https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/dan-fabricant-npa-2023-washington-dc
For Episode 100 of the PricePlow Podcast, Ben and Mike flew to Washington D.C. for the Natural Products Association’s annual DC Fly-In Day on June 7, 2023. Fly-in days, also known as “lobby days”, bring individuals together to advocate with legislators and other officials on behalf of their shared interests.
So this was the day where members of the NPA could meet with their elected representatives on Capitol Hill to discuss matters of importance in terms of public policy geared towards the dietary supplement industry.
Team PricePlow flies into Washington DC for the Natural Products Association’s annual Fly-In Day, recording a great tell-all podcast with NPA’s CEO, Dan Fabricant, who tells us why we should be involved in our industry’s politics.
Episode 100: Dan Fabricant of the NPA in Washington, DC
It was only fitting, then, to schedule Episode 100 with Dan Fabricant, CEO of the Natural Products Association (NPA). This is the country’s largest and oldest nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the natural products industry — it was founded in 1936 and has over 700 members.
In this podcast, we discuss why we should be involved in politics when it has become so off-putting the past decade or so, discuss what the FDA and industry both need to be doing better, and dig into this year’s hot topics, which includes the battle against the FDA for NMN.
The trip was spectacular — we’ll include some videos at the bottom of this article. We were able to meet with congressmen and senators from New Jersey (Ben’s district) and Oklahoma (Mike’s home).
Have a say — or someone else will do so for you
The most major point to get across is this: If you’re not talking to your legislators, then someone else is. There’s only so much oxygen in DC, and every industry needs to fight for theirs.
Now let’s get into it:
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As a reminder, Dan was previously on the PricePlow Podcast in Episode #067, describing how the NPA fought Dick Durbin’s 2022 Mandatory Product Listing Bill (described as “MPL” below). Ben had also joined in the fight in Trenton, NJ to prevent them from forcing stores to sell supplements from behind-the-counter (see coverage here and here on Instagram). These are both referenced below:
Detailed Show Notes with Dan Fabricant of NPA
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0:00 – Hot Start: We need to support our tribe
The trio starts with a hot mic, where Dan and Mike are commiserating over national party politics, but Dan explains how we need to support our tribe — which is the dietary supplement industry — something that transcends party politics.
“This is our tribe. We need to take care of our own. It doesn’t matter if you’re left of the left or right of the right.
Personal politics? Gone. This trip is not about personal politics. It’s about this industry.”
Ben points out that many people have their own passions, but health is the most important thing in society. It’s the foundation. And we shouldn’t downplay our industry’s role in our culture.
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1:30 – Introduction and the Disenfranchisement with Politics
Mike brings it back to introduce the day, and notes that we had been talking about ongoing disenfranchisement with national party politics. The past decade have been horribly divisive, and friendships shouldn’t be lost over national politicians who stab their followers in the back and aren’t going to do what they campaigned for anyway. At this point, it’s pretty clear to see where things are headed on a federal level – this is only going in one direction.
However, Mike’s come back around to getting involved in politics in an area that matters to him — the dietary supplement industry — and there are things that we can affect that matter to our community and those who are close to us.
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3:15 – We have to show up
Dan concedes Mike’s points, and people drive the conversation with passion, but passion’s not enough – we have to show up.
Everyone’s focused on their issues in their industries, so we need to show up to prove that ours is important as well. 75-80% of the population uses supplements every day.[1,2] Even with that many users, there’s still a false narrative that “the industry is unregulated”, and attacks on the state levels and attempts at MPL in 2022.
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4:30 – What is the NPA?
The NPA is almost 90 years old – started in 1936. It came out of the health retailers. It seeks to support the innovative spirit and growth. There’s currently about 700 members, including retail members like The Vitamin Shoppe, who also attended Fly-In Day (they’re based in Ben’s state of New Jersey, so we attended meetings with them).
It’s all about the consumer though. Dan flashes back to our PricePlow Podcast on MPL in Episode #067, which PricePlow helped to push a lot of grass roots messages. Mandatory product listing would devastate this industry, while solving none of the problems, so bills like that must be fought tooth and nail.
Dan claims that the NPA likes to fight, and has never lost a lawsuit to the FDA when suing them. Most recently he discusses NAC (read about it in the NAC / Vinpocetine section of our NMN vs FDA post). Those types of cases actually used to be more commonplace.
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7:30 – Non-Profit 101 – How is NPA Run?
NPA has members and a board of directors, and the board drives policy. Dan, as CEO, serves at the pleasure of the board. They decide what to support and what to push back against. You can see the current NPA Board of Directors on NPANational.org.
A great example of a board member is Jim Emme, CEO of NOW Foods, who attended Fly-In Day and sat in meetings with Mike. An example of what Jim is willing to do is to take on Amazon by testing products they’re selling, despite selling a ton of supplements on the platform.[3]
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9:15 – Not Just Federal: Challenges in States
There have also been several problems in various states, especially New York, New Jersey, and California, where state legislators are attempting to make dietary supplements illegal to place on store shelves. This only punishes brick-and-mortar stores. NPA has to wrangle 50 states, some of which are quite hostile to the dietary supplement industry.
Ben leaves the room, and Dan mentions that creatine is still being attacked by these legislators who don’t understand it.
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10:10 – Will uninformed legislators ever understand creatine?!
Mike asks when these people writing laws will ever get over creatine – a completely safe and effective substance found in meat (and cranberries, as Dan later points out). It’s being used for all kinds of neurological disorders now.[4-6]
Legislators keep attempting to state that dietary supplements lead to eating disorders (which has never been demonstrated, and no adverse events have been attributed to supplements causing such issues), but we can’t say that processed foods lead to obesity — which they do.
No matter how much research is done, these people simply won’t let go of creatine, even after 30+ years of positive, safe research. Mike points out a recent paper with nearly 300 citations (it’s actually 250),[7] but these folks will never understand it – and those are the people that need to be fought.
Mike openly wonders if the anti-creatine agenda is connected to the anti-beef / anti-meat agenda. This leads into…
More Detailed show notes are coming!
See Some Fly-In Day Videos
See also Mike’s conclusion to the trip posted to LinkedIn.
Important Links
The Natural Products Association is the leading trade association for dietary supplements, known for its strong lobbying presence in Washington D.C. It acts as an industry watchdog on regulatory and legislative issues.
Thanks to Dan Fabricant and the NPA for hosting us. We met many incredible people within the industry and were honored to represent the supplement industry in front of our congressmen.
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More Pictures
- Council for Responsible Nutrition. “CRN Reveals Initial Data from 2021 Consumer Survey on Dietary Supplements”. 21 Oct 2021; https://www.crnusa.org/newsroom/crn-reveals-initial-data-2021-consumer-survey-dietary-supplements
- Council for Responsible Nutrition. “CRN Reveals Survey Data from 2022 Consumer Survey on Dietary Supplements”. 13 Oct 2022; https://www.crnusa.org/newsroom/crn-reveals-survey-data-2022-consumer-survey-dietary-supplements
- “NOW uncovers quality issues for supplement brands sold on Amazon”; NOW Foods; Updated March 2023; https://www.nowfoods.com/healthy-living/articles/now-uncovers-quality-issues-supplement-brands-sold-amazon
- Avgerinos, Konstantinos I., et al. “Effects of Creatine Supplementation on Cognitive Function of Healthy Individuals: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.” Experimental Gerontology, vol. 108, July 2018, pp. 166–173, doi:10.1016/j.exger.2018.04.013; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6093191/
- Roschel, Hamilton, et al. “Creatine Supplementation and Brain Health.” Nutrients, vol. 13, no. 2, 10 Feb. 2021, p. 586, doi:10.3390/nu13020586; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7916590/
- Forbes, Scott C., et al. “Effects of Creatine Supplementation on Brain Function and Health.” Nutrients, vol. 14, no. 5, 22 Feb. 2022, p. 921, doi:10.3390/nu14050921; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8912287/
- Kreider, Richard B., et al. “Bioavailability, Efficacy, Safety, and Regulatory Status of Creatine and Related Compounds: A Critical Review.” Nutrients, vol. 14, no. 5, 28 Feb. 2022, p. 1035, 10.3390/nu14051035; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8912867/