As part of Nutraceuticals World’s 2026 State of the Industry review, Suzanne Shelton, Founder of The Shelton Group, reflects on a year defined by economic uncertainty, social disruption, and digital misinformation. She emphasized the importance of collaboration, reputation management, and industry unity — reminding companies that community and trust are the strongest assets in unpredictable times.

Weirdest year ever! Throughout 2025 the most frequent topic I helped client communications about was tariffs and their impact, but the deeper story was uncertainty.  Perhaps someone with access to the White House could explain to them how bad uncertainty is for businesses of all sizes and that stock market performance should not be confused with a healthy economy.

I wonder if next year a main topic will be labor related. Will it be labor shortages? Or staff reductions? Probably both, depending upon pay grades.

The suppliers and brands I talk to regularly are working even more closely with each other to mitigate the damage, which is mutually beneficial. They are more likely to come through this crazy era with reputations and companies intact than are lone rangers.

Brands should start preparing for misinformation campaigns if they have not already. The monetization of outrage on social media, now with AI outrage manufacturing bots, has moved from election disinformation campaigns to targeting some brands. An interesting article in Ad Age quoted a report by Cyabra that found 21% of the accounts posting on X attacking Cracker Barrel in August for its short-lived logo update were fake accounts, mass produced, and organized. There are ways to identify those (which should be reported to the platform they are posting on), and steps brands can take to protect their reputation.

Speaking of outrage, the fostering of divisiveness to consolidate political power has produced a bumper crop of fractured relationships. It’s sad, dangerous, and bad for business. Unfortunately, we’ve seen some of it seep into our industry, but we can consciously choose to reject that.

At the UNPA member retreat, where I was so honored to be recognized for the impact of my work, I noticed Loren Israelsen using the word “community” where most people would say “industry.” This was reflected in multiple conversations I had at SupplySide Global this year. People talked about how they value their close relationships with colleagues, and how extraordinary our industry community is in that way. People are vocally appreciating the connection many of us share more than I have seen before in the 35 years I’ve been working in this business. We should nurture that.