Good Evening,

I would like to thank the Organic Trade Association for presenting my company, MBS, Inc., with the prestigious Company of the Year Award and for inviting me here to speak with you this evening.

I remember being at the first OTA meeting in Chicago in 1985 when a small group of determined individuals met to set forth a plan for building a trusted identity for organic products.

Today, OTA had grown to an organization of nearly 1,600 members by responsibly communicating the views of all segments of the organic business community…. Our members represent businesses from every part of the supply chain:

• Farmers…• Processors…• Distributors…• Importers…• Exporters..• Retailers… and • Manufacturers

And from every product category including • Foods… • Beverages… • Clothing… • personal care products, • pet foods, • agricultural suppliers, • And more…

MBS is proud to be a founding member of OTA and to have worked closely with other members in helping to spread the word about the importance of organic production methods for the overall health of the environment and the economy. We have also been staunch supports of the Organization’s efforts to help safeguard the integrity of what organic stands for through establishing industry guidelines and standards. MBS started from humble beginnings in 1983 in a barn in Hannibal, Missouri. My

partner and I began with a concept of producing organic foods on 20-acres for a small but growing organic retailer in St. Louis, True Foods. One of my partners, Stephen Miller, was a research scientist at Monsanto and had developed some innovative methods for increasing the yield per acre for vegetables grown under organic conditions. There innovations in productivity allowed us to offer a range of vegetable products to the market at highly competitive prices.

We steadily re-invented our company profits into expanding acreage and by 1990 we had 6,000 acres under production in Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas. In 1991 we moved into the processing business with the acquisition of the Mother Earth Company in Joplin, Missouri and next into retailing with the purchase of True Foods in 1993.

As a fully integrated organic company from the farm to the consumer MBS is proud to have been a pioneer in several areas of our industry.