Back in 2005, Kopali Organics co-founders, Zak Zaidman and Stephen Brooks, were living on a permaculture farm and educational sustainability center in the rainforest of Costa Rica. During this time, they witnessed firsthand the destructive agricultural processes that were harming the local environment and the people inhabiting them.

As a result, the two teamed up to form a mission-driven company, to provide natural, organic health snacks to consumers, produced in the most fair and sustainable ways possible... and Kopali Organics was born.

Zaidman, CEO and Co-founder, originally began his career at a multimedia software company. Following a life-changing battle with cancer in his mid-20s, Zaidman began to examine his life goals as well as the potential environmental causes for the disease. At this point in time, he became committed to a sustainable lifestyle, for his own health and for that of the planet.

Zak became a community organizer, raising funds for local and international non-profit organizations. He received basic Permaculture certification in Costa Rica, and, together with Kopali co-founder Stephen Brooks, helped organize and lead a Sustainable Solutions Caravan - driving vegetable oil-powered buses from San Francisco through Mexico and Central America, promoting sustainable solutions.

An expert in tropical agriculture, Brooks moved to Costa Rica in 1995 to found Costa Rican Adventures, an eco-student travel company and the Punta Mona Center for Sustainability and Education - an off-the-grid, permaculture, organic farm. Both business are still thriving and have educated and influenced eco-learners of all ages. With his extensive knowledge of organic farming and deep connection to the local Indigenous and Afro-Caribbean farmers, Stephen co-founded Kopali Organics with Zaidman.

In Costa Rica, Zaidman and Brooks witnessed first-hand the disturbing large-scale industrial chemical banana production, which has caused unimaginable harm in the region. They were moved by the fact that thousands of acres of previously virgin rainforests were being destroyed at a rapid rate, and people living on and near the land were getting sick from chemicals being used on the banana plantations. The downstream ecosystems had a rippling effect, causing even the coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea to be destroyed, all so perfectly yellow bananas would arrive in the United States for pennies less than the alternative sustainably-grown bananas could be sold for.

On top of the mounting environmental challenges, they were highly concerned with the thousand of small farmers, indigenous to the region, who were holding out and still growing bananas and other foods organically.

Taking care of the land as if it were an extension of their own bodies, these farmers inspired Zaidman and Brooks by the way they treated the land as if it were a part of them. Zaidman calls these farmers the "unsung heroes of our time," knowledgeable and wise in ways that are valuable to all of humanity.

"In the face of an unrelenting pressure to farm cheaply, organic local farmers, our neighbors and friends, were being driven out of business and off their lands, and being replaced by large-scale chemically-intensive industrial farms," commented Zaidman.

"The food they grow is not only free of the poisons of chemical agriculture, it is more delicious and more nutritious, filled with more of the nutrients and healthful compounds that purely organically-grown food contains. And these farmers not only avoid destroying the land like chemical agriculture does, they regenerate it."

These unsung heroes are a dying breed. Under the tremendous economic pressure to sell off their land and their communities, they cannot and will not survive unless they can compete in the global market, which they can only do if consumers begin to understand the choice behind every single "cheap" banana purchased. Following these first-hand experiences, the idea behind Kopali Organics first came to fruition.

Zaidman and Brooks started Kopali to reach their goal: connect these heroic organic banana farmers - their neighbors and friends at Punta Mona - with the growing market of shoppers who care where their food comes from. Their business model was designed to execute this goal; both co-founders strongly believing that if consumers are properly informed and provided with viable alternatives, shoppers will make righteous choices.

"No one wants to destroy other people's lives, nor the eco-systems that support all life, to save a few pennies on food, especially that which is unhealthy to eat," Zaidman pointed out.

"Our goal in founding Kopali was to support sustainable, often indigenous, organic family farmers and their communities by connecting them with the growing market of people who care about the quality of the food they eat, as well as the environmental and social conditions under which it is grown, produced and traded," Zaidman continued. "And today Kopali directly supports hundreds of sustainable farmers and their communities in nearly a dozen countries around the world."

The Kopali mission has extended to bring the U.S. market not just bananas or food from Costa Rica, but many snacks from all over the world that are nourishing, healthful, and healing in deep ways to all involved. Staying true to their founding principals, Zaidman and Brooks stand to prove that businesses can and must move beyond being harmful - and become responsible - to serve as a healing force in the world.

After a meeting with Whole Foods Market's visionary leaders, Zaidman and Brooks were well on their way to executing their vision for Kopali Organics. Before they even launched their first product from Costa Rica, they were already traveling to Mexico to connect with hundreds of other heroic farmers and the foods they grow.

In the process, the twosome traveled twice, from California to Costa Rica, through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, on buses that were converted to run on used vegetable oil. They took buses, running on fuel coming right from kitchen fryers, to meet with farmers, Ministers of Agriculture, scientists, activists, political and business leaders, and members of the press.

By the time their first products were carried in the Whole Foods Market stores in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, they had converted another bus to run on used veggie oil, and to serve as an ecological live/work showroom on wheels. The floors were made from coconut wood, cabinets from bamboo, counter top from pressed recycled paper, and the electrical appliances were powered by the sun.

Touring on the eco bus named "Kokopali," they visited every store that carried their products, bringing with them their stories, experiences, passion, commitment, product samples, music, puppet shows, and a whole array of sustainable living solutions.

Today, Kopali is thriving and proud to offer the Supergood Superfood organic and fair trade snack line. "We believe that as we all become more conscious about the power we have to affect the world in which we live, we find that we start to care more and more - not just about how good something tastes, and not even just about how healthy it is for us, but also about how it affects the lives of those who grow it, the ecosystems where it comes from, and the planet we all share," Zaidman concluded.

Kopali Organics products are available at Whole Foods Market, Wegmans, Vitamin Shoppe, and many other stores. Also available at Amazon.com. (212) 333-4355 or visit: http://www.kopaliorganics.com