Using Money to Make Change

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Nell's new enterprise—Newman's Own Organics: The Second Generation—officially opened for business in 1993. The slogan touted "Great-tasting products that just happen to be organic." It, too, was an immediate success. The choice for the first product was a no-brainer; market research revealed that pretzel sales were booming nationwide, yet no organic varieties were on the market, and Paul Newman loves pretzels. Nell's pretzels soon became the best-selling brand in the natural foods industry. And her father's seed money was paid back quickly.

But Nell didn't stop there. To date, Newman's Own Organics has generated $2 million that Paul Newman has donated to organic agriculture research, wildlife preservation, education, medical research, affordable housing and other charitable causes. And Nell has taken her father's business model to a new level by taking recommendations from employees and suppliers to help choose which charities receive the money.

Nell Learns to Fly

Nell Newman describes herself as a "flexitarian" when it comes to food and notes her favorite venue is farmer's markets. She eats a lot of fruits and vegetables, but also red meat, poultry and fish from time to time. At 44, she is tall and athletic, as befits someone who loves the outdoors. And her twinkling blue eyes tell you in an instant she is her father's daughter.

She lives in Santa Cruz, California, on the north coast of the Monterey Bay. Home is a 1,000-square-foot cottage built in 1947. The small yard is filled with organic vegetable gardens, flower beds and a prized white Babcock peach tree, which is netted each summer to protect the fruit she gives as gifts. Six laying hens follow her everywhere—two each of the Buff Orpington, Silver-laced Wyandotte and White Leghorn breeds. Nell calls them by name: Winston, Wycliff, Dorothy, Betty Poop, Einstein and Mrs. Robinson.

It was through birds—a love of avian creatures and the threat to them (and us) from agricultural pesticides—that Nell Newman's environmental consciousness emerged. When she was just 8 years old, she received a baby falcon as a gift. Her father had become acquainted with Morley Nelson, a falconer involved in making a movie adaptation of My Side of the Mountain, the award-winning children's book by Jean Craighead George.

"It's the story of a young boy who runs away, lives in a treehouse and uses a falcon to hunt," Nell says. "Dad brought Morley home one day and, before I knew it, I was reading a 12th-century treatise on falconry." In no time, she became an accomplished falconer.

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