Forever Living Aloe Vera

There’s something to be said for staying true to your roots without being left behind by a constantly progressing world. In four decades, Forever Living has grown to become the most important producer of aloe vera products in the world by operating with just the right balance of tradition and innovation.

It’s easy to look out over a seemingly endless field of aloe at one of Forever’s plantations and wonder how the company has managed to plant, grow and harvest its aloe vera leaves using the same method for more than 40 years – every plant carefully nurtured and hand harvested. It might be easier and more profitable to use automated machinery to harvest plants faster and rely less on the human touch. But this shortcut disguised as progress comes at a real cost. It smashes and destroys more of the plant, causing environmental damage and an unremarkable finished product.

A tradition worth keeping

When Rex Maughan founded Forever Living Products, he wanted to build more than a company. He wanted to build the kinds of bonds that transcend language or borders and bring people together through the shared interest of doing things the right way.

At Forever’s aloe plantations, doing things the right way means doing it by hand. The men and women who harvest the aloe vera leaves are up with the sun, carefully hand-selecting those leaves that have reached peak maturity and nutrient content.

There’s just no substitute for human touch when it comes to choosing the perfect leaves. The people who know best when it’s time to harvest are those who plant, nurture and tend to the crop, season after season. They examine the color of the leaf, the size and the way it feels in their hand to determine which leaves are ready to be harvested and which ones need a little more time.

The mature outer leaves are carefully sliced from the plant, allowing the inside leaves to continue to grow. It takes about a year for the leaf to hit peak and a single plant can continue producing leaves for many years when it’s properly cared for. Once the leaves are harvested, they are loaded onto a trailer for the first round of processing onsite.

THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW BEST WHEN IT’S TIME TO HARVEST ARE THOSE WHO PLANT, NURTURE AND TEND TO THE CROP, SEASON AFTER SEASON.