Good Articles

Dr. Bronner’s launched their soaps in Israel in September, 2008, long-sought by Dr. Bronner and an historic moment for the company on its 60th anniversary, the same as Israel’s. Dr. Bronner’s younger sister Lotte Reches emigrated to the Ein Gev kibbutz in 1936 from Germany and currently resides in Haifa, with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren living throughout Israel. The Bronner family’s story and efforts on behalf of organic and Fair Trade agriculture were well-covered by the Israeli media. The two translated articles below from Israeli newspapers are well worth reading.

By any stretch of the imagination, Dr. Emanuel Bronner was wildly eccentric. But he made his indelible mark on the world with two things: Some of the purest soap around and his ever-evolving philosophy of peace and love he called the Moral ABC of All-One-God-Faith.

The market for natural and organic cosmetics has grown in leaps and bounds in recent years, helped by the swelling ranks of "green" consumers who are ready to pay a premium for environmentally friendly goods.

The company that makes Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, a counterculture staple, sued many of its personal care competitors Monday over the validity of their organic labels as the once-quiet "green" cosmetic sector has soared in popularity, luring several Wall Street corporations into the field.

AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Can economic cooperation with olive growers aid efforts at peaceful co-existence between Palestinians and Israelis? Sam Eaton reports.

New tests of 100 "natural" and "organic" soaps, shampoos and other consumer products show that nearly half of them contained a cancer-causing chemical that is a byproduct of petrochemicals used in manufacturing.

You’ve bought their soap at your local co-op for years. You’ve read the words of wisdom on the outside of their bottles and wondered about the eccentricities behind the label. Here’s your chance to find out.

HUNDREDS of soaps, shampoos and skin creams call themselves organic, but their labels have long been confusing, even misleading. A moisturizing cream might be made with organic kiwi, strawberries, jojoba oil and aloe vera, but then mixed with synthetic preservatives. No government agency checked whether the ingredients were truly organic.

It’s not just anyone who will stand up in front of a classroom full of jaded high school kids, strap on an acoustic guitar and ask the stone faces to sing along to an improvised tune about llamas, turtles and hippos. But there is a kernel of that idea – believe in yourself and you can get anything done – in Ralph Bronner’s messages.

Plenty of business leaders and professors have told Cally Boman-Dunham ’02 about the importance of running an ethical, employee-oriented company.
But the international relations and business major has never been particularly inspired by those messages.
“Lots of people talk about the concept of business ethics – about treating people well and treating the environment well,” Boman-Dunham said. “But, I’ve never really seen people that have actually done those things. They just talk.”

Dr. Bronner’s eccentric philosophy of peace, love and cleanliness finally wins over the most important convert: his son. “DON’T BE SMART, RALPH.” To quote his father, Ralph Bronner raised his voice to the high volume at white Emanuel Bronner usually spoke.

Editor’s Note: The following is the second of two articles about Dr. Bronner’s Soap. The first article appeared in our last newsletter and told the amazingly unique story of how Dr. Bronner’s Soap came to be – as told by son Ralph Bronner. In this article, as promised, younger son and president of the multimillion dollar company Jim Bronner, shares some of his family’s business philosophy and insider tips.

Times sure are tough for North Dakota farmers like David monsoon. First there were floods, then heavy snow, pelting rains, and disease that devastated the crops. Last summer, Monson grimly tended his wheat, barley , and canola fields in Osnabrock and watched neighboring farms go bust. In the fall, his profit was a paltry $25 an acre. Meanwhile, 20 miles away, across the border in Canada, Brian Mc Elroy had cut back on wheat and planted his first crop of industrial hemp. He earned $225 an acre.

New cultivation closer to U.S. borders, processing technology that renders hemp seed even more usable, and support from a diverse group of farmers, politicians, environmentalists and industries including such notables as Ralph Nader, former CIA Director James Woolsey and Andrew Weil, M.D., may make hemp a serious contender for market share among natural products.

There are hundreds of stories about Emanuel Bronner, and many of they are probably true. He was the inventor, producer and promoter of Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint 18-in-1 Pure Castile Soap and Dr. Bronner’s All-One-God-Faith.
The soap is the less complicated of the two and has been adopted by millions of users in the United States, thanks to word of mouth advertising started by hippies in the late 1960’s.

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