They lied. They continued to use them anyway.)
I want to reiterate to all those who purchased NuManna products from such distributors that distributors carry no blame for this, and please do not vent any frustration in their direction. One hundred percent of the blame falls on NuManna, a company that deliberately, malicious, and repeatedly misrepresented their products to their distributors and their customers, via the label fraud and marketing fraud we outlined yesterday.
The labels, of course, are placed on the buckets by the manufacturer (NuManna), not the distributors or retailers. The responsibility for the label belongs with the manufacturer.
Why we went public
We went public with this story because remaining silent would have been equivalent to complicity in the fraud. After multiple, documented attempts spanning many years of effort to demand NuManna do the right thing and remove our names, claims, and artwork from their labels, website and marketing materials, NuManna thrust us into a position where we had no other choice but to go public, especially after recently learning they were still using our logos and claims on their physical products being sent to retail distributors in the last few days.
We demand no money from NuManna, and merely demand a public apology and a commitment to refunding customers who purchased this product based on false marketing claims. We are also publicly asking that NuManna donate the full royalty they technically owe us -- for all these product sales over all the years -- to non-profit organizations that we choose, and that we would publicly announce for full transparency.
Furthermore, we believe that the survival foods industry needs to be held to account when they mislead consumers. This is about the integrity of the survival food industry and the integrity of the alternative / indy media. When companies honestly position and market their products, whether conventional, organic, lab tested, non-tested, or otherwise, then consumers have the information they need to make informed decisions about the quality of the product vs. price, availability, etc. This is a free market principle. But when a manufacturer cheats and misrepresents what they are selling, then consumers are misled and damaged, and honest producers are at a disadvantage compared to the dishonest promoters, and the consumer suffers.
Also, notably, there can exist honest small mistakes, typos, errors, etc., in any company, affecting labeling, marketing, etc. Honest mistakes are quickly resolved, especially as they are brought to the attention of the manufacturer. But NuManna carried out deliberate, longstanding, malicious deception with their full knowledge, and they withheld knowledge of this from their own distributors and retailers, causing harm to those distributors and retailers in the process. That practice is unacceptable.
In any dispute we deal with, we give everyone ample time to respond to requests to do the right thing. In NuManna's case, that was over five years of repeated demands on our part. In fact, we are being criticized for not going public sooner. And that criticism is fair. In retrospect, we probably should have published all this six months ago, if not sooner.
We reserve the right to sue NuManna for its unauthorized use of our intellectual property -- and for the pain and suffering they have caused us in dealing with this entire ordeal -- but we will consider permanently setting that aside if NuManna simply publishes a public apology, refunds their customers, and donates the owed royalties to non-profits of our choosing (which would be health freedom champion groups such as Children's Health Defense and others). These donations can be structured over time in a settlement agreement that we are willing to consider.
Thank you for your support as we work to tell the truth and do what's right. Sometimes, the right thing is achieved by exposing the wrong.
Please contact us for more information.