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The hottest thing in meat, these days? Apparently, its vegetables. Nectar, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to advancing alternative proteins, released findings last week from a large-scale blind taste test comparing hybrid meat-veggie products with traditional meat. The blended products, which theyre calling balanced proteins, are a hit with omnivoresso much so that testers actually preferred some of them to their all-meat counterparts. The irony is that a burger is a blended product, says Andrew Arentowicz, CEO & Co-Founder of Both, one of the brands that taste testers in the Nectar survey rated as on-par with comparable all-meat products. You got lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese, ketchup, mayonnaise, pickles, thats a burger. So this isnt some like oh-my-god what a revolutionary concept; its actually very obvious, the whole thing. Perhaps Arentowicz is right that this is a no-brainer, but I do think the study results are impressive, and maybe even a little surprising, given that we arent exactly a nation of veggie lovers. Only about one in ten Americans eat the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables. That gap mattersnot just for personal health, but for the planet and animals, too. Issues of access, cost, and culture are, of course, factors here, but it cant be denied that taste is also a concern. No matter how convenient or inexpensive, if people dont find the healthier and more eco-friendly option to be tasty, theyre going to have a hard time choosing it. And for some people, the taste and texture of vegetables just arent appealing. Thats where the whole idea of plant-based meat like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods even came from: People like the taste of animal flesh, but arent okay with the health, environmental, and ethical drawbacks, so mission-driven entrepreneurs devised a sort of compromise. But so far, that compromise just hasnt been good enough to win most people over. The market identified the right problem, that people want to eat less meat, says Arentowicz. But it picked the wrong solution. Nobody asked for more processed plant[-based meat], or more lab-grown meat. So we decided to give consumers what they say they want, which is meat, but less meat. As someone whose lifes work is devoted to empowering people to reduce their intake of factory farmed animal products, I remain enthusiastic about all forms of alternative protein. After all, its not as if any other strategyincluding non-tech-food ones like policy and educationhave shown great promise in achieving this goal (societal meat consumption is more or less up year over year). But I also welcome the trend of plant-forward products that are chock-full of vegetables, fungi, and/or legumes. For example, DUOs and Fables blended burgers are infused with mushrooms and Perdues blended nuggets contain chickpeas and cauliflowerall were rated as tasting better than comparable conventional products. While I wish more people were drawn to vegan options, less meat is less meat, and it could be a pathway to a more plant-forward lifestyle. Crafty parents have been doing it for generations: Trojan-horsing some veggies into their kids diet by hiding them in more preferable foods. Some might object to using this kind of spoonful of sugar strategy with full-grown human adultsa wife who stealthily buys blended meat for her husband, for examplecalling it paternalistic or rolling their eyes at grown-ups who cant just eat a vegetable. But frankly, I dont see the problem. The reason people have been pulling this trick for ages is because it worksand thats what matters. Granted, it might not work as well when they know what’s inside. Food aversions can be severe and deeply psychological; for some individuals, just knowing that mushrooms are in a foodeven if theyre not obviouscan spark disgust, or worse. And of course, some people are just picky eaters who wont be sold on a partial-veggie burger. Still, its worth a shot, and as the Nectar study shows, taste is on the side of blended meat. The reality is most people arent going to hop on the all-kale-all-the-time train. Still, sans a few carnivore-diet shills, everyone knows they should be eating more vegetables. But if youve ever met a human being, you know were not entirely rational animals. Every smoker knows it would be healthier to quit, but that knowledge doesnt make it any easier, let alone more enjoyable. A gentler approach, one centered around harm reduction, may be the best way to help some people change their habits. If adding some veggies into a beef patty or chicken nugget is whats going to get people eating in a way thats not only better for their own health, but for the climate and the well-being of animals, isnt that ultimately worth it? Perhaps there doesnt need to be a binary that pits alternative and traditional meat as competing products in a zero-sum game for consumer favor. Perhaps embracing balanced proteins could be the solution for brands struggling from the perception of being unhealthy, in these supposedly hyper-“wellness”-conscious times. In fact, 61% of parents Nectar surveyed said they would visit a fast food restaurant more often if it served blended meat. It could be beneficial for peoples health, but its also just good business sense. As a society, we probably should be taking a multipronged approach to major issues like public health, environmental protection, and animal welfare. Some people happily subsist on diets made up entirely of plant foods. I salute them. For everyone else, lets meet them halfway, or even a quarter of the way, at least to start. If people are willing to cut their meat consumption, just by mixing it with some mushrooms, lets welcome that. The world will be better for it.
Category:
E-Commerce
On April 2, in an event he called “Liberation Day,” President Donald Trump stood in the White House Rose Garden and announced a long list of reciprocal tariffs his administration planned to impose on trading partners around the world. It would be remembered, he said, as “the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again.” Some small American businesses saw the tariffs much differently. Vestaboard, a five-year-old California startup that makes customizable split-flap displays, looked at the tariffs and decided it had to radically change its business plans. Production of its flagship device, which is manufactured in China and retails for $3,500, was paused, and the company put an indefinite halt on a major R&D effort for a lower-cost product it was banking on to diversify its market. Instead of pursuing an ambitious project, Vestaboard’s CEO and founder Dorrian Porter found his 25-person company scrambling to figure out whether it would have to find another countryand a whole new chain of suppliers and factorieswhere it could get its products built. “My main thought was, how do I eliminate every risk that’s within our control as a business,” Porter says. “We knew we had to change manufacturers. I couldn’t really eliminate that if we wanted to keep making Vestaboard.” [Photo: Vestaboard] But abandoning the R&D efforta project that aimed to turn Vestaboard’s train station-inspired fixed width display boards into a modular system of magnetic “bits”still stung. After Trump’s Liberation Day pomp, Porter began to think about how he could still keep his company growing. Vestaboard had just come off its biggest quarter ever, with $3.3 million in sales, but the chaotic rollout of Trump’s tariffs made Q2 and beyond almost impossible to predict. For a startup like Vestaboard, which is backed by $15 million from about 200 customers-turned-investors, bracing for an economic storm could only last so long. “That kick-started a process for us to say, well, what can we do with what we have?” says Porter. “What if we didn’t have to change our whole marketing approach to go mass market? If we didn’t have to change our whole software to launch something, what could we do?” In about four weeks, the company came up with a workaround product that hits closer to the lower price point the company had been working toward, while also hewing to its already established supply chain and manufacturing process. The new product is the Vestaboard Note, which is essentially a smaller version of the company’s flagship display, having a grid of 45 characters to the Vestaboard’s 132. Prices start at $899. Porter calls it the “Tariff Edition of a Vestaboard.” Though he acknowledges that making a smaller version of the company’s main product is not exactly a groundbreaking innovation, given the circumstances it does qualify as a creative pivot. It’s also an example of the stifling impact Trump’s tariffs have had on small businesses. Creating a new product during a time of such uncertainty meant that Vestaboard had to work around significant limitations. The Vestaboard Note was a feasible concept because it could be produced in almost the same way as the company’s main product. “Our supply chain stays substantially the same, our manufacturing process stays substantially the same, our software stays substantially the same,” says Porter. “[It was] a period of great creativity, trying to live within the constraints of this massive new risk we face as a business.” [Photo: Vestaboard] Much remains unclear about the tariffs for small businesses like Vestaboard, which currently rely on China as a manufacturing partner. Trump’s proposed revival of American industry is a pipe dream for companies that actually need to get things manufactured. “The reality is electronics are not buildable in the U.S. at any kind of cost that the consumers are willing to accept,” Porter says. “The supply chain for electronics has been completely built out in China over the last 25 years. You’re now seeing some assembly start to occur in places like Vietnam and other countries, but even in those cases a lot of your electronic components are still going to come from China . . . they are the best in the world at producing things like this.” So, for the time being, Vestaboard will continue to be produced in China. Porter says the company plans to restart production this summer, with both the original Vestaboard and the Vestaboard Note coming from its usual suppliers and manufacturers. The tariff-inspired research the company did into new production options is still in its back pocket, though, with a viable alternative in Southeast Asia. Porter says the company will be watching the evolving state of tariffs to see whether it will need to pull out of China and go with Plan B or a murkier Plan C. “We are still evaluating alternatives that might bring it closer to home, but even in those circumstances, it would most likely not be the United States,” Porter says.
Category:
E-Commerce
When Sky Kurtz set out to grow produce in the desert via vertical farming in 2016, laying the groundwork for what became Dubai-based ag-tech startup Pure Harvest Smart Farms, People thought we were crazy,” he says. I was fearful, I would never get off the ground. But Kurtz’s came at a time when the UAE was beginning to take the idea seriously and companies like Pure Harvest began cropping up. Over the past nine years, though, Pure Harvest Farms has become one of the sector’s biggest players. It has raised more than $450 million in funding, according to market analysis company PitchBook, and grows an array of crops that includes tomatoes, green vegetables, and berries in temperature-controlled facilities. With farms strategically located throughout the UAE, the company boasts the capacity to produce over 12 million kilograms of crops annually. Despite the competition, Pure Harvest has distinguished itself as the dominant player in the countrys indoor farming sector. Unlike other ag-tech companies which were designed for temperate climates, Pure Harvest developed technologies specifically built to withstand the harsh climates of the Middle East. Unlike other ag-tech companies that focus on niche produce and cater to premium markets, Pure Harvest sells a wide range of produce and supplies to major supermarket chains across the country. The UAE has rapidly become a global hub for ag-tech innovation, attracting diverse companies from around the world: U.S.-based Plenty plans to open a vertical farm in Abu Dhabi by 2026 whereas AeroFarms launched the worlds largest indoor vertical farm in Abu Dhabi in 2023. As companies from abroad come to the UAE, Pure Harvest is expanding its vision. It’s currently in the midst of raising at least $100 million to expand operations into Singapore, Morocco, and Kuwait, and an initial public offering is possible in the coming years. I think the world has woken up that the problem that Pure Harvest Smart Farms is solving is acute and it is here now,” Kurtz says. Adapting to the regions weather Global demand for efficient indoor food production globally is surging, given climate change disrupting traditional agriculture as water sources dry up and temperatures rise. In the United States the Colorado Riverresponsible for irrigating 15% of the nations farmlandis drying up rapidly. Meanwhile, across the Horn of Africa, prolonged droughts are responsible for more than 23 million people experiencing severe hunger. The Middle East, particularly the UAE, experiences brutal heatwaves, with less than 1% of the land suitable for agriculture. This makes the country heavily dependent on food imports, with over 80% of its food coming from abroad. Producing locally not only reduces the costs and carbon emissions associated with transportation but also makes the UAE less reliant on imports. The UAE is making huge strides to advance agri-tech in the country with an ambitious aim to improve hydroponic farming and source 70% of produce from local farms by 2025. This push toward local food production gained momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely disrupted global food importsand what ultimately accelerated Pure Harvests success. When COVID stopped travel, places that relied on the bellies of airplanes to move food around suddenly woke up to the fragility of their food supply chains, says Kurtz, adding the pandemic prompted governments and markets into supporting agri-tech companies that produce efficiently and locally. Agri-tech companies like Pure Harvest Farms benefit from a unique geographical advantage in the UAE: Around 80% of the worlds population lives within an eight-hour flight of Dubai. This ideal location places them at the heart of a vast consumer base. You know that expression: skate to where the puck is heading. We are building a company where the world’s population is growing . . . so we sit in a wonderful market position where there’s huge tailwinds, says Kurtz. Beyond its strategic location, one key reason Kurtz chose Abu Dhabi as the base for Pure Harvest Smart Farms was his conviction that if the company could succeed in producing food in the harshest environments in the world, where temperatures can soar to 125° Fahrenheit, it would prove the credibility and capability of his company to produce food anywhere in the world. With ambitions for worldwide expansion, Kurtz aimed to first prove that the technology could thrive in such extreme conditions. “If you think of the problem of climate affecting food, resource scarcity, water scarcity, whats worse than the Middle East? Kurtz says. I mean, this is literally ground zero.” Another factor making UAE an attractive hub for Pure Harvest was the countrys funding for startups trying to solve the region’s pressing issues. When I first came out trying to pitch people on, you know, I had a PowerPoint, a pile of dirt and the promise of what we were going to build, says Kurtz, recalling that initial support came from the Mohammed bin Rashid Innovation Fund, which provided a $1.5 million loan. The Abu Dhabi Investment Office has played a pivotal role by offering significant financial support through grants. Indoor farmings growing scope Pure Harvest is no longer the only player in indoor farming. It has spearheaded a growing sector that now includes companies like Below Farms, which leverages temperature controlled indoor environments to produce over 120 tonnes of premium mushrooms annually. Below Farms leverages controlled-farming environments in the UAE to grow premium mushrooms in the desert, with a capacity of 120 tonnes annually. Beyond efficiency, Bronte Weir, founder of Below Farms, emphasizes that indoor farming can produce food of superior quality compared to traditional methods. He notes that vegetables start losing their nutrients at an increasing rate after harvest, and when they are exported and consumed days later, they “are not going to be as good as when it’s harvested 100 or 50 kilometers down the road.” Below Farms mushrooms are currently purchased by severl fine dining restaurants across the UAE such as Emirates Palace and Atlantis. Mushrooms, in particular, have a short shelf life and are extremely perishable due to their high-water contentwhich Bronte says makes local production especially advantageous. We’re harvesting pretty much straight into the kitchen,” he says. At Pure Harvest, the company has has begun getting creative about how to expand its offerings. It has launched a line of all-natural strawberry preserves and tomato sauces, made from surplus seasonal produce, an effort to turn potential food waste into premium products. Kurtz says the company’s growing ambitionand goal of becoming a household brand in the next 50 yearsgoes hand in hand with responding to the world’s growing need to get creative about farming. It’s becoming a global dialogue about how are we going to secure the future of food in a world that will have nine and a half billion people,” he says, “that is not making more land, and where water security is now becoming a crisis.”
Category:
E-Commerce
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