2. Educate the Consumer and Optimize the Food Industry with Ben Conard

Today’s thought leader is Ben Conard, founder of Five North Chocolate, a healthy chocolate snack company empowering farmers and celebrating diversity by committing to fair-trade. Ben has been named one of the Top 10 Biggest Fair Trade Advocates in the World and 40 LGBT Leaders Under 40. Ben is passionate about making an impact in the way people buy and how companies produce.  Let’s jump right into this episode and learn from Ben how educating the consumer can give them the power to make better decisions and make lasting change in the market. [00:01 - 03:44] Opening Segment Let's welcome our guest for today, Ben Conard Founder of Five North Chocolate Ben talks a bit about himself Passionate about helping farmers and bringing them out of poverty  [03:45 - 11:22] See a Problem, Go and Solve it Ben shares his story and the origins of FNC Why chocolate? Just a desire to design a healthy candy company You shouldn’t have to feel guilty for eating something A need to help farmers who are being taken advantage of  “I was a consumer who didn’t like what they saw on the shelf and wanted to change it.” I share how I started seeing a lot of people take on fatalism  I saw a problem and I went in to fix it  Ben shares his 20 seconds of bravery moment  Farm in Ecuador in 2017 So much work goes into one end product, they just want to know the consumer appreciates it  Somebody needs to manifest this message through  From curiosity to a calling  [11:23 - 22:15] Educate the Consumer and Optimize the Food Industry Ben talks about some of the misconceptions of chocolate we need to re-think Positivity was the fuel to our fire  Chocolate does not have to be a ‘guilty’ pleasure  Ben shares about