Plantbased Business Hour

Caroline Cotto of NECTAR Research and Tim Dale from Food System Innovations join CEO of VegTech Invest and host Elysabeth Alfano on The Plantbased Business Hour to discuss the results of a recent study around consumer perception of blended (or plant-rich) meat. Do they like it? Do they hate it? Is it a sell-out? Specifically, they discuss, 1. What is Food System Innovations, and what is its mission? 2. What is NECTAR, and why is it needed? 3. What is plant-rich meat? 4. What are the early indications regarding consumer acceptance of this category? 5. What are some challenges for the overall plant-based and diversified proteins sector moving forward? Below is a highlight clip and transcription from their long-form conversation. Full podcast here. Elysabeth: I want to bring in from Food System Innovations, Tim …

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Founder of Mach Global Advisors, David Ziskind, joins CEO of VegTech Invest and host Elysabeth Alfano on The Plantbased Business Hour, and discusses the pros and cons of building out food manufacturing or going with a co-manufacturer, and how to keep it all sustainable. Specifically, they discuss: What are some of the challenges faced in food manufacturing? How do you scale manufacturing, particularly with smaller budgets? How do you right-size a manufacturing facility? Does contract manufacturing play a role in bridging the gap? In this capital-constrained environment, how can you prepare for future growth? How do you make do with what you have and do more with less? Below is a highlight clip and transcription from their long-form conversation. Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/make-it-or-break-it-scaling-food-manufacturing-with/id1512473843?i=1000673442530 Elysabeth: I bring on my …

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The founder of Catapult Commercialization Services, Jamie Valenti-Jordan, joins CEO of VegTech Invest and host Elysabeth Alfano on The Plantbased Business Hour to discuss bringing resiliency to the diversified protein supply chain. Specifically, they discuss: Catapult Commercialization Services and Jamie’s long history in food science and manufacturing. What shifts Elysabeth and Jamie see in the sector, both positive and negative? Jamie and Elysabeth’s perspective on the slump of the sector: is it the valley of death or rebirth? What needs to happen for revitalization? Jamie’s predictions for the next 3 years? Below is a highlight clip and transcription from their long-form conversation. Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/building-a-resilient-food-system-supply-chain-with/id1512473843?i=1000672510116 Elysabeth: I wanted to bring on my guest today, Jamie Valenti-Jordan. He is the founder of Catapult Commercialization Services and I’m glad to have …

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What is the state of the American Farmer? Is food insecurity in the U.S. on the rise? What initiatives are upcoming to address feeding more people with fewer resources? What does the USDA science data tell us? Deputy Under Secretary of the USDA, Sanah Baig, joins CEO of VegTech Invest and host Elysabeth Alfano on The Plantbased Business Hour for the big knowledge drop just months before the Farm Bill drop. Specifically, they discuss: As we turn the corner into 2025, what is the USDA working on, given the need to feed a growing global population with fewer resources? How is the USDA prioritizing food systems transformation and the plight of the American farmer? What level of money is being spent on the future of agriculture, and what kind of …

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Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture and Executive Director of The Food Systems for the Future, Ertharin Cousin, joins CEO of VegTech Invest, Elysabeth Alfano, on The Plantbased Business Hour to discuss the pivotal year of 2025 for food and other systems shifts. Specifically, they discuss: What is the Food Systems for the Future Institute? Given your long tenure as the Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture and as Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme, how have you seen the landscape around global nutrition and food insecurity change? At COP28, the World Bank declared that Food Tech is Climate Tech. There is a growing understanding of the overlap of food systems and energy use, and food’s impact on …

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George Monbiot, author, journalist, and environmental activist, joins The Plantbased Business Hour with host and CEO of VegTech Invest, Elysabeth Alfano, to discuss how to best fight for the planet and how to take no prisoners when it comes to taking on the meat industry and its lobby. He goes for the jugular and this is a do-not-miss interview. Specifically, they discuss How does the big meat misinformation campaign differ from big tobacco and fossil fuels’ misinformation campaigns? What do we do against the misinformation campaign, especially if it is protected by certain government organizations? Is there a strategy for impact when we are woefully outspent? What is it going to take to move the needle? For people to be outraged? A health crisis? Another …

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In advance of the All In Summit this September in Los Angeles and as one of the best Plant-Based Business Hour podcasts of 2023, we are here re-running the All-In Podcast’s Sultan of Science: David Friedberg, CEO of The Production Board on The Plantbased Business Hour. David and Elysabeth Alfano discuss how AI can impact the plant-based innovation sector (plant-based foods and alternative proteins) as well as what the sector can do to scale up production and reduce costs. Specifically, they discuss: How the sector can scale to price parity or better and the innovations that will advance the sector, The power of bioengineering and the opportunities that can come from land, water, and forest availability provided by more efficient ways of making protein, Plant-based …

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On The Plantbased Business Hour, Rohan Shirwaiker and Bill Aimutis, co-directors of the Bezos Earth Fund Bezos Center for Sustainable Proteins at North Carolina State University join host and CEO of VegTech Invest Elysabeth Alfano, to share the news about the new $30M grant for the center and its true and fast/slow approach to partnership, marrying food and science and addressing problems like food insecurity, planetary health and human health. It’s a true game changer and market signal. Specifically, they discuss: What is the intention of the first Bezos Center for Sustainable Proteins hosted at North Carolina State University? What are the 3 points of focus for the award? What kind of time frame are we looking at for this to be executed? What partners are …

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Robert Barnett, Bloomberg Intelligence Energy Analyst, and Robert Du Boff, Bloomberg Intelligence ESG Analyst, join CEO of VegTech Invest, Elysabeth Alfano, on The Plantbased Business Hour to discuss the overlap of energy use and food systems and how shifting one can shift another. Specifically, they discuss: What were the outcomes of the Looking Back on Dubai (COP28), Looking Ahead to Baku (COP29) Bloomberg Intelligence summit, and specifically what were the outcomes of the panel on climate, nature and biodiversity? Given the agricultural food system’s large environmental footprint (30% of the world’s GhGE according to the UNEP) why are there not more discussions on food systems as a solution to 2030 goals? Let’s discuss the food/energy overlap and how changing food systems impacts changing energy use. …

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Caitlin MacLean, Senior Director of Innovative Finance at the Milken Institute, and Holly Freishtat, Senior Director at Feeding Change, join Elysabeth Alfano on The Plantbased Business Hour to discuss blended capital and why institutional and philanthropic investors are using this approach to focus on food. Specifically, they discuss: What is the Milken Institute’s Feeding Change initiative? What does it aim to accomplish? Holly, what were your takeaways from COP28, and have you seen this play out in the finance community thus far? Is investing in food systems transformation considered innovative finance? If so, why? When do we think Wall Street capital, a major component of blended capital, will come into play? How will this transpire? No one knows the future, but if we had to …

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Chief Investment Officer of VegTech Invest, Dr. Sasha Goodman, discusses the firm’s recent white paper, in conjunction with Harvard University students, on Stakeholder Engagement for Plant-based Innovation & Diversified Proteins. Along with host of The Plantbased Business Hour, Elysabeth Alfano, the two discuss the top 5 findings of the white paper and the impact on the diversified proteins sector. Specifically, they discussed What is the new white paper between VegTech™ Invest and Harvard’s Great Food Systems Transformation Course students? What prompted the White Paper on Best Practices for Stakeholder Engagement for Plant-based Innovation and Protein Diversification? Why is Stakeholder Engagement in Plant-based Innovation and Protein Diversification important? Of the 6 case studies in the paper, is there one that particularly stands out for you? What …

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Host of The Plantbased Business Hour and CEO of VegTech Invest, Elysabeth Alfano, was recently on a panel at the Future of Protein Production conference in Chicago. Elysabeth was on the panel discussing investing in food systems transformation with Aleh Manchuliantsau, Founder and CEO of Planetarians, Fengru Lin, CEO and co-founder of TurtleTree, and Alex Shirazi, co-founder and director of the Cultivated Meat Symposium. At the links below you can listen to their panel discussion. Audio clip: https://x.com/ElysabethAlfano/status/1787871566950195407 Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/future-of-protein-production-2024/id1512473843?i=1000654300710 Below is a transcript of an audio clip from the episode. Alex Shirazi: There have been a lot of discussions about the downturn in investment in 2024, so that’s what we’re going to jump into. You know, have we seen different types of investment come into …

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