Paul likes to be on the cutting edge. As President and founder of Herbal Products & Development, Paul has studied herbs and formulated innovative herbal products and whole-food concentrate blends for over 30 years. Through his extensive travels and ongoing learning, he is truly knowledgeable of both native and worldwide herbs and plants.
In 1991, after studying the medicinal plants of several countries, Paul created the concept of a Natural First Aid Kit for travelers. The kit was the first of its kind in the United States. Paul also formulated and produced a green superfood called Plant Power after seeing the need for high-energy nutrition for very active people. He was the second person in the country to formulate a green superfood. Plant Power evolved into Supremely Green which contains over 40 carefully combined and extremely concentrated ingredients.
Paul has developed other well-known products including Power Plus (food enzymes), Friendly Colonizer (probiotics), Vita Power (vitamins & antioxidants), Macro-Night (macro-minerals, now reformulated as Mag Cal Night), Flex Connect Plus (for joint issues), Liver Restore, Mushroom Power Supreme, Global Male Tonic, and pure-pressed Saw Palmetto. The full range of nutritional and natural products that Paul has developed and marketed include nutritional green foods, enzymes, antioxidants, vitamin and mineral antioxidant blends, fluid extract herbal combinations, nutritional chocolates, probiotics, skincare products, concentrated powder blends, and bulk powder extracts. He actively researches sources of organic ingredients, wildcrafted herbs, and unique concentrates to use in his formulations. Herbal Products & Development also does private formulations and labeling for other companies.
Herbal Products & Development is listed in various trade publications including the Green Business Association, Natural Foods Merchandiser, and Herbal Green Pages. The company’s former website, herbprod.com, was an online store with a wealth of information on every product, formula ingredient, and their uses which are shared in health articles, product information documents, and clinical testing information on products. Many savory recipes were found on the website. Paul has a new website, herbprodarchives.com, which is online and under continuing development.
Paul continuously researches new developments on the herbal and health frontiers while developing new formulations. He has been instrumental in introducing new foods, food preparation techniques, and dietary regimens to the market with help from various associates.
Paul has consulted on the development and marketing of many supplements, skincare, and nutritional products. As a result, Paul is adept at understanding the market need for nutritional products. He incorporates this knowledge while creating new formulations. He is accomplished in all phases of bringing a product to market — from research to formulation, to sourcing and production, and then to marketing.
Clinical studies, finishing in 2010, have been conducted at medical centers on a variety of selected HP&D products including Flex Connect Plus used with MSM-Vitamin C (Acerola has been substituted for Vitamin C in the MSM capsuled product which is an upgrade), Liver Restore, Power Plus, Vita Power, Macro-Night, Golden Lite, Supremely Green superfood, and a high grade of pure-pressed Saw Palmetto supplemented with Tunisian Virgin olive oil. The results have been overwhelmingly positive. The clinical study on Flex Connect with MSM-Vitamin C has been published in the Townsend Letters. Information on the clinical trials can be found on the herbprodarchives.com website.
Over the years, Paul has assumed many leadership and project coordinating roles in local and regional organizations, at events, and at numerous conferences. He has been a consultant in various contexts for the natural food industry, industrial hemp promoters, and environmental communities. Paul has been a vocal advocate for individual freedoms, health choice issues, water quality, the environment, and independent journalism. He has developed fruitful networking skills which he regularly uses. He has given talks at health food stores and other places of business and has been a guest on public television, radio shows, and podcasts. Paul also enjoys adding his creative food preparations to many local food group events.
Paul applies his innovative ideas to other fields and projects including construction, carpentry, house design, landscaping, and permaculture. His garden utilizes land contouring techniques, natural drainage, terracing, mulching systems, and the integration of natural and recycled materials such as wood, stone, plants, and sculptures. His permaculture skills were boosted when he took an intensive course with David Blume of the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture and the author of the book “Alcohol Can Be a Gas.” Paul continues to attend permaculture teachings and events and is a strong advocate for permaculture food forests.
A major project directed by Paul in the spring of 1998 was the Santa Cruz Industrial Hemp Expo, the largest event of its kind in the country with 6,500 people attending. It was very successful and brought together businesses and individuals in the forefront of the expanding hemp market. A one-hour documentary video, “Hemp Hemp Hooray – The Growing Industrial Hemp Market,” was published about the Expo and the enormous potential of industrial hemp. Paul was a contributing partner and co-director of the documentary along with the excellent videographer L.B. Johnson. Its premiere showing took place in September 1999 at the Vets Hall in Santa Cruz, CA. The DVD can be found in many libraries, and it is published on YouTube. One of Paul’s websites, unifiedcommunity.info, also has a link to it under the Industrial Hemp/Videos category.
Paul’s additional activities have included working with the Coalition for Agricultural & Industrial Renewal (C.A.I.R). He helped organize a fund-raising event to support a California assembly bill to renew the legal status of industrial hemp. In 2014, Paul, along with several hemp businesses and California granges, helped organize a benefit concert in Sacramento, CA to promote industrial hemp. This event was intended to bring greater attention to the amazing benefits of hemp and its connection to ecological sustainability, natural health, and global change. Paul’s website, unifiedcommunity.info, contains hundreds of links to online information about industrial hemp, medicinal marijuana, CBDs, and cannabis. Unifiedcommunity.info, a directory of links to more than 2,500 websites and information on 100+ topics, was created by Paul to help achieve a more sustainable, environmentally responsible, and just world.
Additional projects that Paul was involved with include organizing a panel to discuss organic foods and fiber processing at the Eco-Farm Conference in January 2000, lending a hand to the Gaia Song Sustainable Living and Ecological Building Conference in Santa Cruz in 2002, co-directing Synergy Party events in 2002 which combined music with networking to help local non-profit groups share ideas, the Spring into Summer Fest in 2012 which was a successful community fundraiser for the Community Alliance for Family Farmers (CAFF) that featured 75 vendors, musicians, and speakers on four stages. Paul maintains membership in the Santa Cruz Live Oak Grange which is part of a nation-wide organization that promotes family farms, organic farming, and sustainable agriculture.
In 2008, Paul became actively involved in promoting biodiesel, ethanol fuel conversion, and byproduct utilization as sustainable energy sources and for other uses. While in India that year, he visited various facilities that utilized these practices. His travels allowed him to also visit traditional Ayurveda practitioners, traditional and modern herbal facilities, farms, gardens, crop production areas, and an organic sugar cane facility with multiple byproducts.
One of Paul’s more recent and ongoing projects involves assisting Whiskey Hill Farms, a local, sustainable, organic farm, with acquiring seed stock and cuttings, marketing, and sales of turmeric and other crops. The chopped and juiced turmeric roots, shoots, and flowers from the farm’s turmeric plants grown are used in one of Herbal Product & Development’s fluid extracts, Turmeric Gold, a 2-ounce fluid extract of turmeric coactivated with long pepper and black pepper.
Paul’s latest endeavor is the launching and managing of a new company, Pacific Plant Nutrients. Pacific Plant Nutrients offers a certified organic concentrated plant biostimulant fertilizer product called Mineral MAX AG that can be used in all types of agriculture from small home gardens to large commercial farms. It is composed of a base of Klamath Lake blue-green algae and contains important supplemental minerals including Icelandic Kelp, Humates (Fulvic and Humic Acids), AZOMITE® Volcanic Ash Deposit, and Biochar Carbon derived from coconut shells. Mineral MAX AG has been certified organic by the Oregon Department of Agriculture. The company/product website is pacificplantnutrients.com. Mineral MAX AG adds a new and higher level of nutrients to the soil. It is also economical —1 gallon at the typical ratio of 1.5 ounces of Mineral MAX AG to a gallon of water yields 96 gallons of fertilizer.
Paul’s additional hobbies and interests include snorkeling, plant identification nature walks, photography, and wildcrafting herbs. Paul enjoys collecting, growing, and sharing tropical seed stocks of peppers, fruits, vegetables, and vine crops. He enjoys volunteering his first aid and nutritional know-how at music and cultural events when he is available.
Paul has always been and continues to be dedicated to discovering and implementing new concepts in health, nutrition, and herbology. He is committed to educating people on nutritional and medicinal topics through his company’s website and printed documentation, and through other forms of sharing which often is simply his warm willingness to engage with people. Paul believes in empowering people to allow them to make informed decisions about their health and other important aspects of their lives. He hopes that in the future the world will see more multidisciplinary healing retreats, health centers, and community improvement projects.