Food Meets Climate Podcast with Simon Newstead

As a biologist, Stephen Michael Co understands and has witnessed first-hand the destructive nature of industrial agriculture on our environment. With a support for small-hold farmers as well as a love for science commercialisation he started his own vegan craft beer company Nipa Brew. 5 years later and Stephen is now the CEO of the Philippines' first plant-based protein company Worth The Health (W...

Five years ago David Bucca underwent a period of personal change that led not only to a new lifestyle, but also sparked a transition in his career. Leaving his job with Boeing, he decided to focus on accelerating innovations in food technology helping launch independent think tank Food Frontier, as well as taking on the role of APAC regional manager for plant-based meat company Hungry Planet. Now...

In 2016 Sandhya Sriram made the leap from her job as a stem cell scientist into the realm of business development. Having previously co-founded two startups, in 2018 she co-founded and has been working full time on her newest venture Shiok Meats, a cultivated seafood company based in Singapore. In this week's episode we explore why crustaceans and some of the technological differences between cult...

After returning to Indonesia from her studies abroad, Helga realised just how few plant-based options were available for her and others that wished to live an animal-free lifestyle. In a bid to change this together with her partner Max, she cofounded Burgreens which has now grown to be Indonesia's leading plant-based restaurant chain. Several years later, Helga and her partner are cofounding anoth...

Whilst on a mission to create real milk without the mammal, one thing kept coming up for Turtletree cofounder Max Rye: the rising importance of human milk, both from an infant formula and overall human health perspective. Pioneering a method of cellular agriculture which can utilise cell-lines to make milk from cow and human alike, Singapore-based startup Turtletree are bringing something new and...

With their R&D starting in 2004, Hungry Planet has been one of the leaders when it comes to pioneering plant-based meats for the public. With a multi-meat portfolio of 9 proteins, and an impressive recent partnership announced with Fortune 500 company Post Holdings, the business is set to bring their chef-crafted premium products into the mainstream. In this week's episode we spoke with Todd Boyma...

Having entered the European honey industry in 2012, Darko Mandich has a long-standing passion when it comes to bees and our natural environment. After some research and personal lifestyle changes, he desired to take things one step further and start a new conversation on the industry, bringing forward a new perspective through the founding of MeliBio: a startup focussed on creating bee-free honey....

Vow co-founders George Peppou and Tim Noakesmith weren't always planning on starting a company. George had been running a startup accelerator on agriculture whilst Tim was determined to start his own vegan company. What brought the two together? A passion for cultivated meat. Now, from their Sydney-based startup, they're bringing a new take on food, reimagining meat and its meaning in a way seldom...

As a microbiologist, Kimberlie Le has always been fascinated by the things we cannot see. Working at UC Berkeley's Alternative Meats Lab, she began exploring the landscape of cell and plant-based proteins and soon realised she had stumbled upon a fungi that not enough people were talking about: koji. To change this she joined forces with Joshua Nixon, cofounder and fellow biologist to create Prime...

Cultivated meat: It's made headlines as a hot topic but still can seem like an impossible science fiction concept for many. It's exactly this myth that science communicators like Bianca Le are trying to debunk. Having attained a PHD in biomedical research and becoming passionate about the topic herself, Bianca began investigating the current climate for cultivated meat in Australia - only to find...

Fresh from a $55 million series B fund raise, v2 is on a journey to bring a second version of meat into the mainstream. Backed by Australia's leading scientific body CSIRO and Jack Cowin, owner of the Burger King franchise in Australia, the company's mission is to turn the tide on animal agriculture through the production of a sustainable alternative. In this week's episode we speak with Nick Haze...

Rich Kelleman didn't always plan to become the CEO of a pet food company. With a background in advertising, it wasn't until he was assigned a project, reimagining the future of Burger King, that his eyes opened to the challenges attached to conventional agriculture. Adopting a vegan lifestyle, he came home and wrestled with the idea of feeding his pets meat, and couldn't help but question if there...

While working as an attorney in New York, Sharon Cryan stumbled across company cases that revealed some disheartening loopholes within food industry regulations. Sparking her passion for food education and living a healthy lifestyle, she soon realised she wanted to make a difference in the space, with entering the industry itself being the most effective way she knew how. Creating positively proce...

While running the food education business Kitchen Coach, Ashley began seeing the everyday struggles parents were facing when it came to feeding their children healthy and nutritional foods. Trying to develop a healthy recipe for butter on behalf of not only herself, but also her clients, she cracked the code and the first product for Phyto Foods was born. In today's episode we speak with Ashley an...

After her transition to a vegan diet several years ago, Kati Ohens felt an itch that she was meant to do something more meaningful in her life. With a successful career in advertising and software development, she was put in touch with Csaba Hetenyi, a financier who had recently acquired a unique IP to develop a pasta product. Seeing the potential to do something more, what started as Kati advisin...

Veronica Fil and her husband, leading chef Shaun Quade never intended to become plant-based entrepreneurs. Owning a fine-dining restaurant in Melbourne, it wasn't until they began to notice the future of food was drastically changing around them that they realised the potential of their skills to bring forth a healthier and high impact product, both for people and the planet. With a superpower of...

Even while working as an aerospace engineer, Christie Lagally always cared for animals. Every morning on her drive to Boeing, she would come face to face with chickens headed for slaughter, and each time she would ask herself why the plant-based movement wasn't getting closer to success. After conducting research of her own, she realised the problem at hand: we were unable to scale and make plant-...

In the vegan community, we have a goal to alleviate the suffering and exploitation of billions of animals worldwide. For a lot of us that means creating plant-based products that consumers can easily use to substitute for their usual, animal-based foods. And whilst that's our ideal, what if there was a way we could pick up the momentum by encouraging meat producers now, to use less meat? Enter Pau...

During her senior year at Cornell, Jessica Kwong had a decision to make. To say yes and secure a stable job at one of the world's most prestigious snack companies, or to follow her entrepreneurial spark and pursue starting her own business. Fresh out of university, she took the risk and declined the offer, taking her chance in starting Jack and Friends, a NY-based startup aimed at creating inclusi...

When her son Jonah was diagnosed with a milk allergy at 3 months old, Jessica Harris decided the only thing she could do was to change her diet. It wasn't until she started weening him that she soon realised there was no free-from food on the shelf, that nutritionally fit what she wanted to give her child. So she set off into the community, and after asking other mums in similar positions, it beca...

After the birth of his daughter, award-winning chef Alejandro Cancino had a decision to make. To stay in the restaurant world, or to take the plunge and start his own business, to try and bring veganism into the mainstream. With three hats to his name, he set to work and founded Fenn Foods, the plant-based manufacturing company and creators behind meat alternative vEEF. In this episode Alejandro s...

Mushrooms. We've all had them, but never like this. Meet Fable Food Co, a startup focussed on transforming one of nature's finest foods into a tasty meat alternative. We spoke with cofounder Michael Fox about his history of entrepreneurship and the power of packaging, to being endorsed by a michelin star chef and what it means to be a responsible plant based meat producer in the market today.  

As a freelance writer engaging with animal activism, but feeling no change, Alice Shopland thought of vegan food as a positive contribution which fit her entrepreneurial interests. Fast forward to now, and what started as an importer of vegan cheese, has now grown to a mission-driven business with accomplishments making New Zealand headlines. How did she get there? Here is her story.  

After reflecting on his career, Blair Crichton knew he wanted to have a positive impact on the planet and make a difference. With an interest in climate change, and having been a long-term vegetarian, he took an interest in the food-tech space, leading him to take up opportunities at Impossible Foods, the Good Food Institute and New Age Meats. Fast forward to now, a cofounder of Karana - a startup...

Tempeh, a food discovered 300 years ago, in Java, Indonesia is set to make it into the mainstream. But how will it get there? And who is propelling the fermentation technology forward? Meet our first guest, Chris Kong, head of business development for Better Nature, a startup company focussed on producing protein the better way, one block of tempeh at a time. In this episode we learn their story,...