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Investing in the Earth: Natural, Organic and Regenerative Food and Ag Surges in Popularity

Investing in the Earth: Natural, Organic and Regenerative Food and Ag Surges in Popularity

Yahoo19-05-2025

Sales continue to grow, now at $325 Billion annually
by Steve Hoffman of Compass Natural Marketing
NORTHAMPTON, MA / / May 19, 2025 / The market for organic food and agriculture has grown significantly since the National Organic Program was first established in 2001, placing the USDA Certified Organic seal on products that qualify for this distinction. Today, it's a $70-billion market that's been growing an average of 8% per year. And while it may be maturing, younger consumers, including new parents and their babies, are eating it up. And now, in the post-pandemic era, investors are once again paying attention to the potential of organic and regenerative products and brands that take into account health and the environment, and how the way we produce our food and consumer products affects climate change.
A survey released recently by the Organic Trade Association (OTA), the industry's leading trade group, found that organic's benefits to personal health and nutrition are resonating deeply with Millennials and Gen Zer's, making them the most committed organic consumers of any generation. Also, a February 2025 study by the Acosta Group, one of the nation's top natural and organic products sales firms, reflected that 75% of all shoppers purchased at least one natural or organic product in the six months prior to the survey, with 59% responding that they think it's important that their groceries and/or household products are natural and organic because they "are better for them" and "they tend to have fewer synthetic chemicals and additives."
Natural and Organic Industry is a Force. Overall, the natural and organic products industry combined has more than tripled in size since 2007, growing from $97 billion in sales in 2007 to over $325 billion in 2024, according to data compiled by New Hope Network, SPINS (a division of Nielsen), Whipstitch Capital and others.
Read more investment insights in Steve's article and watch a Video from the 2025 Expo West here- https://greenmoney.com/investing-in-the-earth-natural-organic-and-regenerative-food-and-ag-surges-in-popularity
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View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from GreenMoney Journal on 3blmedia.com.
Contact Info:Spokesperson: GreenMoney JournalWebsite: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/greenmoney-journalEmail: info@3blmedia.com
SOURCE: GreenMoney Journal
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

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2025 NBA Finals: Step aside, millennial stars, we're about to crown our first Gen Z champion
2025 NBA Finals: Step aside, millennial stars, we're about to crown our first Gen Z champion

Yahoo

time10 hours ago

  • Yahoo

2025 NBA Finals: Step aside, millennial stars, we're about to crown our first Gen Z champion

When Michael Jordan hit the clinching shot over Utah in the 1998 NBA Finals, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wasn't even born yet. When Kobe Bryant threw the iconic 'oop to Shaquille O'Neal in the 2000 Western Conference finals, Tyrese Haliburton was just a few months old. Feeling old yet? Advertisement Millennials certainly do. But nothing makes this millennial feel older than the following fact: The 2025 NBA Finals winner will be the first Gen Z champion in league history. Welcome to the Zoomers NBA. Headlining these Finals are two youthful teams — the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers — whose franchises haven't won a title in decades and whose average age makes them too young to qualify for the millennial cohort. The rotations of the Thunder and Pacers hardly have any 30-year-olds. The playoffs used to be the domain of older, savvy vets deep into their 30s, but the league has gotten younger, and the best teams seem to be heading in that direction more rapidly. Advertisement Is contending for a title increasingly becoming a young man's game? (Amy Monks/Yahoo Sports Illustration) The first Gen Z champ While there is no official separating line between Gen Z and millennials, leading think tank Pew Research Center has defined 1996 as the last birth year for the millennial generation based on their demographic work looking at technological, economic and social shifts throughout the last century. For the first time in NBA history, all four conference finalists — based on minutes-weighted average age, which accounts for playing time — will fit into the Gen Z category. This postseason, the Celtics' minutes-weighted average age was 29.9 years old, a birth year of 1995, making them the last millennial team that was remaining in the playoff field. The much younger and healthier Knicks squad (27.7) ousted them in six games after Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles in Game 4. (For the research study, ages are derived from Basketball Reference's historical pages using a player's age on Feb. 1 of the season.) If current trends hold, the Celtics will be the last millennial team to ever win the championship. Advertisement The kids are doing more than alright. Led by 26-year-old Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder's minutes-weighted average age clocks in at 24.7 years old. That gives the West's No. 1 seed a 'team' birth year of 2000, three years after the 1997 cutoff for Gen Z. The 25-year-old Haliburton represents the face of the speedy Pacers, who, at an average of 26.2 years old, blitzed past the slightly more senior Cleveland Cavaliers (26.5) and Milwaukee Bucks (28.1) in earlier rounds. If you've been paying attention, the NBA's elder statesmen have all been kicked to the curb this postseason. There is no LeBron James, no Stephen Curry, no Jimmy Butler left. No Kevin Durant, who didn't even make the play-in tournament. Not even Jrue Holiday, who won a title with both the Celtics and Bucks; the 34-year-old might as well be known as Uncle Jrue around some of the remaining youngsters. With an 80-18 record including the postseason, the Thunder are redefining everything that older generations thought they knew about what championship contenders look like. If OKC were to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy this season, it would be the second-youngest NBA champion ever, trailing only the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers (24.2) led by a 24-year-old Bill Walton. A modern precedent to these Thunder doesn't really exist if they pull it off. The youngest championship team of the 21st century was the 2015 Golden State Warriors, who were 26.3 years old, almost two full years older than the current OKC squad. Advertisement With the Thunder leading the way, the average age of the two finalists stands at 25.5 years old, which is the lowest on record. As recently as 2014, that same figure was 30.4 years old. This continues a surprising trend that has seen the NBA get younger and younger in its final stages of the season. A Gen Z champion was only a matter of time, but if late 1990s roster trends held firm, we'd be about 2-3 years away from reaching that point. With these four teams, we're way ahead of schedule. While it's true the league, in general, has gotten younger across the decades, the final teams used to be far older than the also-rans. Nowadays, the age gap is narrowing to the point where, especially this season, there doesn't seem to be much of one at all. What's going on? Zooming out, this could be a function of injuries weeding out the old man. Previously, I pointed out the postseason is being riddled with injuries to star players more than ever. Heading into this postseason, the NBA averaged seven injured All-Stars over the previous five postseasons, a rate that has increased more than sevenfold since the late 1990s (0.8 per season). 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There's not a single 32-year-old or older player on the OKC roster. Advertisement Kerr has taken notice. Steve Kerr wonders if the schedule impacted Stephen Curry. (Photo by) (Ellen Schmidt via Getty Images) When I asked Kerr to compare the league back then to now, the nine-time champion immediately pointed to the pace — the number of trips up and down the floor in each game. In the 1998 playoffs, the game was played at a snail's pace, just 85 possessions per 48 minutes. Today, with teams favoring an uptempo playing style, playoff teams average about 95. Kerr then points out how the 3-point shot — 'the pace and space' — has broadened the physical demands of today's defenders. It's not just the frenetic pace of today's game; it's the expanding dimensions of bodily activity and psychological attention. He's not totally surprised Curry, Lillard, Tatum and others have fallen victim to injury in today's environment. Advertisement 'Who's more likely to be able to withstand the rigors of the pace and space and the game-every-other-day schedule — the younger players or the older players?' Kerr said. 'The younger guys are.' Pace is indeed up, and according to player-tracking research, players are putting about 9% more mileage on the court per 48 minutes compared to a decade ago. Throw in the fact the NBA has wedged an in-season tournament and a play-in tournament into the schedule, and it's hard to see where top vets can find enough recovery time. 'The most important point of all of this,' Kerr says, 'is the pace and space and how much more mileage that players are covering. You see all these injuries ... I don't think players get enough rest anymore.' Advertisement Kerr, whose Warriors were ousted in the Western Conference semifinals, brings up the 37-year-old Curry, who lasted only 13 minutes in Game 1 of the series against the Timberwolves before his hamstring gave out, the first time in his 16-year career he suffered a hamstring strain. It's of Kerr's belief the schedule was a significant factor to blame. It was Curry's third playoff game in five days, with travel in between all three games. With the season on the brink, Kerr leaned on the two-time MVP for 42 minutes in Game 6 in San Francisco and a game-high 46 minutes in Game 7 in Houston. And then they traveled again, jetting up to Minnesota. It's a condensed workload that maybe a 27-year-old Curry might have been able to handle, but 37? In the aftermath of Curry's injury, Kerr consulted his team doctors and performance staff. He asked Rick Celebrini, the team's longtime director of sports medicine and performance, about the circumstances surrounding Curry's first-time injury. Advertisement 'Do you think Steph pulling his hamstring has anything to do with playing 48 hours after logging 46 minutes of Game 7 in Houston?' he asked. 'One hundred percent,' Kerr remembers Celebrini telling him. 'If he had an extra day or two … we can't prove this, but I have no doubt based on our understanding of the scientific literature that the hamstring injury was the result of inadequate recovery and fatigue.' Kerr relents that it's impossible to know what would have happened if the two rounds were more spaced out. But he certainly nodded along when he heard millennial and former NBA champion Aaron Gordon speak on the issue following his own hamstring injury. 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Up the road in San Antonio, the Spurs have already signaled they see Victor Wembanyama's title window as appearing sooner than initially assumed. At the trade deadline, the team acquired 2022-23 All-NBA guard De'Aaron Fox to upgrade from the 40-year-old Chris Paul, who provided a steady hand as the team's point guard. With Paul set to become a free agent, Harrison Barnes, 32, remains the team's only player older than 27. Advertisement It'll be fascinating to see how the Spurs complement Wemby, who missed half the season with deep-vein thrombosis. Do they put Stephon Castle and/or their No. 2 pick in the 2025 draft in a potential package for Giannis Antetokounmpo, who will be 33 years old by the time his contract expires in 2027-28? And then there's Dallas, which could make Golden State's two-timeline experiment look timid by comparison. 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PensionBee Analysis Finds Left-Behind 401ks May Cost Americans $90,000 by Retirement
PensionBee Analysis Finds Left-Behind 401ks May Cost Americans $90,000 by Retirement

Yahoo

time11 hours ago

  • Yahoo

PensionBee Analysis Finds Left-Behind 401ks May Cost Americans $90,000 by Retirement

Job hopping early in your career can leave you vulnerable to predatory Safe Harbor IRAs, according to new research by online retirement provider PensionBee. NEW YORK, June 03, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In today's dynamic job market, frequent career moves are common, especially among younger professionals. However, this trend has led to a growing issue: abandoned 401(k) accounts. Recent estimates indicate that over 29 million forgotten 401(k) accounts exist in the U.S. To make matters worse, when employees leave behind small 401(k) balances - under $7,000 - employers can transfer these funds into Safe Harbor IRAs without the employee's consent to help manage high volumes of inactive accounts. PensionBee examined the impact of this common administrative practice, revealing the stark return differential between Safe Harbor IRAs and traditional retirement accounts. Americans who leave behind just a handful of accounts early in their careers can lose out on over $90,000 by the time they retire. The Three-Fold Problem Safe Harbors IRAs are designed to preserve rather than grow capital. Previous market analysis by PensionBee found that combined high fees and low returns of many mainstream providers work against this goal, and may even deplete forgotten retirement accounts to $0. The problem is threefold: First, mandated ultra-conservative investments. Regulations require Safe Harbor IRAs to use low-risk investments, usually offering far below standard retirement portfolio returns, often below the rate of inflation. Many Safe Harbor IRA providers use bank deposits with very low interest rates, sometimes as low as 0.5%. Second, many providers charge excessive fees that devour returns. Unlike 401(k) plans, which have an average fee of approximately 0.85%, Safe Harbor IRAs charge seemingly small monthly fees ($1-$5) that quickly accumulate. One provider charges $5.67 monthly plus 0.5% annually—on a $3,500 account, that's $85.54 yearly (2.4%) before additional withdrawal fees of $75 per transaction. These fees often exceed any earnings and actively deplete principal. Third, interest skimming. Certain providers have been known to pay less than 1% interest while prevailing rates exceed 4%, taking substantial portions of investment returns as a "bank servicing fee." The Generational Toll Younger workers face a perfect storm. Not only do Gen Zers change jobs often, but they are also opening retirement accounts earlier than ever before. The average Gen Zer starts saving for retirement at age 22, compared with Millennials, who began at 27, Gen X, whose average age was 31, and Boomers, who didn't start until the age of 37. The combination of changing jobs more frequently and opening retirement accounts earlier than their predecessors creates a dangerous vulnerability. Gen Z is more likely to accumulate multiple small 401(k) accounts that are prime targets for automatic transfers to Safe Harbor IRAs, which were never meant to be long-term investing vehicles. Our system quietly undermines their early start through these forced transfers to low-yield investments. The lack of transparency compounds the problem. This isn't merely a different default option; it's a fundamentally different investment approach with dramatically reduced growth potential. The Compounding Problem PensionBee's latest research compared growth trajectories of Safe Harbor IRAs (~2% returns) and 401(k) investments (~5% returns), to model the difference in returns between employees whose small balances are forced into low-yielding accounts and those who are not. The findings suggest that automatic rollovers into Safe Harbor IRAs with low-yielding accounts harm former employees and can lead to an exponential difference in returns across several accounts. For illustrative purposes, the analysis looks at a typical worker who: Job hops between the ages of 20 and 30, leaving behind a 401(k) every two years (five total) Has a starting salary of $50,000 that grows 10% with each new job Retirement balances are calculated as 3% of that salary annually, with 50% employer match vested PensionBee's analysis shows that a typical 20-year-old worker who leaves behind a $4,500 retirement account will see it grow to just $5,507 by retirement age if left in a typical Safe Harbor IRA. Had that same amount been rolled over to a traditional 401(k) earning 5%, it would grow to $25,856, a difference of over $20,000 from a single account. The impact compounds dramatically with multiple job changes. Someone who switches jobs every two years in their 20s and rolls over their accounts each time saves over $90,000 more by retirement than someone who leaves them in Safe Harbor IRAs. This difference exceeds the median American retirement savings of $87,000. How to Protect Your Retirement Savings Check Account Size: Know your balance when leaving a job, as accounts under $7,000 may be automatically transferred to Safe Harbor IRAs. If your account is under $1,000, it may be cashed out automatically, triggering taxes and penalties. Know Your Options: You generally have four choices for your retirement account when switching jobs: keep it with your former employer, transfer it to an IRA, move it to your new employer's plan, or cash out, potentially triggering penalties and taxes. Update Contact Information: Ensure all retirement account providers have your current contact information to prevent account transfers without your knowledge. Take Timely Action: Make decisions about your retirement funds within 30 days of leaving a job to prevent automatic transfers. Bottom Line The silent drain of retirement savings through inadequate Safe Harbor IRAs remains largely invisible to millions of Americans who switch jobs regularly. Most job-hoppers assume their retirement accounts are safe, even if unaccounted for. Instead, forgotten accounts may be eroded by excessive fees and low returns, potentially costing thousands in retirement savings. "Safe Harbor IRAs represent a critical blind spot in America's retirement system," notes Romi Savova, CEO of PensionBee. "The lack of transparency in these accounts is particularly troubling, as most assume that the money they put towards their retirement will remain theirs. The difference between investment defaults matters enormously." Savova emphasizes that "these seemingly small default decisions have profound long-term consequences for savers. Greater transparency around default investment strategies would empower consumers to make informed choices about their financial future." About PensionBee PensionBee is a leading online retirement provider, helping people easily consolidate, manage, and grow their retirement savings. The company manages approximately $8 billion in assets and serves over 275,000 customers globally, with a focus on simplicity, transparency, and accessibility. Notes The information provided in this announcement, including any projections for investment returns and future performance, is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. All investments carry risk, including the potential loss of principal. PensionBee is not liable for any losses or damages arising from the use of this information. Projections and forecasts are based on assumptions and current market conditions, which are subject to change. PensionBee Inc. is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment adviser. We do not provide in-person advice. PensionBee Inc (Delaware Registration Number SR20241105406 ) is located on 85 Broad Street, New York, New York, 10004. 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Americans Are Ditching Fitness Influencers and Trusting Themselves (Report)
Americans Are Ditching Fitness Influencers and Trusting Themselves (Report)

Yahoo

time12 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Americans Are Ditching Fitness Influencers and Trusting Themselves (Report)

New study from Mythology and Vytal World reveals nearly half of Americans now trust their bodies over "experts." NEW YORK, June 03, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As Americans grow increasingly skeptical of the $100 billion fitness industry, a new study reveals 47% of active adults now trust their own body's signals over experts, influencers, and tracking technology when making fitness decisions. The findings are from "The End of Expert Rule," a comprehensive study conducted by creative agency Mythology and insights partner Vytal World that uncovers a profound cultural shift in how people relate to exercise and wellness. "People are questioning the assumption that someone else knows their body better than they do," says L Parker Barnum, Managing Director at Mythology. "But this isn't about rejecting science or expertise entirely—it's about pushing back against the commodification of health and the obsessive culture that we've seen over the years." The end of performative suffering The survey of 1,000 U.S. adults active in fitness highlights a striking rejection of what the report's authors call "performative suffering," with nearly 30% identifying the "no pain, no gain" mindset as the most outdated fitness status symbol. Just seven percent of adults place primary trust in AI systems or tracking technology, challenging the notion that we need constant digital monitoring to achieve wellness. The report identifies four key aspects driving this cultural shift: The rise of self-trust: Nearly half (47%) of respondents prioritize their own physical signals over external authority. Community experimentation: Friend groups have become innovation hubs, with 49% creating personalized approaches rather than following prescribed programs. Millennials and Gen Z differ significantly in how they apply this approach; Gen Z values authenticity and education, while Millennials prioritize efficiency and time optimization. Try-before-you-buy mentality: Personal experimentation drives 45% of purchasing decisions, far outweighing scientific validation (26%) or cultural credibility (8.4%). Rejection of extreme fitness: A third of respondents expect future fitness to focus on "longevity and health, not looks," with 24% viewing expensive branded fitness apparel as a declining status symbol. "Our findings suggest we're witnessing a maturation of fitness culture," adds Natalie Mbogo, Co-Founder and Chief Strategist of Vytal World. "Rather than the 'hustle culture' fitness of the 2010s with its celebration of exhaustion, people are now prioritizing long-term health, injury prevention, and mental well-being." Sobering implications for brands These findings present a significant challenge for brands as successful companies will need to evolve from authorities to partners, acknowledging customers' own expertise, creating spaces for knowledge sharing, and focusing on how products "feel" rather than just how they look. "Influencer fatigue is real," the study notes, suggesting that brands must recalibrate their marketing efforts to account for this shift in influence, or risk losing relevance as consumers increasingly forge their own paths. To view the full report, visit About Mythology Mythology is an independent creative company based in NYC, founded and led by Anthony Sperduti—with partners Audrey Attal, Ted Galperin, Kim Haxton, and Sophie Mascatello. Our multidisciplinary team is dedicated to creating impactful work across branding, advertising, and retail design. Visit and follow us on IG @mythology for more. About Vytal World Vytal World is an innovative research company that revolutionizes how brands understand and connect with their audiences. Through collaborative, community-driven methodologies, we transform traditional consumer insights by making people active participants in the research process, creating deeper understanding that leads to more authentic and effective brand strategies. Learn more at View source version on Contacts Media contact: Flight PRAlysha Lightalysha@

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