On Tuesday August 12th Colleen Kavanagh, CEO of ZEGO and CIVC, took the stage at the Heritage Foundation to discuss the role of agricultural innovation in public health. As part of Heritage’s “Future of Farming: Exploring a Pro-Health Pro-Farmer Agenda” conversation, Colleen was part of the “Role of Agriculture Innovation in Public Health” panel along with Carter Williams of iSelect Fund and John Kempf, Founder and Chief Vision Officer of Advancing Eco Agriculture.
“As a former democratic congressional staffer, I never imagined being asked to participate in a forum at The Heritage Foundation. I appreciated its willingness to reach outside its circle to include me and tap into my life’s work to make it easier for consumers to access, choose, and afford food with higher nutrition and lower toxic residue. “
Colleen’s career ranges from local, state, and federal nutrition policy advisor to processing and ingredient supplier of purity verified grains (CIVC LLC), and CPG brand owner (ZEGO LLC), as well as consumer advocate.
“I welcomed the opportunity to speak on the topic of agriculture innovation and how it can improve public health. I’ve long held that because of the power of big food and big chemical in politics, consumers must lead the clean food revolution. For them to do that, we have to provide transparency into pesticide and heavy metal residue that is invisible to them. These residues not only directly impact their health, they also serve as an indicator of food quality and nutrition, growing practices, soil health, farmer health, and air and water purity.
ZEGO pioneered connecting consumers to lab test results for toxic residue for our products through the QR code on the product package. And now, there is a California law requiring baby food brands to do the same. We need to make this type of transparency standard on all food and educate consumers about how to use the information to get the best wellness ROI for their food purchases. I’m glad everyone at the Heritage event expanded our circles to connect on a topic that will span many administrations,” Colleen added.
During the panel, Colleen shared that metrics like this to connect consumers to how farming practices make a difference in the health of their food. Lower presence of heavy metal and pesticide residue are an indication of farming practices that improve soil and plant health.
She held up an example of one of the easy-to-understand thermometers ZEGO developed to explain their purity verification testing for lead to consumers. The thermometers not only disclose the testing results for the product but also educate the consumers on whether those numbers are considered low compared to international standards and industry norms.
Colleen also stressed the need for more regional processing facilities to bring cleaner ingredients and high-quality nutritious products to consumers at an affordable price. As CEO of CIVC, Colleen is in a unique position to create a northwest-based regional processing facility to help the US get closer to this unmet need. CIVC is revolutionizing the role of the mid-tier of the food supply chain. This collaborative integrated value chain for gluten-free grains will not only value farmers as essential partners, but also will uplift purpose-driven food brands, and deliver clean, nutrient-dense foods to consumers at competitive prices.
The full video can be viewed above courtesy of C-Span’s coverage of the event.