Blunts, broth and shrooms - keeping up with business in the USA

Saturday, 27 September 2025

Mike O’Donnell wasn’t prepared for how deeply cannabis had woven itself into US culture

Mike O'Donnell is a US-based commentator with extensive experience as a director and adviser to various New Zealand businesses. He is currently NZTE’s regional director In North America but this column represents his personal opinions.

OPINION: The two businessmen shake hands outside a downtown Los Angeles hotel before heading in to breakfast. It was early, the dining room half-empty, and their laptops were open before the menus hit the table on the balcony just outside my window.

Coffee arrived, but so too did something more surprising.

They calmly opened a colourfully decorated box of blunts — commercially rolled cannabis cigarettes — lit up, and started working their inboxes. The sweet, skunky scent of hooter drifted across the restaurant.

Not a head turned. Nobody blinked. Except me, the slack-jawed Kiwi new arrival.

I’d prepared myself for many aspects of American life before moving here three weeks ago. But I hadn’t prepared for how deeply cannabis has woven itself into everyday business culture.

In Santa Monica where I live, a 10-minute walk to the supermarket involves weaving through two or three cannabis clouds —“White Widow Super Cheese” if the scent boards outside the local dispensaries are to be believed.

California has legalised recreational use, along with 24 other states, three territories and DC. Another seven have decriminalised it. The result? A $30 billion dollar industry and a visible, casual integration of cannabis into daily routines some 10 years later.

Punters get to choose from blunts, edibles, concentrates, flowers and vape juice. Literally a menu of THC concentrations and flavour additives. You can also buy online, then click and collect if you prefer.

Mushroom cafes are sprouting up across the states as the functional foods boom takes hold.

But cannabis isn’t the only thing reshaping American habits. Walk a few blocks and you’ll stumble into a mushroom café. I recently lunched at Muddy Watr, where caffeine takes a backseat to lion’s mane, reishi and chaga shrooms.

This is part of the functional foods boom — adaptogens and wellness products promising smoother energy, sharper focus and calmer nerves.

Mushroom coffee still makes up a small part of total US coffee sales, but sales of mushroom-based foods and beverages have climbed 450% since 2021. With Santa Monica acting as an early warning radar for consumer trends, you can bet it’s on a growth curve.

Then there’s protein. Not just any protein — meat-derived protein. Think bone broth in sleek packaging, protein water, offal-flavoured snack bars. Bone broth in particular has become big business.

Once the humble stock pot of grandmothers in places like Naseby and Taihape, it’s now a USD$22b global industry projected to reach over $130b by 2032. It’s sold as clean-label nutrition, packed with collagen, amino acids and minerals and promoted by Hollywood’s elite – Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek, Halle Berry – along with a long list of paid social media influencers that I’m not cool enough to recognise.

Distributors sell it ready-to-drink, powdered, and blended into smoothies. And with sustainability narratives about using the “whole animal”, bone broth has gone from peasant food to premium wellness.

The bone broth business is forecast to be worth USD$130b by 2032, Mike O’Donnell writes.

For New Zealand exporters, these three intersecting trends – cannabis, functional mushrooms and protein – carry some implications.

Cannabis: While legalisation at home is unlikely any time soon, hemp-based wellness products, CBD-infused skincare and nutraceuticals already play in adjacent categories. With the US normalising cannabis consumption in business and lifestyle contexts, New Zealand firms will need to decide whether to enter these grey zones abroad or remain cautious. But potentially “clean green” could offer us competitive advantage in this market.
Mushrooms: New Zealand already has credibility in natural health, clean food production and mycology. Some Kiwi companies are already developing functional mushroom products. But it feels like there is room for more in terms of extracts, powders and beverages. The rise of mushroom cafés is a signpost that this is moving from niche to mainstream.
Bone broth and protein: This feels like the most immediate opportunity. New Zealand has a world-class grass-fed meat industry and a deep story to tell around natural nutrition. In addition to the existing trade in broth, a scan of the supermarket shelves suggests there is also space for collagen and protein ingredients with clean provenance to meet US demand.

For Kiwi newcomers like me these shifts can feel surreal. Cannabis smoke in board meetings. Mushroom lattes instead of flat whites. Bone broth shots served like tequila.

But that’s America 2025: trends collide, health narratives get repackaged, and billion-dollar businesses are built in the space of a few short years. Importantly, understanding that a niche in North America is still vast compared to Australasian markets.

To put that into perspective the forecast USD$130b for bone broth equates to New Zealand’s entire gross domestic product last year.

It reminds me of a line from Frank Zappa, who once lived just over the hill from where I am now, in Laurel Canyon: “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”

Zappa – who didn’t mind the occasional joint – was talking about art and music, but the same is true for markets. What looks odd, even absurd, can quickly become the new normal—and the foundation for entire industries.

Back on the balcony of that hotel, the two businessmen puffed away at their blunts, unbothered. To them it was just another day, another deal, another email to answer before the eggs arrived.

To me, it was a lesson: America’s markets move fast, culture even faster and exporters need to decide whether they are sniffing the smoke trail or lighting up their own opportunities.