Business for Good Podcast

You've likely noticed that there's been an explosion of investment into the animal-free food space, with producers of alt-meat, milk, and eggs advancing weekly. But why isn't there anything comparable happening in the animal-free materials space? Sure, we've had plastic-based leather alternatives (aka pleather) for a long time, but in terms of products not derived from animals or fossil fuels, what's out there on the market at scale? Turns out, just not that much. Enter the Material Innovation Initiative, a relatively new nonprofit organization started by veterans of the animal welfare and animal-free food space. Their goal: to be the Good Food Institute of animal-free materials, helping to attract investment and entrepreneurial activity to build a new industry of animal-free fur, leather, silk, and more. And we've got their CEO Nicole Rawling on this episode to regale us with the importance of building such an industry, and how there's a massive white space there just waiting to be filled. So, are you thinking about starting your own company to help animals and the planet? If so, after listening to Nicole, you just may think you'll have a more open field if you go into alt-materials. With that, let her make the case to you herself. Discussed in this episode: Consumer research finding that among those who prefer animal leather, 80% are open to purchasing leather made from plants or grown from animal cells in a factory. The RethinkX report and Dr. Liz Specht's GFI blog about it. Our past episodes with Pinatex (pineapple leather), Mycocycle (construction waste bioremediation), Bolt Threads (fermentation-produced silk and leather), and Goodwill (used goods). This episode is sponsored by the great folks at The Very Good Food Co. More about Nicole Rawling: Nicole is an experienced attorney and nonprofit executive. She co-founded the Material Innovation Initiative after identifying the rich potential of the next-gen materials market through her work catapulting plant-based foods into the mainstream. In her previous role as director of international engagement at the Good Food Institute, Nicole worked with key audiences around the world including companies, entrepreneurs, scientists, investors, and government officials to promote the development of alternatives to animal products. Her expertise in the field and in bringing together stakeholders made her a sought after speaker at conferences and high profile meetings in locations like Israel, Estonia, Poland, London, Brazil, India, and across the U.S.

It's often that we hear about some really cool and promising new technology that's allegedly going to change the game, but only once that tech is scaled and commercialized. In this episode, however, we're featuring a start-up that not only has a very cool technology, it's already commercialized it with hundreds of customers, including some very big names in the fashion world. Mélanie Broyé-Engelkes is the CEO of Ananas Anam, makers of Piñatex. For those of you not fluent in Spanish, "piña" means pineapple, which gives you a sense of what Melanie and her team are doing with their B2B materials start-up. When it comes to leather alternatives, most are made from fossil fuel-derived plastics. Aside from the obvious environmental concerns, there are functionality concerns with such plastic products, too. We often hear about really encouraging new sustainable materials like mushroom leather, cactus leather, and even leather from collagen that was grown in a controlled environment. But as promising as those solutions are, they aren't yet really commercialized in any meaningful sense yet. Enter Piñatex. It's a leather alternative that's made from the leaves of the pineapple plant, which are typically considered an agricultural waste product. These upcycled leaves are converted into a functional and luxurious-feeling material that can be used for everything from shoes to handbags, and more. And indeed, that's already what's happening. Today brands like Hugo Boss, H&M, and hundreds of others, are using Piñatex in their designs, setting Ananas Anam apart from many other alt-materials makers. In this episode, Melanie shares the company's origin story, telling us where they've been and where the pineapple revolution is going. Discussed in this episode Brands currently using Piñatex. What pineapple plant leaves look like. Melanie recommends Lean In, Shoe Dog, and The Ride of a Lifetime. Our past episode with Bolt Threads on mushroom leather

How often have you wished that more billionaires used their money to do good in the world? Well, you're in luck, because in this episode we talk with British billionaire Jim Mellon. In recent years Jim's been most well-known for his work on human longevity research, which we discuss. But he's also become fixated on ending the factory farming of animals. As a result, Jim has learned an immensity about alternative protein and has invested in dozens of start-ups in the space via his fund Agronomics. He's even just published a book on the topic, Moo's Law, in which he discusses his views on the industry, which companies he thinks will be winners, and yes, which he thinks won't make it. As you'll hear in this interview, Jim has little hope that humans will give up eating meat, so he's betting instead on simply making meat without the animals. In this conversation we discuss when he thinks such clean meat will be price comparable to conventional meat, whether price parity is sufficient, where he sees white spaces, and more. So enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with a truly interesting person who's given a lot of thought to just how he can use his role as an investor to solve some of the most pressing problems we face. Discussed in this episode Our past episodes with philosopher Peter Singer, BlueNalu's Lou Cooperhouse, and Shiok Meat's Sandhya Sriram. The Good Food Institute Startup Manual. More about Jim Mellon Jim Mellon's investment philosophy is underpinned by his ability to recognize emerging trends that give rise to new industries or major shifts in markets. This includes the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, as foreseen in the first book Jim co-authored entitled Wake Up!, and subsequently in the new science and technologies detailed in Cracking the Code and Fast Forward. More recently Jim has established himself as a thought leader in the nascent field of aging research and longevity as well as a key investor in alternative proteins, through his company Agronomics. He is interested in keeping the world healthy and properly and ethically fed and forecasts great investment opportunities in both these areas. Jim Mellon also runs Master Investor to provide tips and forecasting insights to the investor community. His wealth of knowledge and vast experience allows him to capitalize on sound investments upon which he has built a worldwide business empire. Jim is serially amongst the top 10% in the Sunday Times Rich List and holds a master's degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Our oceans are in dire trouble, and a big part of the reason is because we're killing so many aquatic animals for food. But if you want hope, look no further than Monica Talbert, whose story is sure to inspire. Monica was born into the seafood industry, and for years has been running her family business, Van Cleve's Seafood, from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. But as you'll hear in this conversation, a series of events led her to start experimenting with plant-based seafood recipes. And while it's no longer major news for conventional meat companies to develop plant-based lines since so many are admirably already now doing that, Monica announces in this episode something far more inspirational. What started as a supplemental form of business has now become a passion for Monica so much that she's personally essentially gone plant-based, and announces in this episode that she's phasing out the legacy conventional seafood side of her business entirely to focus exclusively on growing the Plant Based Seafood Co. If anything, they might keep Van Cleve's Seafood around but rebrand it as Van Cleve's Seaweed, selling only, as you can guess, delicious sea vegetable products. So far the Plant Based Seafood Co. is winning innovation awards, earning investment from venture capital funds, and is rolling out products nationwide. Monica's goal is to grow it not just as big as Van Cleve's Seafood, but to go much bigger, and produce enough sustainable seafood, ie, plant-based seafood, to feed the world and save the oceans in the process. Discussed in this episode Netflix's mega-popular documentaries Seaspiracy and My Octopus Teacher Patagonia's film Unbroken Ground This American Life episode on pig rectums being passed off as calamari Crustastun technology for rendering lobsters unconscious prior to boiling Monica found Daring Greatly by Brene Brown useful, and is inspired by Teddy Roosevelt's Man in the Arena speech

Landfills are, well, filling up. We're running out of places to put our trash, and the trash we've landfilled won't decompose for centuries. But, what if we could take a lot of trash and seed it with fungal cultures that would eat it and render it no longer toxic within just a few weeks rather than having to wait centuries? That's exactly what Mycocycle is planning to do, and we've got their CEO, Joanne Rodriguez, on the show to talk about it. After a decades-long career in construction, Joanne founded Mycocycle and with her team has been training fungi to eat construction trash, especially asphalt, and plan to sell that service to municipalities and landfills. As if that weren't enough, she then plans to take the fungi mycelium they've grown and sell it as a biodegradable packaging material. Pretty cool, huh? Well, what might be even cooler is that you yourself can invest in Joanne's company right now! Normally, startups on this show are only seeking funding from deep pocketed venture capital firms. But Mycocycle is taking a different approach, seeking to raise their first round from hundreds of individuals via StartupEngine.com, with a minimum investment of only $262. So take a listen to the company and the mycelium that Joanne is growing. It's an impressive story, and one that might even involve you! Discussed in this episode You can invest in Mycocycle here! Mycocyle went through the LatinX incubator. Mycocycle's pending patent application. Joanne was inspired by Daniel's story. Joanne recommends books like Mycelium Running and Radical Mycology We reference past episodes with Coral Vita, Ecovative, and Bolt Threads. More about Joanne Rodriguez Founder and CEO of Mycocycle, Joanne Rodriguez has worked across the construction products industry for 30 years. She is a subject matter expert in sustainable technologies–like zero waste and the circular economy, and she has experience leading diverse teams to unprecedented growth. Leading the sustainability efforts for a major roof manufacturer, Joanne discovered the issue of the unsustainable and growing problems related to disposing of construction and demolition materials. A frequent national speaker, she carries a vast network of contacts across manufacturing, architecture and design, government leadership, and sustainability. She has served on boards with the US EPA, the Constructions Specification Institute, the US Green Building Council, and has served as a subject matter expert at convenings of the United Nations, Clinton Global Initiative, ecoAmerica, GreenBiz, and Resilient Cities Summits. Joanne is a Certified Permaculture Designer, a Construction Documents Specialist, holds a Professional Certificate from Cornell University in Climate Change Communications, and is a LEED Accredited Professional through the US Green Building Council.

Typically on this podcast, we showcase entrepreneurs and business titans alike who are using the power of commerce to try to solve serious social problems. Occasionally we've had on nonprofit leaders, and in this episode, we've again got a very special guest who also is not a grinding entrepreneur. But this guest is someone who's inspired many mission-oriented entrepreneurs, myself included, along with millions of others trying to do good in the world. In fact, it's hard to think of many people on the planet who've led a more impactful life than this episode's guest. Peter Singer is an author and ethicist, and has been routinely called the most influential philosopher alive. He's widely credited with kickstarting the modern animal protection movement with his 1975 mega-bestseller Animal Liberation, and with popularizing what's now called the effective altruism movement through his early writings on poverty and more recently with his 2009 book The Life You Can Save. Many of the business leaders we feature on this show, especially those in the animal-free protein space, are motivated by philosophical underpinnings to their work that are likely related to or even directly stemming from Peter Singer's writings. In this interview Peter doesn't disappoint nor does he shy away from tough subjects. We discuss a wide range of topics, including his views on the role technology and entrepreneurship play in helping animals along with the role charities play, too. We get into whether he has any regrets over publicly taking certain views in his 50-year career. And we discuss whether he thinks animals are better off today than when he first wrote Animal Liberation in 1975. Peter offers his views on the ethics of eating oysters, adoption of children vs. procreation, colonizing other planets, and more. And now that he's in his mid-70s, he also talks about what he hopes his obituaries will say, which hopefully won't be written for a long time. Whether you agree with Peter on a particular issue or not, there's no doubt you'll come away from this interview with a great appreciation for his commitment to doing the most good he can in the world. Discussed in this episode We discuss some of Peter's books, including Animal Liberation, The Life You Can Save, How Are We to Live?, The Most Good You Can Do, Practical Ethics, and a new book Peter edited called The Golden Ass. The latter led us to discuss the Biblical story of Balaam and his donkey. We also discuss The Three Body Problem, a mega-popular Chinese novel in which Animal Liberation plays a role. Peter Singer and Paul Shapiro have jointly published two op-eds (in 2006 and 2012 respectively) about the cage confinement of animals on factory farms. When it comes to animal-saving technology, Peter personally invested in Gourmey, a cultivated foie gras start-up, and he donates to The Good Food Institute. Speaking of technology advancing ethics, we talk about Susan B. Anthony's 1896 view that bicycling "has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world." Peter is an editor of the Journal of Controversial Ideas. Peter recommends Better Angels of Our Nature, Moral Tribes, and The Precipice. A Chinese fast food company swapped eggs from its menu for plant-based Just Egg. Peter recommends donating to charities recommended by The Life You Can Save. Peter hopes there'll be more investment in fusion nuclear energy. Our past episodes with nonprofit leaders New Harvest's Isha Datar and Goodwill's Lori Dearwester More about Peter Singer Peter Singer is often referred to as the "world's most influential living philosopher." He's best known for his work on the ethics of our treatment of animals, he's often credited with starting the modern animal protection movement, and he's had a major influence on the development of effective altruism. He's also known for his controversial critique of the sanctity of life ethics in bioethics. Several key figures in the animal movement have said that Animal Liberation, first published in 1975, led them to get involved in the struggle to reduce the vast amount of suffering we inflict on animals. To that end, Peter co-founded the Australian Federation of Animal Societies, now Animals Australia, the country's largest and most effective animal organization. His wife, Renata, and I stopped eating meat in 1971. Peter is the founder of The Life You Can Save, an organization based on his book of the same name. It aims to spread his ideas about why we should be doing much more to improve the lives of people living in extreme poverty, and how we can best do this. You can view his TED talk on this topic here. His writings in this area include: the 1972 essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" in which he argues for donating to help the global poor; and two books that make the case for effective giving, The Life You Can Save (2009) and The Most Good You Can Do (2015). Peter has written, co-authored, edited or co-edited more than 50 books, including Practical Ethics, The Expanding Circle, Rethinking Life and Death, One World, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason) and The Point of View of the Universe (with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek. His writings have appeared in more than 25 languages. Born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, Peter was educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. After teaching in England, the United States, and Australia, in 1999 he became Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University.

Did you know that two of every five births in America are unplanned? That's not to suggest that an unplanned baby is going to be an unloved baby, of course, but family planning does tend to offer advantages, especially for families with fewer means, since high birth rates make it particularly difficult for children to escape a vicious cycle of poverty. (See more from the charity Having Kids.) Smaller family sizes not only are helpful for poverty reduction, but they also have environmental benefits for a planet currently experiencing exponential growth of the human species and all the associated concerns that come along with it, from climate change to deforestation and more. Unfortunately, despite major revolutions in science and technology in recent decades, innovation in contraception just hasn't kept pace, making it harder for both men and women to more thoughtfully decide when or even whether to procreate. Admittedly, women have lots of contraceptive choices, but they tend to have some pretty unsavory side effects, especially those that are hormonal in nature. Men, on the other hand, basically have two choices: condoms, which aren't always the most popular, or vasectomy, which can be daunting for obvious reasons. As a result, the burden of pregnancy prevention has typically fallen disproportionately on women. Enter Your Choice Therapeutics, an early-stage contraception start-up developing non-hormonal, non-permanent methods of contraception for both women and men to use. As you'll hear from company CEO Akash Bakshi, Your Choice started as an idea in a UC-Berkeley lab, ended up going through the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator program, and is now a funded startup aiming to bring new contraceptive categories to market. One is a contraceptive gel that's both effective at reducing the risk of pregnancy and STDs, and the other is an oral, non-hormonal pill that men can take to render their sperm temporarily unable to impregnate a woman's egg. Considering how high the stakes are, it's about time contraception innovation is featured on this show. So enjoy hearing the story of one startup seeking to make it easier for us to make fewer of us. Discussed in this episode History of contraceptives History of vasectomy in particular Akash recommends NSF I-Corps Our past episodes on direct air carbon capture and water filtration More about Akash Bakshi Your Choice Therapeutics CEO Akash Bakshi completed his undergraduate work in Biochemistry and Cell Biology at UC San Diego and then went on to pursue his graduate degree at the University of Queensland. Upon completing his research career he began his professional career in the commercialization of research at various organizations including UniQuest, UC Davis, and most recently at UC Berkeley. His work has resulted in numerous collaborations valued at over $10M. ​

Founded in 2017, New New Age Meats is practically old school when it comes to cultivated meat companies. In mid-2018, the nascent startup debuted its first sausage made with cells from a living pig who the company biopsied at a nearby farm. Rather than being made entirely of animal cells, that historic sausage was part animal and part plant, and that's the point, according to co-founder and CEO Brian Spears. In this episode, Brian argues that you don't need to make cultivated meat products entirely from animal cells. He argues instead that you can not only control costs by combining plant proteins with animal cells, but you can actually create novel and superior culinary experiences when you're not simply relying solely on animal cells to do the job alone. In 2021, having already raised $7 million, New Age Meats is opening a Series A round to help it build a pilot plant and ready its hybrid meat products for actual commercialization. In this episode we hear about Brian's journey from leaving another startup he founded and ran for eight years to enter the alternative protein space instead. We also discuss why Brian uses the term "cultivated meat" to describe his products, and when we can expect to see more of New Age Meats' products. And yes, we even talk about Brian's passion outside of the clean room: on the ballroom dance floor. Discussed in this episode: New Age Meats' 2018 sausage debut Indiebio accelerator program that incubated New Age Meats Sam Harris' episode with Uma Valeti of Memphis Meats was influential in Brian's decision to start New Age Meats Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy New Harvest and the Good Food Institute Brian recommends reading Thinking Fast and Slow Paul recommends reading Shoe Dog Paul's book Clean Meat More about Brian Spears: Brian Spears is the founder and CEO of New Age Meats -- making meat from animal cells instead of animal slaughter. Previously, he spent eight years as co-founder of Sixclear, creating software and products to automate the research labs and production environments of customers such as NASA, Cisco Systems, Sandia National Labs, and GE Healthcare. He is a chemical engineer with 12 years of industry experience in laboratory and industrial automation.

If you've ever heard of Bolt Threads, you may know them as one of the OGs in the space of growing animal products without animals. After all, since they were founded way back in 2009 they've been creating spider silk via synthetic biology and fermentation. But the company's headlines these days typically don't relate to spider silk at all, even though it's still an important part of the company. In a turn of events that they'd never have predicted at the outset of their startup, Bolt Threads has dove headfirst into growing mycelium (root-like threads of fungi) that can be harvested within days and turned into eco-friendly leather alternatives. The result? Bolt Threads recently inked a deal with Adidas to commercialize its mycelium leather with the first shoes hitting the market in 2021. What was started as a project more than a decade ago by some students who applied for government grants is now a VC-backed startup that's raised more than $200 million, has celebrity endorsements, and is on the verge of entering its first major commercialization 11 years later. It's a wild ride they've been on, and Bolt Threads co-founder David Breslauer has some important insights for anyone seeking to use business to solve social problems. Discussed in this episode Bolt Thread's mycelium-based leather, Mylo. Bolt's partnership with Adidas to use mycelium-based leather. A spider silk tapestry made with the silk of one million spiders. Bolt marketed 50 spider silk neck ties. Fungi that consume plastic and even radiation in the Chernobyl reactor. Steve Jobs' famous insult response. The book Clean Meat briefly discusses Bolt Threads' work. About David Breslauer David Breslauer is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Bolt Threads. He leads technology innovation at Bolt, creating and incubating biomaterials for improved consumer products. His obsession with biomaterials began with graduate research on silk during his Bioengineering Ph.D. at UC Berkeley and UCSF. David has an orange belt in Krav Maga and is a great admirer of stencil graffiti.

Of all the major meat companies, none has embraced plant protein in the way Canada's largest meat company, Maple Leaf Foods, has. Not only has the company acquired two well-known plant protein brands—Field Roast and Lightlife—but it's dramatically expanded those brands' reach, enabling more meat consumers to enjoy these products. In fact, Maple Leaf has put nearly a billion dollars so far into acquiring and now growing their plant-based protein lines. Part of that includes building a $100 million tempeh plant along with a $310 million plant-based meat plant, both in Indiana. These are the kinds of numbers that even the biggest alt-protein start-ups dream of, yet it's a meat company that's making it happen. In this episode, we talk with Adam Grogan, an executive at Maple Leaf's plant protein division Greenleaf Foods. We're also joined by the company's Chief of R&D, Jitendra Sagili, a meat industry veteran who's in charge of a team of 90 food scientists, many of whom are working to innovate the best new alt-proteins for the meat-eating consumer. We talk about a lot of things, including whether Maple Leaf sees plant-based meat as cannibalizing their core products or merely as supplemental to them. We discuss their efforts to put plant protein not only into the meat aisle, but also into the meat itself. We learn that ironically, Lightlife was a vegetarian but not vegan brand pre-acquisition, and it took a meat giant like Maple Leaf to convert all their products to be animal-free. And we learn that in just a few years since acquiring Field Roast, Maple Leaf has tripled the size of the business. And yes, we also touch on the controversial ad that Lightlife placed criticizing fellow plant-based meat purveyors and get their thoughts in retrospect about it. (Here's Impossible Foods' response.) It's a riveting conversation offering a window into the world of a major meat company that's trying to diversify its protein portfolio as a way to reduce its footprint and win the consumers of the future. Discussed in this episode Maple Leaf is spending $100 million on a new tempeh plant and $310 million on a new plant-based meat plant. Jitendra recommends books like Mind-Gut Connection and Food Foolish. Adam is a fan of Veganuary, and he recommends books like The Wicked Healthy Cookbook and The Noma Guide to Fermentation. Our episode with Irina Gerry of Change Foods. Our episode with Kristie Middleton of Rebellyous Foods. Our episodes on plastic alternatives with Notpla and Outlander Materials