7. David, James and Roberto
David Bronner
On the first day of February in 1908, Emanuel Heilbronner was born in Heilbronn, Germany, to Berthold Heilbronner and Franziska Heilbronner. As a member of a family of soap makers, he moved to the United States in 1929 and advised his parents to leave Germany. They stayed in Europe and perished in the Holocaust. The last Emanuel heard from them were the words on a postcard, which said: You were right. Your loving father. For obvious reasons, the name was shortened to Bronner. Emanuel met his future wife, Paula Wolfahrt, at a dance, something he loved. They married in 1933 and before long had three offspring, Ellen, Ralph and Jim. Paula was Catholic while Emanuel was Jewish. The kids were all baptized as Lutherans. This may have been in the father’s belief that every religion should be treasured.
Despite the deaths of his mother and father at the hands of the Nazis, Emanuel believed in the goodness and unity of man. Dr. Bronner’s castile soap was one of the products that was made at home, to great success. Emanuel actually wasn’t a doctor of any kind, who hated commies and never indulged in pot. On the labels of the soap could be found the words, Moral ABC and All-One-God-Faith, which expressed his feelings. These came from both Christian and Jewish ideals. These concepts may have resulted in his arrest in Chicago and his being sent for shock treatments at a mental hospital in Elgin, Illinois. He escaped to California but wasn’t shocked enough to become a heartless capitalist. His family moved a few times, finally setting in the town of Escondido in California, where his business flourished. When Emanuel died on March 7, 1997, his factory was responsible for over a million units of soap and other goods. In addition, the company contributed to numerous charities.
After Emanuel died, the family kept the business going with assurance that the labels would remain, unless government regulations mandated modifications. Some ideas survived: Absolute cleanliness is Godliness! Teach the Moral ABC that unites all mankind free, instantly 6 million strong we’re All-One.
Ralph entered the family business in the late 1980s, becoming president of the firm a few years later. He turned the business over to Jim in 1994, who was responsible for increasing profits while simultaneously benefiting the customers. Give a little and you get. When Jim worked for the Monsanto Corporation, he developed the foam product that firefighters use in combating fires. It’s what you see in the winter scenes in many movies. The soap business was kept in the family as Jim’s son, David, had a religious experience. The latter was actually being immersed in the culture of Amsterdam, so maybe it was really semi-religious. In 1997 he agreed to work for the company, but only on activist terms. A year later, lung cancer claimed Jim’s life. Born in Los Angeles in 1973, David embraced his grandfather’s All-One philosophy. He carried on and expanded Emanuel’s mission, eventually becoming president and CEO of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps.
Not only is David CEO, he is also concerned about the health of the people and the planet. In the 1990s, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap continued as a soapbox for numerous causes, combating income inequity and insisting on fair trade over free trade. The David Bronner tee shirt I own has these words on the back: constructive capitalism is where you share the profits with the workers, and the earth from which you made it.
All ingredients found in Dr. Bronner’s products are fair trade certified, including palm oil from Ghana, coconut oil from Sri Lanka and Middle East olive oil. When David couldn’t obtain fair-trade and certified organic oil, he grew his own in the places mentioned. In 2003, the Bronner products – balms, soaps and lotions – were among the first certified by the USDA National Organic Program, thanks to David. Bronner’s liquid soaps are bottled in 100% post-consumer recycled products. A combination of hemp and recycled paper encompasses the bars of soap his company sells.
David was never opposed to synthetic biology or genetic engineering, only to the addition of a genetically modified organism (GMO) in food, whether in vegetables or meat. Studies have pointed out the danger of this inclusion to humans and the earth. GMOs are something we can all live without. Bronner was so passionate about this issue that he contributed millions of dollars to the Yes on 522 campaign to force manufactures to indicate when a product contains GMOs. One of the soap labels became a magazine ad for the campaign, even featured in Mother Jones Magazine. The corporate conglomerate defeated the Yes on 522 campaign, but people haven’t given up on this crucial issue. If we don’t win the right to label and enable people to choose non-GMO, then everything is going to be GMO.
A few days before the Right2Know March in October 2011, David had some comments on the GMO thing.
People aren’t going to want to eat something labeled ‘genetically engineered’. The primary concern is the way Monsanto spins its products. They didn’t magically produce pest-resistant corn; they’re expressing a foreign compound in every cell of the plant that has not been proven safe. It’s a big experiment. We know that food allergies are surging along with asthma and other conditions; certainly it’s connected with what we eat and people have a right to know what’s in their food.
Jim’s wife, Trudy, pointed out that Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps were like a non-profit, but it really wasn’t despite all it contributed to social causes. David asked, If we are not maxed out and pushing our organization to the limit, then what are we doing? After David became CEO, fifteen years of business saw profits grow by 1,300%, from $5 million to $64 million. Nevertheless, Bronner wasn’t concerned about money, keeping the highest salary at no more than five times that of the lowest paid warehouse laborer. Employees are well paid. Money taken in is used for doing good and to make the products better even with a minimal advertising budget – a great product sells itself.
Renewal Partners works with socially responsible groups. Its president, Joel Solomon, praised the Bronner family saying,
Their activism as a company is not engineered; it wasn’t coached by a public relations firm. Dr. Bronner’s does their thing the way the think it should be done, and nobody is going to change them.
David refuses to deal with Walmart. He had plenty of reasons including what that corporation represents and has been doing to communities. Their entry into a locality brings about the demise of small businesses and goods from far, far away – local products aren’t even considered by Walmart. Instead goods are shipped long distances to arrive at the stores. I don’t think Bronner was happy about Walmart’s Black Friday, especially when at three a.m. on November 28, 2008 in Long Island, a Walmart employee was trampled to death in a shopping stampede. This is a day when you should either go to a movie or just stay home. Have a turkey sandwich. Workers are grossly underpaid and asked to work after they sign out for the day. The store discriminates against its help and has few if any full-time staff. This saves the company money since they need not worry about health insurance, vacation time and other benefits, which workers are entitled to.
Bronner was arrested a couple times for his activism – proof that many times the wrong people are apprehended. The first was in 2009. Apparently hemp seeding of the lawn of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DFA) is frowned upon, even as a protest of a hemp ban. Three years later, Bronner was arrested for milling hemp oil in front of the White House. David positioned himself in a cage that the authorities had to saw open to get at him. David felt that hemp oil added to soap would create a better lather. The administration of George W. Bush made most products of hemp illegal, but Bronner sued the DFA since hemp oil is not psychoactive. To get a buzz, you’d need so many gallons of it that it would fill a bathtub. The ban was struck down in 2004.
In 2007, Bronner sued Avalon Organics and Kiss My Face for falsely advertising their products as organic. The action was eventually dismissed but David’s concern had a great deal to do with organic body care guidelines established by Whole Foods. Some of the companies that Bronner embraces are Patagonia and Working Assets. Formed in 1985, the latter supports the environment, peace, human rights and equality, donating some of their profits to these causes. With its business, Patagonia strives to inspire others to be aware of the needs of the planet while building a great product and causing no harm to the earth or its citizens. Because of its love of nature and its beauty, Patagonia calls on all of us to participate in doing all we can to change what is happening because of global warming. The corporation donates at least one percent of its profits to worldwide grassroots movements along with their time and services.
The headquarters of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps being built is converting a bland building into something more pleasing to the workers. There will be a fragrance bar, farm-to-table organic cafeteria and a station for refilling empty bottles. Also on hand will be Dr. Bronner pinhole glasses, which provide some bizarre visual images. Best of all is the celebration of his arrest. It’s a mannequin in a cage that looks like David involved with hemp plants.
Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps is the best selling organic soap brand in the United States. David is renowned for his commitment to innovation, progressive action, charity, his employees and integrity. He has an undergraduate degree in biology from Harvard – proof that some good people do graduate from there. He was a counselor in mental health for two years in Boston before coming on board Bronner’s Magic Soaps. Since it is so valuable, Bronner is spending time convincing others of the value of hemp farming. He is on the board of both Vote Hemp and Hemp Industries Association. The boss now resides with his wife Kris and their daughter Maya in Encinitas, California. Maya’s soccer coach is the CEO, since he loves doing that. He doesn’t mind dancing either. I wonder from whom he inherited that love. The first issue of Mother Jones Magazine in 2014 gives a good introduction to the Bronner soap business in “The Audacity of Soap”, an article written by Josh Harkinson. David’s website is
www.drbronner.com.