What is the Future of Plant-Based Alternatives in a New Food Order?
- S1E20
- 1:22:04
- April 4th 2023
Plant-based meat and dairy alternatives may have exploded onto the food scene in recent years but the hype is catching up, consumer sales have been lackluster and investors are turning away. Questions have emerged about whether plant-based alternatives are the climate solution they claim to be, or an ethical choice throughout their supply chains. Are they even taking the right approach by aiming for replicas, or do we need new protein formats altogether?
To tackle these questions and more we hosted a very special live show at New Hope Network’s Natural Products Expo West, with a panel including Miyoko’s Creamery founder Miyoko Schinner, Rainfed Foods founder Sujala Balaji, and Danone’s VP of Marketing Plant-Based Beverages Olivia Sanchez. Our first-ever live show features some serious debate about the future of plant-based food.
Today we cover:
- Why the success of plant-based products has slowed down in the US
- Is it important for those working in the plant-based food industry have a plant-based diet?
- Is there room for flexibility in our diets? Should plant-based foods be complemented with animal products?
- The potential unintended consequences of plant-based food
- What should the role of big conglomerates be in the plant-based sector?
- The rising demand for meat around the world and how emerging markets are responding
- The role of regenerative agriculture in the plant-based trend.
This episode marks the end of Season 1! We’ve really enjoyed ourselves and hope you have too. Let us know what you’d like to see us cover in future by leaving a comment or contacting us via newfoodorder.org.
Show Notes
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Thank you to Foodshot Global & New Hope Network for sponsoring the series.
And a huge thank you to everyone who helped us bring this podcast to life:
Production: Patrick Carter, Cofruition
Audio Editing: Tevin Sudi
Original Music: Rodrigo Barbera
Art: Lola Nankin
Project Management: Patrick Carter
New Food Order
New Food Order is a podcast exploring the business of tackling our climate and social crises through food and agriculture from AgFunder and Food+Tech Connect.
Through nuanced conversation and debate, its hosts Danielle Gould and Louisa Burwood-Taylor are embarking on a learning and unlearning journey to unearth how we might design business and finance to have maximum positive impact for people and our planet.
Join us as we speak with leading farmers, entrepreneurs, executives, investors, and other stewards on key topics like:
- Will plant-based, lab-grown meat, and regenerative agriculture save the world?
- Is carbon neutral enough?
- What are the most people and planet friendly business and finance models?
- How might we best honor and learn from indigenous communities?
- What are the unintended consequences of new innovation, and how might we avoid them?
Danielle Gould is an entrepreneur and activist. She is the Founder and CEO of Food Tech Connect, the first community for food innovation as well as the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Alpha Food Labs, a consultancy where she works with some of the world’s largest companies to create products and innovation strategies that are better for people and our planet. She hopes that ultimately, her work helps unite and catalyze a movement of earth guardians.
A journalist and editor, Louisa is the head of media & research for AgFunder and chief editor of its news site AFN, focused on the foodtech and agtech industry. With 10 years of agriculture reporting behind her, Louisa started her career in other financial markets working for publications like the Financial Times, Euromoney and Private Equity International, where she launched the first-ever publication dedicated to agriculture investment.