By Lori DeBoer
Boulder’s Robyn O’Brien, dubbed “food’s Erin Brockov- ich,” is taking on the big boys of the food industry. After her youngest had a life-threatening allergic reaction, she wondered if America’s children were allergic to food or what was being done to it. She went onto found Free2B Foods and the AllergyKids Foundation, as well as writing the bestseller The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It. It helps that she’s an MBA and a former financial analyst for the food industry. She uses her clout to convince the heads of the food industry to offer GMO-free, organic options.
What’s your mission?
To make clean and safe food affordable for all families who want it.
What inspired you to work on cleaning up our food act?
When I learned about the health statistics about this generation of American children; one in 13 has food allergies, one in ten has asthma, one in 68 has autism. One in three Caucasian kid is expected to be insulin dependent by the time they reach adulthood, and cancer is the leading death by disease in U.S. children. For me, food is the first line of health care.
What are you doing to bring about change?
It’s been a wild ride. In the early years it was a lot of consumer educating. A few years ago, I realized that, inside these mul- tinational corporations were the same consumers and the same parents of kids with autism and food allergies. I had to turn my education efforts toward the corporations; I couldn’t be afraid of them.
Why have you been so successful?
I was a financial analyst who covered the food industry. I speak the language and understand we have to create a win-win situation for the consumers and the companies that are feeding us.
Is the tide turning?
Yes. You see it with these big food companies buying into the food movement with acquisitions, you see it with the incredible growth in the numbers of farmer’s markets and then you see it in retailers like Kroger that have launched private label brands that are free from GMOS, dyes and artificial additives.
How about local foods?
I think Boulder is the epicenter of this movement. We had the first generation of leadership here, with Mos Siegel, founder of Celestial Tea, and Steve Demos, White Wave foods. I think the wisdom and understanding of the organic food industry is deep here and I just became a messenger. I don’t think I could have done what I’ve done without Boulder as my foundation
