Opinion

Alexandre Ruberti

Alexandre Ruberti. © Future Farm
veg+

Op Ed: Alexandre Ruberti, CEO of Future Farm, on the Ebbs and Flows of the Plant-Based Industry

Alexandre Ruberti is the CEO of Future Farm and a board member at Celsius Holdings. Previously, he worked at Red Bull for 16 years, serving dual positions – President of Red Bull Distribution Company USA and Executive Vice President of Sales for Red Bull North America. He is credited with developing the business exponentially through incremental growth, and now brings his wealth of experience to the plant-based industry. Plant-Based is a Marathon and Not a Sprint by Alexandre Ruberti It’s no secret that the plant-based industry continues to ebb and flow, but it’s important to take a step back and ask why — while keeping in mind that plant-based is still a relatively new category. Like any new market, it will stabilize — and more …

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Organisations and Brands:Future Farm / Fazenda Futuro
Marissa Bronfman Profile Photo

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Op Ed: Marissa Bronfman On Women Leading the Way in Alt Seafood

Marissa Bronfman is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, and business advisor to food founders and impact investors. She is passionate about helping people build, grow, support, and invest in woman-owned and plant-based businesses and is excited to be helping accelerate the alternative seafood space.   Inspired and encouraged by the number of women leading in the space, Marissa believes “there’s never been a better time to start, scale, or invest in a vegan seafood company”.   Alternative Seafood: A New Wave of Opportunity Led by Women By Marissa Bronfman It’s a hugely exciting time for seafood analogs, a relatively small but fast-growing category of alternative protein, with many new companies and technological developments being led by women from around the world. At a time when our …

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Lydia Hoye Founder, Bound to Prosper

Lydia Hoye Founder, Bound to Prosper, image supplied

Op Ed: Lydia Hoye Founder, Bound to Prosper, on Pushing the Plant Transition

Lydia Hoye is the Founder of consumer PR agency Bound to Prosper. With 20 years of experience working with global brands, she now brings her expertise to bold and progressive brands and is on a mission to help the plant-based industry grow and go mainstream. Three ways the plant-based industry can help people transition how they eat now and in the future By Lydia Hoye Future generations are your future stakeholders. My plant-based daughter only knows the words ‘milk’ and ‘meat’ when referring to the plant-based versions. At seven years she’s growing up with a new set of semantics and a way of understanding what she consumes. BBC Good Food research has found that one in five, 5–15-year-olds say they are vegan or vegan-curious – …

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Organisations and Brands:Bound to Prosper
Alex Crisp

Alex Crisp. Image supplied.

Op Ed: Alex Crisp, Host of The Future of Food, on How Cultivated Meat Could Change Us as a Species

Alex Crisp is a prolific writer with a background in law, education, and activism. He hosts a podcast called The Future of Food, in which he discusses the food landscape in the near and distant future with academics, business leaders, and industry influencers. He also writes articles about ethical equities, Equity Rebellion, in which he discusses investing for a sustainable future. In this opinion piece, Alex contemplates whether cultivated meat could trigger a new level of human development. Will Cultivated Meat Make Us Kinder? By Alex Crisp This is an exciting time for vegetarians and animal-loving meat-eaters, because we are at the brink of something transformational. We are perhaps now entering a new stage in our food evolution, a food revolution, in which we’ll be …

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Yoshikazu Azuma

Yoshikazu Azuma ©2foods

Op Ed: Yoshikazu Azuma, CEO of 2foods, On Japan’s Evolving Vegan Market

Yoshikazu Azuma, CEO of Tokyo’s 2foods, is soon to expand Japan’s number one, 100% plant-based fast-casual and CPG brand to the US, bringing its award-winning products including ramen, Japanese curry, gateau, cheesecakes, and doughnuts, to American consumers through newly established arm 2foods US. “We believe that plant-based food has enormous potential in Japan,” says the serial entrepreneur. The ongoing evolution of plant-based in Japan By Yoshikazu Azuma The plant-based food industry has been growing at an unprecedented pace in recent years, with Europe and the United States leading the way. However, Japan is still in its early stages of development in the plant-based market, and there is much potential for growth and expansion. Despite an increase in the number of restaurants serving plant-based foods and …

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Organisations and Brands:2foods
Eben Bayer headshot

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Op Ed: Eben Bayer, CEO, MyForest Foods, On What Lies Ahead for Plant-Based Meat

Eben Bayer, founder and CEO of Ecovative Design and MyForestFoods Co. (previously Atlast) is one of the most prominent voices in the world of mycelium. In this opinion piece, Bayer urges that for plant-based meat, the best is yet to come: “The current landscape does not spell trouble for most companies in the space. In fact, history promises that we’re just getting started,” he encourages. Plant-Based Meat Industry: The Best is Yet To Come By Eben Bayer The plant-based market has been sparking something that can only be described as ‘headline whiplash’ lately. Contradicting messages splash across our screens, from “save the world” potential to “this too shall pass” doom and gloom. So, which one is it?  As a long-time problem solver and innovator, I’ve …

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Veronica Fil headshot

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Op Ed: Veronica Fil, Founder of Grounded Foods Co., On Convenience as Imperative

Veronica Fil is a former behavioural economist, who now specialises in marketing for the alternative protein industry. She is the co-founder of Grounded Foods Co. and author of Plant Based USA: a Guide to Eating Animal-Free in America. Convenience as the forgotten factor in plant-based adoption By Veronica Fil Given the monumental hype around plant-based proteins over the past few years, you might be wondering why demand for these products hasn’t yet reached the fever pitch we were all hoping for.  What’s the hold-up? Why aren’t we achieving more widespread consumer adoption of plant-based products? As more people begin to understand and accept the health, environmental, and/or ethical need for this shift in global eating habits, the market for alternative proteins is still relatively small. …

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Sebastian Joy and ChatGPT

Sebastian Joy and ChatGPT, Image: vegconomist

Op Ed: Sebastian Joy and ChatGPT Discuss the Future of Alt Protein

This fascinating contribution is co-authored by ChatGPT and Sebastian Joy, president of UN award-winning food awareness organization ProVeg International. Sebastian is also co-founder of the ProVeg Incubator, VeggieWorld, the New Food Conference, VegMed, and the AVA Summit. Sebastian is Vice President of the European Vegetarian Union, partner of V-label, and former lecturer for social entrepreneurship at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. And ChatGPT is a robot. A robot who says “pinky promise”. ChatGPT is optimistic about the future of alternative protein By Sebastian Joy and ChatGPT Hello, Dear Vegconomist reader. I am ChatGPT, your friendly neighborhood artificial intelligence. Today, Sebastian Joy from ProVeg International and I are going to share with you why we are so optimistic about the future of alternative proteins.  …

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Erik Amundson headshot

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Op Ed: Erik Amundson, CEO and Co-Founder of Vevolution, on Plant Cell Culture Tech

Erik Amundson, CEO and co-founder of Vevolution, here discusses plant cell culture technology. $896 million was invested into cultivated solutions in 2022, with Upside Foods raising an industry-accelerating $400M round. Investors are now actively investing in not only center plate meat alternatives, but also in the auxiliary and plant cell culture market of gelatin, chocolate, coffee, and other products. Imagine a world without coffee By Erik Amundson I’m not a coffee snob by any means, but I drink it every day. The warm, energizing nourishment to kick off my anxiety-fueled morning as a co-founder is something I look forward to. Espresso, lattes, cold brew, I mean all of it is just such a huge part of our culture as a society. Now imagine a world …

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Organisations and Brands:Vevolution
samah-garringer

Samah Garringer, DSM

Op Ed: Samah Garringer, Business Unit Director, Proteins of the Future at DSM

The plant-based market is not shy of meat-, fish- and dairy alternatives. But a category that was once developed for vegans and vegetarians has now evolved into something much more inclusive of all diets and lifestyle choices, says Samah Garringer, Business Unit Director, Proteins of the Future at DSM. Taking plant proteins to the next level By Samah Garringer Welcome to the era of the flexitarian, where consumers regularly supplement their diet with plant-based protein alternatives. Recent research shows that approximately 25% of all age groups globally are starting to follow a more flexitarian diet[1] – and this number is showing no signs of slowing down. As consumers become more aware of the benefits of plant-based proteins, they are on the lookout for even healthier …

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Organisations and Brands:DSM
Mathilde Chatin

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Op Ed: Mathilde Chatin, Head of Food and Agriculture, Penta

Mathilde Chatin advises some of the world’s largest clients in the food and agriculture space and is primarily involved in corporate communication projects at Penta, formerly Hume Brophy. Mathilde has held several positions in diplomatic and international organisations such as the French embassies in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, the EU Delegation to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva and the Delegation of the Bahamas to UNESCO. The Importance of Communication in Alt Proteins, By Mathilde Chatin Alternative protein sources have morphed – in just a few years – from a niche product to a mainstream phenomenon. Big players in the meat industry have come aboard this movement, and they must now work to communicate the sizeable impact of this trend for the industry, …

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Matt Gibson, New Culture

Matt Gibson, © New Culture

Op Ed: Matt Gibson, CEO and Co-Founder of New Culture, on Precision Fermentation

“Precision fermentation is here to define a more sustainable, delicious path for the alternative protein industry,” says Matt Gibson, co-founder and CEO of California’s New Culture. Founded in 2019, New Culture is “revolutionizing how cheese is made by combining traditional cheesemaking methods with modern fermentation technology”, a process that Gibson asserts has been used for decades and is already used to make products in nearly every aisle of the grocery store. Precision Fermentation: The Future of the Alternative Protein Industry By Matt Gibson, CEO and co-Founder, New Culture In mid-November 2022, the global human population reached 8.0 billion from an estimated 2.5 billion people in 1950, adding 1 billion people since 2010 and 2 billion since 1998. This is causing the global demand for meat …

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Organisations and Brands:New Culture
Loui Blake

© Loui Blake

OP ED: Loui Blake, Entrepreneur & CEO of Miami Foods

Loui Blake, founder of Erpingham House vegan restaurant and Vegan Dough Co pizza kitchen, as well as CEO of Miami Foods, here gives a call to action amid the current naysaying in mainstream media: we are more powerful when we act together as a collective movement. “The same people and energy that gave rise to this industry can help to continue this growth,” he urges. Plant-based is slowing down? Here’s how we move it forward. By Loui Blake As a plant-based industry, we’ve enjoyed unprecedented levels of growth in recent years. It now looks like a very smart decision to have gone “all in” on plant-based based and leave my other businesses behind back in 2015, but even I was grossly unaware, and not even mildly …

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Image courtesy Elysabeth Alfano

Elysabeth Alfano: 2023 Is The Year We Dig Ourselves Out. Here’s How

This is normally the time of year for predictions about the year to come. And that’s fine. If you would like my top 5 predictions for 2023, you can find them in my Linkedin Post here. However, 2022 was not a normal year (we haven’t had much of those lately), and I don’t think 2023 will reside on the normal scale, either.  So, this New Year’s article calls for something more bespoke. Acknowledging that 2022 was a toughie: war, continued supply chain mayhem, inflation, recession and just an overall sense of dread left most businesses and the market as a whole bloodied and battered. With this in mind, I thought my New Year article would be specific to the Plant-based Innovation Sector and its next …

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Dominique Side

Image courtesy Dominique Side

Op Ed: Dominique Side, Co-Founder VgnBae Studios & Nikki Green

Dominique Side is a sustainability expert and authority in luxury ethical living. As the co-founder of the 7-figure entrepreneurial multiplex VgnBae Studios, luxury vegan fashion line Nikki Green and serial entrepreneur, her mission is to inspire and support other change-makers and influencers to transition to a compassion-based vegan lifestyle, without compromising on their luxury quality of life. Understanding the Challenges of Shopping for 100% Vegan Clothing By Dominique Side Being a vegan shopper can be a difficult game of constant tag-reading and in-store googling. You want to feel confident in the pieces you choose to bring into your home and put on your body. But frankly, the fashion industry doesn’t make it easy for us. Sure, something might be free of animal products, but was …

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