One week in a post #11: Let’s be reducetarians, Spicy is “in”, and Carbon Footprint Labeling
Now that climate beneficial eating is becoming more popular, and a number of individuals and organizations are getting into the space, I feel called to share with a broader audience what I encounter every single day through my work at Future Food and Food for Climate League. Weekly, I share startups I read about, products I tasted, founders I met (and a bit of personal life!). Every single concept I mention will be tracked on a public database we’re populating. The overarching goal is to increase general interest in this topic, acknowledging that the challenge is too big not to work cooperatively.
This initiative is possible thanks to our amazing Future Food Ecosystem, where our team is working diligently every single day to research, design, create, and commercialize new food solutions to help our planet.
My word of the week
NOUN
- Mediterranean Diet
A diet of a type traditional in Mediterranean countries, characterized especially by a high consumption of vegetables and olive oil and moderate consumption of protein, and thought to confer health benefits.
Food, Climate and Innovation: three highlights of the week
1/ Reducetarianism is the future
This month MEAT ME HALFWAY is out! Meat me halfway is a documentary featuring the Leader of the Reducetarian Movement, Brian Kateman, who explores the issue of finding the middle ground between two extremes, eating meat and going fully plantbased.
Reducetarianism is a conscious or unconscious reduction in meat and dairy consumption. A reducetarian — sometimes confused with the labeling “vegan” or “vegetarian” — is simply one who works towards reducing the quantity of animal products within their dietary habits.
Want to know more about the movement? No better thing than watching the movie!
2/ Spicy is “in”
A start-up? A well-established name brand? It doesn’t matter. The demand for spicier flavor options is a small trend we see growing. Campbells release of Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup moved a traditional flavor to the next level — or the “gen-z level” adding a spicy kick to a once traditional soup. Spudsy , a sustainable start-up brand utilizing upcycled sweet potatoes, has made a move to release spicy foods in their new line of “hot fries” chips. Wenzel Farms Sweet & Spicy Beef Jerky, a provider of high quality, handcrafted, small-batch meat snacks, a company that has been sharing the traditional methods of sausage making from Germany to Wisconsin for well over 100 years has even implemented a spicy jerky to their mix.
Jerky, soup, chips… whats next?
3/ Testing Carbon Footprint Labels on Products
Unilever, one of the largest CPG companies, is looking to add carbon-foot print labeling in order to not only educate consumers but also encourage competitors as wells as smaller food companies to follow suit. The new labels are supposed to be on the shelves by the end of the year.
Unilever has decided to use a combination of industrial averages taken from what he described as approved databases and existing carbon measures of its products, such as Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. It believes its labels will be about 85% accurate. This leadership shown by such a huge food brand in the industry will hopefully lead to more companies adding the label leading to more conscious shoppers and reduced climate impact.
According to FAO, 1/3 of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year). Our food system is a major contributor to emissions: Livestock & fisheries account for 31% of food emissions, Crop production accounts for 27% of food emissions, Land use accounts for 24% of food emissions, Supply chains account for 18% of food emissions.
Climate Friendly products I tasted this week
AGUA BONITA
Agua Bonita, the first canned, non-alcoholic aguas frescas available, offers a twist on the traditional Mexican refreshment aguas frescas, flavored waters typically formulated with sugar and primarily available in fountain drink form. The brand’s canned still beverages contain no sweeteners and are flavored with juice from imperfect or excess watermelon, pineapple, and lemons that would otherwise be wasted. Why I think this is a great concept:
- Uniqueness / “While drinks in other categories are made with either artificial ingredients or have upwards of 79 grams of sugar per serving, we sit right in the middle as an all-natural option that consumers can grab” -Kayla Castañeda, Co-founder of Agua Bonita.
- Impact / The company uses ugly or excess fruits.
- Crazy abel/ All of their drinks are: 100% real fruit, 60 calories, only 12 g of natural sugars, no added sugar, no artificial sweeteners, no chemicals and non-sparkling.
ZENB
ZENB aims to use the whole vegetable and legume — including the core, peel, seeds, and stem — in their products providing an easier way to eat veggies while also promoting food waste reduction. What I like about them:
- Sustainable Approach / “We challenge ourselves to grow responsibly. For us, this means raising awareness about reducing food waste, educating on the benefits of using parts of the vegetable that are often discarded, and using 100% recycled and recyclable packaging wherever possible.”
- Flavor / ZENB focuses on enhancing veggie consumption with three different lines: legume-based pasta, veggie packed gourmet sauces, and veggie bite snacks.
- Focus on ingredients / The brand really takes ingredients seriously! They work with yellow peas, edamame, beets and a few other selected ingredients for their specific impact on the environment they have. And with those, they create a series of diverse products.
WICKED KITCHEN
Wicked Kitchen curates chef-driven flavor-first, convenient plant-based foods from lunch and breakfast options to dinner, snacks, and desserts. They are heavely focusing on the power of mushrooms. They highlights I see:
- Product / Wicked Kitchen has several product lines curated for several different types of moments of consumption throughout the day: On-the-go Breakfast, Meal Kits, Ready Meals, Plantbased Meats, Sauces and Condiments, and Kitchen Essentials.
- Potential / Wicked Kitchen launched in Tesco in the UK with 20 products in 2018. In just 6 months, the line doubles with the addition of 25 more products hitting the shelves.
- Flavor profiles / Wicked Kitchen has a variety of flavors that are both familiar and unfamiliar to the average consumer ranging from apple pie porridge to pink beetroot pesto sauce.
My reading of the week
The Soul of Money, Lynne Twist
This book defiantly came into my life at the right moment. I’ve been exploring my personal relationship with money for a couple of years now, and Lynne Twist is helping me in drawing conclusions and align on next steps.
Lynne Twist has had a remarkable career as a fundraiser. Her life has come in touch with legends such as Mother Theresa, Buckminster Fuller, and the Dalai Lama. To write this book, Lynne draws on a life time of experience working in some of the most resource poor areas of the world such as India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and some of the most impoverished souls among the ‘wealthiest’ people.
A men’s inventions
To begin this journey, Twist examines what money truly is an invention of man, a tool to facilitate the exchange of goods and services. Yet over the centuries, the love of money, or greed, has been the cause of murder, rape, wars, and famine. Money has become one of the primary yardsticks against which we measure ourselves and others. As if somehow having more money makes us smarter, better, or more worthy than others.
The Great Lie of Scarcity
Twist explores three Toxic Myths:
1/ There’s Not Enough… “becomes the reason we do work that brings us down or the reason we do things to each other that we’re not proud of…(it) generates a fear that drives us to make sure that we’re not the person, or our loved ones aren’t the people, who get crushed, marginalized, or left out.”
2/ More Is Better… “is a chase with no end and a race without winners. It’s like a hamster wheel that we hop onto, get going, and then forget how to stop.”
3/ That’s Just the Way It Is… “justifies the greed, prejudice, and inaction that scarcity fosters in our relationship with money and the rest of the human race.”
Sufficiency
Twist does not stop with merely defining the causes of physical and spiritual poverty but offers a pathway forward: sufficiency. “Sufficiency resides inside each of us, and we call it forward. It is a consciousness, an attention, an intentional choosing of the way we think about our circumstances. In our relationship with money, it is using money in a way that expresses our integrity; using it in a way that expresses value rather than determines value.
Sufficiency is an act of generating, distinguishing, making known to ourselves the power and presence of our existing resources, and our inner resources. When we live in this place of sufficiency, there is freedom and integrity as well as enough to go around for everyone.
Money is like water
“To me, money is a lot like water. For some folks it rushes through their life like a raging river. Money comes through my life like a little trickle. But I want to pass it on in a way that does the most good for the most folks. I see that as my right and as my responsibility. It’s also my joy.”
~ What you hold, holds you.
The Future Food Institute believes climate change is at the end of your fork. By harnessing the power of our global ecosystem of partners, innovators, researchers, educators, and entrepreneurs, FFI aims to sustainably improve life on Earth through the transformation of global food systems.
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