Jackie Bowen Podcast Transcript
Jackie Bowen joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast.
[00:00:12] Brian Thomas: Welcome to the Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Jackie Bowen. Jackie Bowen is the Executive Director of the Clean Label Project. Before coming to Clean Label Project, Jackie held numerous technical standards development and leadership roles within the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center, NSF International.
Most recently, she served as the General Manager of Quality Assurance International. The largest domestic USDA organic certifier, the director of NSF International Consumer Values, Verified Division, focusing on bringing to market certification offerings, including non-GMO project and certified gluten free, and the director of NSF agricultural North America, focusing on farm food safety. Jackie earned a BS in Environmental Biology from Michigan State University, a Master of Public Health in Management and Policy from the University of Michigan, a Master of Science in Quality Engineering from Eastern Michigan University, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Innovation and Business Strategy from MIT.
Well, good afternoon, Jackie. Welcome to the show.
[00:01:12] Jackie Bowen: Oh, thank you for having me.
[00:01:14] Brian Thomas: Absolutely. Appreciate you making the time, especially as we traverse this great globe of ours and meeting some awesome people, but hailing out of that Denver area Colorado anyway, and we do appreciate you making the time.
Jackie, we’re going to jump right in here. Let’s talk about your career a little bit about quality assurance. You’re a laboratory specialist. You’re the general manager of quality assurance, now you’re the Executive Director at Clean Label Project. Could you share with our audience the secret to your career growth and what inspires you?
[00:01:42] Jackie Bowen: It’s a great question. So, in terms of my career growth, it’s one where I’ve had a lot of I’ve worn a lot of different hats, held a lot of different roles, but I would say my most important role is that of a mom. And because of that, I would say what the secret to my career growth is, it really sounds cliche, but that whole topic and concept of, you never work a day in your life as long as you love what you do.
And especially for me during the process of, being pregnant, becoming a mom and having a family, it’s one of those things where not only are you a kind of a business owner and executive, I’m also a consumer and it really helps foster innovation and ideas of not only what do I see as a consumer?
What would I like to see the change that I want to see in the world? And so for me as a mom, I would say that’s the secret to my career growth as well as my son is what inspires me every day.
[00:02:25] Brian Thomas: That’s awesome. And to be honest, if you’re not being fulfilled, if you don’t have a purpose, it’s hard to get through life and it’s hard to contribute to society.
And I totally appreciate that. And that’s what I love about the podcast. We talked to a ton of leaders and entrepreneurs that have found that passion and are truly making the world a better place. So, thank you, Jackie. Jackie, let’s talk a little bit about the food and consumer product industry, right?
That’s a hot topic. Believe me, I’m really excited to talk about this tonight. Being on the verge of a fundamental paradigm shift when it comes to safety. While many corporations, lawyers, and lobbyists control 90 percent of our food quality, what control do we, the consumer have, and how is Clean Label Project helping?
[00:03:05] Jackie Bowen: So, let’s first talk a little bit about what Clean Label Project is and what we do. So clean label project is a national nonprofit with the mission to bring truth and transparency to consumer product labeling. So what that means is that, you see this over the past several years that you’ve seen this proliferation of unpackaged label claims, things like certified, organic, non GMO certified, gluten free, all of which I personally am professionally and very invested in.
It in, but at the same time, what you see play out in mainstream media are headlines like levels of heavy metals and top selling baby foods, levels of glyphosate, the active ingredient around up with links to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma levels of plasticizers, or BPA BPS leaching from product packaging into finished products.
With no links to endocrine disruption and infertility, the kicker is that these products are still largely compliant in the court of law, but in the court of public opinion, it’s a different story. So, what we see playing out is this growing divide between the court of law and the court of public opinion, and that for the most part, the food safety regulatory fabric in America is focused on things like microbial and pathogen contaminants, things like E.
coli, salmonella, listeria. Things that can contribute to vomiting, diarrhea, or worse within 24 to 72 hours. But what we see at Clean Label Project is that consumers are increasingly concerned about the food they eat, the consumer products they use, and how it’s linked to long term chronic disease, things like cancer and infertility.
But for the most part, this is outside of the scope of current federal regulations. But nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that consumers don’t want to know. When it comes to things like heavy metals, different chemicals of concern, chemicals and decaffeinated coffee and Clean Label Project is especially concerned about the foods that are marketed towards vulnerable populations.
So, infants, children, pregnant women, lactating mothers. The World Health Organization says that the 1st 1000 days of life begins at conception through the age of 2. So along those lines, what is it that we truly are peddling to these vulnerable populations? And it just creates this greater sense of responsibility when it comes to food safety.
So, from clean label projects perspective, what we look to do is empower parents, caregivers and just consumers in general with real information. Marketing departments can do such an effective job at selling comfort and security. So for us at Clean Label Project in data and science, we trust. We peel back to the marketing puffery to actually see what’s inside from an analytical chemistry perspective in America’s best-selling products.
[00:05:25] Brian Thomas: Thank you for unpacking that. And you’re absolutely right. People are waking up to what’s being, shoved down our throats in a kind of a way to say that, and you’re absolutely right. We need to all stand up and say something. We can’t just be pocketed and divided about this. We all know that at the end of the day, a lot of diseases come through things that we’re not educated in or we’re not told about.
So, I appreciate you sharing what you’re doing, Jackie, and what Clean Label Project is doing.
[00:05:53] Brian Thomas: You’re welcome.
Jackie, can you delve into the concerns and the health consequences of exposure to heavy metals, pesticide residues and plasticizers in our foods and what should we be looking for as far as healthy quality food?
[00:06:06] Jackie Bowen: So, in terms of health consequences, if we focus the conversation around those 1st 1000 days, right? So, we’re talking about, pregnant women, lactating mothers, infants, children, the reality is, is that there is no safe levels of certain heavy metals, for example, lead. In fact, the World Health Organization, Environmental Protection Agency, the FDA, CDC, all say that when there’s no safe level of lead.
And when it comes to lead exposure in children, it contributes to an increase in hyperactivity and a decrease in IQ. But meanwhile, currently there are no federal laws on the books as it relates to maximum levels of heavy metals In these foods marketed towards vulnerable populations. Now, it’s interesting because you do start seeing and we are starting to see some evolution and thought there.
There are new regulations on the horizon. For example, there are several years ago. There was a congressional investigation into levels of heavy metals in baby foods. Most recently, just 2 weeks ago, there was a law passed in the state of California. A B 899 that requires mandatory testing and disclosure of heavy metal levels within baby foods.
And along those lines, it’s one where this is all to empower consumers and parents and caregivers, especially into what it is that they want to buy and provide for their families. Now, that’s just the heavy metal thing. And in addition to that, you also have pesticides as well as plasticizers. And like I mentioned, you’ve got links to things like glyphosate and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma plasticizers with links to endocrine disruption and infertility.
So along those lines, it’s a matter of, as a consumer looking past the flashy marketing, using your voice and more so social media is a great way to ask questions and demand answers, especially for those products and brands that your families love. Like I said, marketing departments do an effective job at selling comfort and security.
So, use your dollars as a vote for the food systems you believe in and use social media as a forum in order to demand those answers.
[00:07:51] Brian Thomas: Love that. Thank you. And I can tell Jackie, you’re very passionate. We talked about that being the podcast, but you’re very passionate and enthusiastic about this topic, which just brings joy to my heart, but also gives us hope for those that know that the system has us following their march of the drum and we all need to stand up and like you said, speak out and try to make our children and the rest of us more healthy. Jackie, we are a technology publication and podcast. I’m a techie, sorry, I have to say that, but we ask everybody on the podcast, if you’re leveraging any of that new and emerging tech in your business, and if not, have you found a cool tool or app you might share with us today?
[00:08:30] Jackie Bowen: Sure. I would say I’ve got two that I like. So first from Clean Label Project’s perspective. We’re a nonprofit. Everything we do is on a shoestring budget, but we’re always looking to punch above our weight. And then frankly, I’d say we do a pretty good job of that.
We work with brands on five continents as it relates to food marketed towards these vulnerable populations. So, for me, it’s one as a nonprofit and a consumer advocacy organization content is King. So sometimes I really like using AI to help inspire ideas for newsletters, social media, content creation.
I can come up with a lot of ideas of what I’m interested in, but sometimes just get a little bit of bench strength to help come up with some new ideas. I really like using it for that. The other thing is, where is unique to Clean Label Project is we use data benchmarking and data analytics in order to really serve as the cornerstone of our certification programs.
And what I mean by. Benchmarking is this concept of doing a lot of testing collating literally hundreds of thousands of data points in order to inform us of what actually from an evidence-based perspective makes a product truly superior to the status quo and rather rely on, just brands that happen to have really big marketing budgets.
You can use data and science from an evidence-based perspective, identify who are those brands and products that are diamond in the rough that just need a little bit of marketing support to make them the next blockbuster brand.
[00:09:43] Brian Thomas: Thank you. That’s awesome. And I appreciate you mixing a little bit of marketing and some of the utilities or tools that you’re using to get ahead on a small or shoestring budget, as you mentioned.
So, I appreciate Jackie and Jackie, it was such a pleasure having you on today. And I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
[00:09:58] Jackie Bowen: I appreciate it. Thank you for having me.
[00:10:00] Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Jackie Bowen Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.
