Category: Women & Gender Rights

March 18, 2025

Minimum Dietary Diversity: UN Adopts New Indicator for Women & Children to Reach Zero Hunger Goal

5 Mins Read
The United Nations Statistical Commission has adopted Minimum Dietary Diversity as a new indicator to track progress for its Zero Hunger goal in women and children.

In a move to highlight dietary quality over calorie consumption, the United Nations Statistical Commission has adopted a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator seen as key to ending malnutrition.

The Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) indicator was adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission at its 56th session in New York this month, and will help track progress towards SDG 2 (Zero Hunger).

The tool is under the joint custodianship of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and adds to the almost 250 indicators monitored under the global SDG framework.

MDD represents the variety of foods we consume, operating as a yes/no indicator of whether women (aged 15-49) and children have consumed at least five out of 10 defined food groups in the previous 24 hours. The idea is to focus not just on calorie consumption, but nutritious, health-promoting foods.

Why the UN is highlighting dietary diversity

Courtesy: Fanjan Combrink/FAO

Under the MDD indicator, the UN would monitor the intake of 10 food groups: grains; white roots, tubers and plantains; legumes; nuts and seeds; dairy products; meat and seafood; eggs; dark green leafy vegetables; produce rich in vitamin A; and other fruits and vegetables.

The FAO, the custodian agency for MDD for women, notes that food diversity is a pillar of a healthy diet, essential to preventing all forms of malnutrition, and supporting health, growth, development, and wellbeing.

The higher the proportion of women and children who reach the threshold of five food groups a day, the higher the chance that they consume diets that have sufficient vitamins and minerals.

The effort is supported by the World Health Organization, and is based on the idea that no single food group provides the multitude of nutrients and bioactive compounds needed for optimal growth and long-term health.

“Measuring the quality of diets is not straightforward. To assess the quality of the diet, we would ideally like to know whether diets are adequate in all nutrients, balanced in energy intake, diverse in foods consumed, and moderate in the consumption of unhealthy foods,” said Lynnette Neufeld, food and nutrition director at the FAO.

“Doing so with comparability across contexts with indicators that are easy to measure is complex. Today, we celebrate enormous progress in this regard, with the recognition of dietary diversity as a critical missing link tracking progress towards SDG 2.”

The hunger gender gap

Courtesy: FAO

The inclusion of MDD is the first time a measure of dietary quality will be added to food security monitoring. It’s a big deal, because it can be used to evaluate the impact of programmes, inform policies, and set targets, and focuses on the two groups most at risk of malnutrition.

The UN’s research suggests that more than 2.8 billion people – or over a third of the world – couldn’t afford a healthy diet in 2022. This is much more prevalent in low-income countries, where 71.5% of people didn’t have access to a healthy diet, versus affluent nations (6%).

Meanwhile, the food security gender gap is still a major issue, with the disparity highest in low-income regions (although it has narrowed recently). “Women are more affected by food insecurity even when taking income, education level and demographic factors into account, suggesting that prevailing gender norms and women’s limited access to resources are key factors,” the UN has found.

And greater severity of food insecurity is directly linked with lower dietary diversity globally. In 2021-22, only 47% of severely food-insecure women achieved MDD, versus 78% of those who were food-secure or mildly insecure.

Courtesy: FAO

“The absence of an SDG indicator on healthy diets neglected the pivotal role that diets play in achieving the 2030 Agenda, even though unhealthy dietary patterns are known to be the primary driver of poor health outcomes and non-communicable diseases globally,” said José Rosero Moncayo, the FAO’s chief statistician.

“Now, countries and the international community have a new tool at their disposal for formulating evidence-based strategies for enhancing nutrition and health outcomes through diet-related interventions, and therefore achieving SDG 2,” he added.

Can protein diversification further the FAO’s goals?

Courtesy: AI-Generated Image via Canva

“Hopefully, this recognition of how vital dietary diversity is to nutrition security and health outcomes brings further policy, systems, and environmental changes to the production of a broader variety of food supplies, […] ensuring all people have equitable access to these diverse, nutrient-dense foods,” said Allison Lansman, research specialist at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems.

With diet-related chronic diseases also on the rise, this tool is key in ensuring healthy populations. Another measure advocated by experts is protein diversification, encouraging people to shift from currently heavy meat consumption patterns to incorporate more plants in their diet.

This has multi-pronged benefits for human and planetary health, and is a key tenet of the Eat-Lancet Commission’s Planetary Health Diet. However, the FAO’s support for meat reduction – especially in the Global South – has been found to be lacking, despite the UN body acknowledging the environmental and health detriments of animal proteins.

With responsible consumption forming the base for SDG 12, the FAO – which has faced criticism for censoring the publication of livestock’s true impact – would do well to advocate for planet-friendly alternative proteins.

The post Minimum Dietary Diversity: UN Adopts New Indicator for Women & Children to Reach Zero Hunger Goal appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
March 8, 2025

IWD 2025: Why Are Food Tech’s Women Leaders Still Ignored by VC Investors?

6 Mins Read
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, one big question lingers for food tech: why do female leaders continue to get sidelined by investors?

As we reflect on the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women across the world on International Women’s Day, we’re left with some uncomfortable truths that hinder female leaders in the business world.

There are many incredible female-founded and -led startups in the food and climate tech ecosystem, but the path to success for these companies is – unfortunately and alarmingly – much harder than for those led by men.

“The reality is that women have always struggled to raise capital. This isn’t new,” Heather K Terry, founder and CEO of healthy snack brand GoodSam Foods, told Green Queen this week.

“Investors still have unconscious biases and often don’t understand how female-driven companies operate or that they consistently outperform in terms of financial management, sustainability, and realistic growth projections.”

These five stats show how women continue to be undervalued by investors, and why this needs to change as soon as possible.

Note: There is a dearth of data on this topic, yet another clue as to how underrepresented this issue is. Most of the below stats are from PitchBook, one of the few sources with any information at all.

Women are underrepresented at VC level

Courtesy: PitchBook

PitchBook data shows that in 2024, only 17-20% of VC decision-makers in the US were women. Moreover, in nearly 90% of VC firms with more than $50M in assets, the majority of decision-makers were male. Things are slightly better at smaller firms, nearly 30% of which have a majority of women calling the shots.

In Europe, 12-15% of VC decision-makers were women last year, while only 8-14% of VC firms had more female leaders than male. This is a big problem – for women-led startups to gain access to more capital, there needs to be a much larger share of female investors.

“Increasing the representation of women in check-writing roles can create more opportunities for female founders, as female check writers can identify and support teams and ideas that may otherwise be overlooked,” explained PitchBook.

“It takes many years to reach the top rungs of the firm ladder, and the path to a decision-maker role often involves detours through positions as operators or even founders,” it added.

“For this reason, female representation among GPs will likely take many years to reflect material changes and will trail progress in VC deal flow.”

A lack of funding for women-founded startups is nothing new

Courtesy: PitchBook

As Terry explained, this issue is not new at all. According to PitchBook’s US female founders dashboard, startups founded solely by women only receive around 2% of all venture capital – and this has been a constant trend since 2008 (when the share was 1.7%). And while we’re only in the first quarter of 2025, so far, female-founded startups make up only 1% of VC dollars this year.

In contrast, firms with both male and female co-founders perform much better, rising from a 7% share in 2008 to 21% in 2024. But this represented a decline from the 24% funding share these startups enjoyed in 2023.

Further punctuating the problems of underrepresentation of both venture capitalists and founders, a Harvard Business Review study from 2023 exposed how women-owned companies whose first round of funding came exclusively from female VCs were only half as likely to raise a second round than those whose first round included a male partner.

“No matter the size of the initial funding round, the industry, the geographic location, or the prestige of the investor, female founders were consistently less likely to close a second round if their first round only included women,” the 2,000-startup study suggested.

It’s not just the US

Courtesy: PitchBook

Looking at PitchBook’s female founder dashboard for Europe, it’s clear that this is a global issue. While exclusively women-founded startups performed marginally better here than their American counterparts in 2008 – with a still-dismal 2.9% funding share – the US is now slightly better-performing.

In 2024, European female-owned startups received just 1.5% of VC funding, and so far this year, things are even more dire at 0.5%. Companies with mixed-gender owners, meanwhile, gained 18% of investment dollars in 2024, a share that has risen to 21% thus far in 2025.

Women-led firms aren’t just getting less money – they’re also getting fewer deals compared to male-founded companies. In 2024, startups founded exclusively by women have received 6.5% and 5% of all VC deals in the US and Europe, respectively, a number that has remained relatively steady for years.

Here aswell companies with both male and female founders perform better. In the US, they account for 19% of the deals, and in Europe, this rises to 20% (when rounded up).

In Asia, too, DealStreetAsia found that startups with at least one female founder made up 18% of the total private capital secured in 2023, chiming with their counterparts in the west.

Climate and food tech trends are disappointing too

Courtesy: PitchBook

These investment trends extend to the climate and food tech sectors too. Analysis of Pitchbook data by Trellis showed that women-founded firms received just 0.4% ($136M) of the $33.5B invested in US climate tech startups in the first nine months of 2024, compared to $2.45B secured by mixed-gender-led startups.

Similarly, in 2023, agtech startups founded only by women made up 0.7% of VC investments in the sector globally, versus 16.5% for firms with both female and male founders, according to a separate report by PitchBook.

Women-led startups perform better – so why the disparity?

Courtesy: PitchBook

In the business world, it’s quite well-known that startups founded by women give investors better and faster returns. A 2018 study from the Boston Consulting Group revealed that women-founded startups generate 78 cents in revenue per invested dollar, more than twice as high as the 31 cents offered by male-founded businesses.

Female-founded firms also reach unicorn status faster, according to PitchBook. Its latest report, released this week, suggests that these companies take 4.2 years to cross the $1B valuation in the US, versus the national average of 4.5 years.

Likewise, women-founded startups also secure an exit faster (7.4 years versus 7.6 overall) – this has been the case for over a decade, although the gap in time has never been as small. This rings true in Europe too, where female-led companies have consistently outperformed the regional average time from founding to exit (7.9 years versus 8.5% for all startups).

Courtesy: PitchBook

That being said, the share of female-founded companies that secured an exit grew in both the US and Europe last year, it’s still low at 24% and 22%, respectively.

“The data is there. We know that women-led companies make more money, are better managed, and are more realistic in their growth projections. So the question isn’t: ‘Why should investors fund women-led companies?’ It’s: ‘Why aren’t they doing it when the numbers are so clear?’” Terry told Green Queen.

“At the end of the day, it’s easier to default to the existing systems. Hiring operators and middlemen who already fit into current structures is easier. It’s easier for investors to back founders who reflect the status quo than those who are building something different.

“But building something new – something more equitable, something more sustainable – requires a different mindset and approach. It’s a challenge worth taking on.”

The post IWD 2025: Why Are Food Tech’s Women Leaders Still Ignored by VC Investors? appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
November 4, 2024

The Nutritarian Diet: Could Plant-Rich Eating Slow Biological Ageing in Women?

4 Mins Read
A new study shows a range of health benefits for women who follow a plant-rich “nutritarian” diet, including significantly slower biological ageing.

In yet more evidence of the positive effects of plant-based eating on human health, a new study suggests that nutrient-rich, whole-plant-forward diets can reduce inflammation and biological ageing markers in women.

Conducted by researchers from the Nutritional Research Foundation, Northern Arizona University, and epigenetics company TruDiagnostic, the study explores how such “nutritarian” diets – emphasising cruciferous vegetables, beans and legumes, onions and garlic, mushrooms, berries, nuts, and seeds – can improve women’s health.

The anti-ageing benefits of a nutritarian diet

Courtesy: Jul Po/Getty Images

The study, published in the Current Developments in Nutrition journal, contrasted 48 American women who adopted the nutritarian diet for five years or more with 49 women who followed the Standard American Diet (SAD).

According to the US dietary guidelines, the SAD is characterised as too high in red meat, high-fat dairy, processed and fast foods, refined carbohydrates, added sugars, salt and calories, and too low in fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and healthy fats.

The nutritarian diet, on the other hand, focuses on specific foods linked with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumour, anti-cancer and heart-healthy properties. These plant-based foods have high-viscous and fermentable fibre content, and are associated with healthy lipid levels and lower risks of mortality from all causes.

The research found that the plant-rich diet significantly slowers epigenetic ageing, as measured by DunedinPACE, a DNA-based clock tool that tracks the pace of biological ageing. The nutritarian diet also exhibited lower dietary inflammatory potential than the SAD, as indicated by the scores on the Empirical Dietary Inflammatory Pattern (EDIP) and the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII).

The higher presence of T regulatory cells (which regulate your immune system) and lower levels of neutrophils (which can be detrimental to inflammation) presents better cardiovascular health benefits for women following the nutritarian diet.

Additionally, greater levels of DII – as was the case with women on the SAD – are linked to increased risk of frailty, type 2 diabetes, higher total and LDL cholesterol levels, cancers, and all-cause mortality. Similarly, a high EDIP score is also associated with greater cancer and mortality risks, alongside hip fracture and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Nutritarian diet followers were further found to have lower body mass indices, insulin-like growth factors, and blood glucose levels than women eating high amounts of red meat and processed food.

Growing evidence of plant-based diets and longevity

Courtesy: Netflix

“These findings suggest that the Nutritarian diet not only reduces inflammatory markers but may also slow biological processes associated with ageing,” said lead author Deana M Ferreri. “This research aligns with the growing body of evidence supporting the role of plant-rich diets in promoting long-term health.”

Indeed, the study joins mounting evidence of the anti-ageing benefits of plant-based diets. Last year, a Stanford University School of Medicine study of identical twins (which also involved TrueDiagnostic) found that vegan diets can lower LDL cholesterol, fasting insulin levels and weight while reducing telomere loss, which slows ageing in the body. That research formed the basis of the Netflix series You Are What You Eat.

Another study by Stanford University and TrueDiagnostic, published in July, focused solely on ageing, and revealed that vegan diets can lower biological age in as little as eight weeks, much faster than an omnivore diet.

It follows research from 2021 that linked plant-based diets to longer life expectancy, noting that US women aged 20 and above can live over 10 years longer with these eating patterns. Even in older populations, veganism lowers the use of medication by 58%, a separate study has found.

The nutritarian diet chimes with the philosophy of the Blue Zones, six regions across the world where people live longer than average due to regular exercise or movement and whole-food plant-based diets.

This latest study comes just as scientists advising the US government on its next dietary guidelines have drafted recommendations to reduce red meat and encourage a shift to plant proteins like beans, legumes and peas, prioritising them (along with nuts, seeds and soy products) above animal proteins in the official guidelines.

The post The Nutritarian Diet: Could Plant-Rich Eating Slow Biological Ageing in Women? appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
April 11, 2024

Swiss Government’s Climate Inaction Violates Human Rights, Rules Top European Court

5 Mins Read
In a landmark ruling, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in favour of a group of Swiss women, who said their government violated human rights by taking adequate action on climate change. However, the court also threw out two other similar cases.

On what was a milestone day for global climate lawsuits in Strasbourg, France, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that the Swiss government’s inaction on climate change violates human rights, while rejecting similar claims made by French and Portuguese citizens in separate cases.

This was the first such ruling by an international court, with the ECHR acknowledging that weak climate policies can be in breach of the human rights set out in the European Convention. Despite the defeat of the other two cases, the verdict sets a legal precedent for future litigation on how the climate crisis affects people’s right to a safe planet, and amps up pressure on governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is clear that future generations are likely to bear an increasingly severe burden of the consequences of present failures and omissions to combat climate change,” said ECHR president Síofra O’Leary.

Why the ECHR ruled in favour of Swiss climate activists

Courtesy: Shervine Nafissi

The French suit was brought by MEP Damien Carême, who argued that France’s inadequate efforts to mitigate climate change violated his rights to life and privacy and family life. The case was filed when he was the mayor of Grand-Synthe, a coastal French town vulnerable to flooding. But the court rejected the case because he no longer lives there.

The Portuguese case, meanwhile, was filed by six youngsters who sued 32 European countries for failing to avert the climate crisis and its effects, which they said threatened their right to life and discriminated against them based on their age. The ECHR refused to admit it on the grounds that applicants can’t bring cases against countries other than Portugal, and added that they hadn’t pursued legal options within Portugal.

As for the Swiss suit, it was filed by the KlimaSeniorinnen, a group of 2,400 elderly women whose average age is 74. The eight-year legal battle saw the organisation accuse the Swiss government of not doing enough to combat climate change. They argued that their rights are especially infringed on as they’re most affected by increasingly frequent extreme heat events, citing a UN IPCC report revealing that women and older adults are among the demographics facing the highest risks of temperature-related deaths during heatwaves.

Unlike the other two cases, the ECHR agreed with the KlimaSeniorinnen, who said Switzerland violated their right to life by failing to cut emissions that can limit global heating to 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures. The court ruled that the Swiss government had failed to comply with its duties under the European Convention concerning climate change.

O’Leary noted that there were critical gaps in the process of putting in place the relevant domestic regulatory framework. “This included a failure to quantify, through a carbon budget or otherwise, national greenhouse gas emissions limitations,” she said. “The respondent state had previously failed to meet its past greenhouse gas emission reduction targets by failing to act in good time and in an appropriate and consistent manner.”

The ECHR further noted that Swiss courts hadn’t provided convincing reasons as to why they considered it unnecessary to examine the KilmaSeniorinnen’s complaints, adding that they had failed to take into consideration the compelling scientific evidence concerning climate change and hadn’t taken the complaints seriously.

Swiss president Viola Amherd wasn’t impressed with the verdict, saying: “I would like to know what the grounds for it are. Sustainability is very important to Switzerland, biodiversity is very important to Switzerland, the net-zero target is very important to Switzerland. We are working on those and will continue to work on them with all our strength. This ruling does nothing to change that.”

But the country now has a legal duty to take greater action against climate change – its current commitments outline a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030, from a 1990 baseline. And if it doesn’t update its climate policies, further litigation and financial penalties could follow.

ECHR ruling sets legal precedent for climate change lawsuits

The ECHR rejects about 90% of all applications it receives, but fast-tracked the three climate cases due to their urgent nature. In fact, it delayed hearings on six other climate cases pending the three rulings on Tuesday. These include a lawsuit in Norway that accuses the government of violating human rights by issuing new oil and gas exploration licenses beyond 2035.

The ECHR’s unprecedented decision will have a ripple effect on future climate cases, establishing a binding legal precedent for all 46 member states of the Council of Europe, which could face similar lawsuits that they’re likely to lose.

“We expect this ruling to influence climate action and climate litigation across Europe and far beyond. The ruling reinforces the vital role of courts – both international and domestic – in holding governments to their legal obligations to protect human rights from environmental harm,” said Joie Chowdhury, senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law. “While today we did not see ideal outcomes in all the three cases, overall today is a watershed legal moment for climate justice and human rights.”

“I really hoped that we would win against all the countries so obviously I’m disappointed that this didn’t happen,” said Sofia Oliveira, a 19-year-old applicant in the Portugal case. “But the most important thing is that the Court has said in the Swiss women’s case that governments must cut their emissions more to protect human rights. So, their win is a win for us too and a win for everyone.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the EU Commission (which Switzerland is not a part of), said: “The Commission takes note of these rulings and will of course be studying them very carefully. But regardless of the legal arguments, what these cases do is they remind us of the high importance and urgency which our citizens attach to climate action.”

Climate change litigation has been on the up for a few years now, spanning countries like the Netherlands, Pakistan, the UK, Italy, Turkey, Australia, Brazil, Peru, South Korea and New Zealand. Last month, an Indian court ruled that citizens have the right to be free from the adverse impact of climate change, while in August, youth climate activists in Montana, US registered a legal victory after a judge ruled that the state’s fossil fuel policy was violating their right to a clean and healthful environment.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was part of a gathering outside the court called the Swiss government’s inaction “a betrayal beyond words”. “This is only the beginning of climate litigation,” she said. “The results of this can mean in no way that we lean back. This means that we have to fight even more, since this is only the beginning. Because in a climate emergency, everything is at stake.”

The post Swiss Government’s Climate Inaction Violates Human Rights, Rules Top European Court appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
March 29, 2024

PrimeJack: Why Fiber Foods is Championing Dehydrated Jackfruit as A Solution for Plant-Based & Blended Meat

7 Mins Read
Ugandan women-led company Fiber Foods is using a food that often goes to waste, and turning it into an ingredient that can solve plant-based and blended meat’s texture problems, servicing consumers’ increased fibre needs, and supporting local farmers via value chains.

An ingredient that can produce better meat analogues, help reduce meat consumption via more appetising blended meat products, provide a whole-food, fibre-packed option to increasingly health-conscious consumers, and boost the side income of local farmers through agricultural value chains. Sound intriguing?

That’s exactly what Fiber Foods is doing. A female-led business based in Uganda, the company is championing jackfruit as an ingredient that can address multiple pain points in the food system: whether that’s our overconsumption of meat, concerns surrounding meat alternatives, or food insecurity.

Jackfruit has already been adopted as an alternative protein solution by many producers, including Jack & Annie’s, Upton’s Naturals, Karana, Jack & Bry, and The Jackfruit Company. But Fiber Foods is approaching the fruit in a novel approach, opting to dehydrate it and offering it as an ingredient called PrimeJack, which comes in multiple shapes and sizes for manufacturers to use jackfruit as an ingredient in plant-based or blended meat applications.

“We started the company to create opportunities for women and girls in agro-processing,” says co-founder Ineke Aquarius. “[We do this] by selecting a crop that was already growing in the traditional agroforests of smallholder farmers and was not yet commercialised, which means it is the domain of women.”

She notes that while living in Uganda, she and her co-founder Inez van Oord “saw a lot of Jackfruit going to waste”, just as it appeared in more and more vegan applications in Europe. While jackfruit trees are “true climate champions” in smallholder agroforests, the lack of a market meant these were being cut down. “The fact that the trees were already there, but without commercial value, made it a ‘female crop’, which gave us the opportunity to work with women,” she says.

A fibre-packed product for meat analogues

Courtesy: Fiber Foods

The company developed its patent-pending tech for PrimeJack over three years, turning young fruit into an ingredient that can be produced on a large scale. It has established a production line, lab and research time in East Africa, to boost growing, harvesting and processing efficiencies for jackfruit. Meanwhile, it has a lab in the Netherlands, which is responsible for designing new applications and ingredients using PrimeJack.

Aquarius explains that the company decided to dehydrate jackfruit for sustainability reasons, reducing the volume of the product by 90%, which drastically cuts transportation emissions. “We found various other advantages,” she adds. “PrimeJack absorbs flavours in the rehydration process up to the core of the fibre, has a long shelf life and can be shipped in normal sea containers, and is not kept in brine like the pasteurised jackfruit and has therefore no sour off taste and is easier to apply in an industrial setting.”

The product will also appeal to food producers looking to improve their Nutri-Score. While jackfruit itself is low on protein (the rehydrated formulation has 1.7g per 100g), the real benefit is the fibre content, which is 8.1g per 100g once rehydrated. Fibre is an increasingly important nutrient for people, with fibre-rich diets linked with a lower risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, strokes, high cholesterol and heart disease. Plus, it regulates incretin, a hormone described as our body’s “natural Ozempic”, given it boosts GLP-1 to control appetite and metabolism – this makes fibre-packed foods a priority in the booming gut health era.

Animal products like meat, meanwhile, don’t contain any fibre, contributing to the lack of fibre in our diets. To tackle that problem, Fiber Foods is targeting the alternative protein space, offering PrimeJack for both vegan and blended meat (which combine conventional meat with plant-based ingredients) products.

“In plant-based meat formulations, we have developed products that consist of up to 70% rehydrated PrimeJack,” says Aquarius. “However, the market for such products is smaller,” she adds. “In blended meat, up to 30% of the meat can be replaced by 4% PrimeJack, and the rest is water.”

Jackfruit makes for better blended and plant-based meat

Courtesy: Fiber Foods

Blended applications enable a product that is “lower cost with better nutrition and footprint”, according to the company. To illustrate this, Fiber Foods explains how a 100% beef burger has more fat (including saturated fat) and sodium than a 70% blended burger, which has 1.7g of fibre versus none for the former. In terms of protein, the conventional burger has 25g per serving, while one blended with PrimeJack contains 19g.

The ingredient has a natural flavour too, meaning it wouldn’t take away from the taste aspect of meat, which is the most important consumption driver for consumers. “The advantage of having no flavour or taste, but a high absorption potential, is that the food developer can add any flavour they desire,” says Aquarius. She reveals this could also work with cultivated meat in hybrid applications. “But the quickest win is to replace 20-30% meat for PrimeJack and reduce price, footprint and improve Nutri-Score without changing the recipe.”

All this is why Fiber Foods secured financing from agrifood tech investment fund FoodSparks, which was launched by PeakBridge and EIT Food, in January. “Fiber Foods has a strong value proposition to improve the healthiness, Nutri-Score and sustainability of existing meat alternatives and hybrid meats,” says Thomas van den Boezem, principal at PeakBridge. “Their unique product and process also make a strong business case, backed by an experienced and inspiring founding team, with a high understanding of customer needs.”

He adds that as an ingredient, jackfruit ticks all the boxes: no bad taste, low price, fictional, and sustainable. “With Fiber Foods’ unique process, jackfruit addresses a number of key problems in existing meat alternatives and hybrid meats. Jackfruit fibres provide structural benefits to the end product, with zero negative taste impact,” he explains. “The health benefits are substantial, since it’s fibre-rich, and allergen and cholesterol-free. Plus, jackfruit trees are abundant and can be accessed with existing infrastructure, making the ingredient a highly affordable option for plant-based meat alternatives.”

Fiber Foods has just completed a life-cycle assessment, which revealed that its current production line emits 0.34kg of carbon per kg of rehydrated PrimeJack – compared to 15-30kg and 5-12kg for the same amount of beef or pork, respectively, as well as 0.7kg for Quorn’s mycoprotein. “Based on our LCA results, we are developing a plan to further lower our footprint to move to net zero in the new factory that we are establishing,” says Aquarius.

To make PrimeJack, the company peels its jackfruit first – research has shown that about 70-80% of a jackfruit consists of waste and byproducts. The peel also makes up 30% of the Fiber Foods’ jackfruit waste, one of its biggest sources of emissions. But it leaves no traces of the product in its processing hubs, having partnered with Ugandan insect protein producer Proteen.

Fiber Foods’ mission as a social enterprise

Courtesy: Fiber Foods

Beyond the nutrition and climate aspects, the social element of Fiber Foods is what really stands out. As a women-led company, its focus has always been to champion women’s rights and provide them with economic opportunities. The company has been building agricultural value chains to help smallholder farmers in Uganda and Kenya with an additional source of income.

These value chains allow farmers to earn a side income out of crops that still need to be commercialised, but maintain the regenerative balance in their farms, alongside cash crops like coffee, cacao and vanilla. The company is now developing a second value chain through oysternuts, and says it’s contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals 1, 5, 8 and 12 through fair prices for farmers, gender-sensitive value chains, economic growth for the agriculture sector, and promoting sustainable food systems.

Fiber Foods currently has 3,000 farmers in its value chain, with 30% of them being women. By next year, it hopes to double the number of smallholders in its system to 6,000, with at least half of them being women. The startup has further created an ESG tool to trace its ingredient from farm to fork. “We have developed a traceability tool that works in the context of our farmers, in a multi-cropping food system both off- and online. The farmer data is connected to another tool, ISO2HANDLE, to link the jackfruit all the way to the consumer,” notes Aquarius.

“The traceability aspect is extremely important: applying regenerative agriculture principles and high ethical sourcing standards to produce their dehydrated jackfruit in Uganda,” says van den Boezem.

Aquarius says over 10 products containing PrimeJack made by its B2B partners have already been approved (or are in the process) to appear in big retailers this year. It is now preparing a large-scale production of blended meat products for retail and – as she ascribed to above – building a new dedicated jackfruit facility in a joint venture with its current production partner.

Despite all that, the social mission still remains high on its priority list. “Jackfruit grows year-round and provides farming families with a reliable side income, besides their seasonal cash crops like coffee or vanilla that are volatile and affected by climate change,” Aquarius says. “By processing the jackfruit in Uganda and Kenya, close to the source, job opportunities are created for mostly young women.”

The post PrimeJack: Why Fiber Foods is Championing Dehydrated Jackfruit as A Solution for Plant-Based & Blended Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
March 8, 2024

IWD 2024: Women-Led Plant-Based Companies Shaping the Future of Food

4 Mins Read
Today is International Women’s Day, a day all about raising visibility and awareness of women’s rights, and celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Even though the climate crisis seems too tall a mountain to climb sometimes, so many women are using their voices and pushing for change through food, the most powerful tool of action. Today, we celebrate these women, and what their plant-based companies are doing to change the world.

Hannah Carter and Polly Trollope founded OGGS, a UK-based vegan egg and baked goods company, in 2019 – since then, it has saved the equivalent of five million chicken eggs.

Kimberlie Le is the co-founder of Prime Roots, a mycelium meat company that makes deli meats, charcuterie and bacon from koji, and was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for social impact in 2021.

Aleah Rae Montague is the co-founder of Meat the Mushroom, which makes Shroomacon, a clean-label vegan bacon from king oyster mushrooms, and shot to fame on Shark Tank earlier this year.

Another Shark Tank company that’s making vegan bacon is Umaro Foods, whose co-founders Beth Zotter and Amanda Stiles are using seaweed to make plant-based proteins.

The plant-based sector is booming in India. On the meat analogue side, Bollywood actress Genelia Deshmukh co-founded Imagine Meats; Roma Roy Choudhury founded Evolved Foods; Pranjuli Garg co-founded ProMeat, Akanksha Ghai, co-founded BVeg Foods, and Nikki Arora Singh founded Blue Tribe Foods. And in the alt-dairy realm, there’s Sweta Khandelwal, who co-founded Better Bet; Aarohi Surya, founder of Dancing Cow; and Anushi Patel, founder of Soft Spot Cheese.

Based in Indonesia, Helga Angelina Tjahjadi is the co-founder of the country’s first plant-based meat company, Green Rebel Foods, and vegan restaurant chain Burgreens.

Vinita Choolani is founder of Singapore’s Float Foods, the maker of Asia’s first plant-based whole egg, OnlyEg. It recently secured a food safety certification for its Halal-certified facility to offer its tech to other manufacturers looking to ditch eggs.

Astrid Prajogo is the founder and CEO of China’s HaoFood, which makes meat alternatives using peanut protein. Its latest innovation is vegan xiaolongbaos (soup dumplings), with the peanut meat replacing the traditional minced pork filling.

Philippine Soulères Albrand and Sheryline Thavisouk are the co-founders of Le Papondu, a French startup whose vegan eggs come in shells.

Liron Nimrodi is the co-founder and CEO of Zero Egg, an Israel-based plant-based egg company that is available in multiple countries now, including the US.

Deniz Ficicioglu is the co-founder of Berlin-based BettaF!sh, which makes vegan tuna using European seaweed.

Tanja Bogumil is the co-founder of fellow German startup Perfeggt, which is making pea-protein-based liquid vegan eggs that you can use in scrambles, carbonara and pancakes.

Oyebola Adeyanju is the co-founder of Nigeria’s first plant-based food tech company, Veggie Victory, a Black-owned business rooted in its gender-balanced and social fairness values.

Christie Lagally founded Rebellyous Foods in 2017, and has shaped the company into a leader in the vegan chicken sector.

Courtney Boyd Myers is the co-founder of Akua, a New York-based startup that makes seaweed burgers from sustainable ocean-farmed kelp and has previously been named one of Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas for Food.

Hailey Swartz is co-founder of Actual Veggies, a fellow New York company that makes chef-crafted, whole-food plant-based burgers, made from sustainably sourced crops from regional farmers.

Canadian scientist Sujala Balaji is the founder of Rainfed Foods, a food tech company making plant-based milks from millets.

Monica Talbert is the co-founder of The Plant Based Seafood Co, an all-female, family-owned brand making fish- and crustacean-free crab cakes, scallops and shrimps.

Kerry Song is the founder of US plant-based meat brand Abbot’s Butcher, whose product range includes ground beef, chopped chicken, chorizo, and a burger.

Michelle Lee is co-founder at Lypid, a vegan fat company whose first innovation, PhytoFat, was used in a vegan pork belly, and is now part of plant-based meatballs suitable for multiple cuisines.

Hema Reddy is the founder of US company Crafty Counter, which makes WunderEgg, a range of plant-based boiled and deviled eggs, and egg patties.

And Marissa Cuevas Flores and Fanny Villiers are co-founders of MicroTERRA, a Mexican startup leveraging the power of duckweed to make plant-based proteins and ingredients, with its latest innovation aimed at sugar reduction.

This is by no means an exhaustive list – just a snapshot of all the female-founded companies doing incredible work for their communities, human health, and the climate crisis. Here’s to all the women in the world. More power to you and everything you do. Happy International Women’s Day!

The post IWD 2024: Women-Led Plant-Based Companies Shaping the Future of Food appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
January 27, 2024

Kelpon: German Female Founding Duo Raises 7-Figure Seed for World’s First Seaweed Tampon with Self-Created Financial Instrument

4 Mins Read
Vyld, the female-founded Berlin startup making sustainable period products from algae, has secured a seven-figure sum in seed funding that includes a financing instrument they created themselves.

Three years after launch, Vyld has raised funding worth seven figures using a novel financing model, helping its mission to disrupt the feminine care industry. The company will use the investment to launch Kelpon, the world’s first tampon made from seaweed, and accelerate the development of its period diaper.

The investment is a combination of German government and EU funds, and angel and VC capital, leveraging a self-developed sustainable financing instrument, the Future Profit Partnership Agreement (FPPA). Created by co-founder Ines Schiller, the model blends the advantages of equity and debt capital, and aligns with Vyld’s vision of steward ownership and self-sustenance.

The startup will use the funds to launch to market what it claims is the world’s first tampon made from seaweed, while continuing to develop its incontinence pads. It’s part of a long-term vision of creating an Algaeverse of healthy, sustainable and circular products tapping seaweed’s potential to develop a regenerative economy and promote ocean conservation, which helps Vyld contribute to 12 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Courtesy: Vyld

Built on a unique regenerative financing model

Crafted by Schiller, a former film producer, Vyld’s mezzanine financial instrument ensures the company remains independent, allowing profits to be reinvested, used to cover capital costs, or funnelled into philanthropic purposes – all the while enabling an appropriate return for investors. Instead of having an exit-based model like traditional VC startups, Vyld focuses on longer-term sustainability.

Steward ownership has two core principles. The first is self-governance, which means the voting rights of the company always remain with active employees, rather than external investors. The second is a profit-for-purpose approach, which means its profits can’t be privatised. So instead of being redistributed to shareholders, they’re reinvested in the company’s mission. It means that Vyld as a business owns itself.

Under the FPPA, the startup offers profit shares instead of a conventional equity round. Once the returns are achieved, the agreement ends. This means new investments can be secured outside of the typical equity round cycle, giving the company financial independence. This model appeals to investors who are interested in regenerative financing and are critics of maximalist financial principles.

“Tackling questions of ownership, power and financing is crucial to me as an entrepreneur. Business models create realities and extractive models do not only threaten the environment and health, but also reproduce exploitative standards and anti-democratic tendencies,” explained Schiller. “We want to counter this with a model that promotes creation instead of consumption, quality instead of quantity and triple top line instead of hypergrowth.”

Kai Viehof, one of Vyld’s investors, added: “Vyld shows that neither shareholder-value-driven venture capital nor unbridled growth is needed to successfully implement sustainable ideas that really make a difference for our planet and our society. However, change can only become possible on a broad scale if investors also rethink and provide the necessary capital fairly and with reasonable return expectations.”

As part of the company’s knowledge-sharing commitment, it is making this financial model available as an open-source case study to encourage other businesses to adopt a similar regenerative approach.

Courtesy: Vyld

Vyld will release seaweed tampons this year, with diapers in development

Vyld was founded by Schiller and Melanie Schichan in 2021, with the long-term target of creating an entire ecosystem of non-food seaweed products under the Algaeverse, which entails both B2B and B2C offerings. The aim is to transform a menstrual health sector that produces high amounts of waste.

The startup claims that 90% of all period products employed are single-use, and plastic makes up a big chunk of their composition. Plastic comprises 90% of the content in disposable period pads, which is the equivalent of four plastic bags. It means these are not biodegradable and can take up to 600 years to decompose.

The seaweed Vyld uses in its menstrual products, though, biodegrades on land and in water, requires no fertilisers to grow, and doesn’t need to be bleached (unlike conventional tampons). Plus, it sequesters huge amounts of carbon and nitrogen while growing, offers anti-inflammatory benefits during use, and can also be applied across a range of materials, from tampon cores to external packaging.

The startup’s initial products are the Kelpon (a tampon) and Dyper (a diaper). The former was part of a successful trial with over 100 consumers late last year and is now being prepared for market launch. The latter is in pilot phase, part of a Windelwald (‘diaper forest’) project in partnership with German sanitary solutions company Goldeimer.

An algae-based compostable diaper without plastic or superabsorbent polymers, the Dyper is being trialled in 50 households both for everyday use and its potential as a humus fertiliser. The used diapers are composted under controlled conditions, and the fertilisers help plant a forest – hence the name ‘diaper forest’.

It’s an exercise in regeneration, marrying the ethos of the financial model with its product offering. It puts Vyld in pole position to disrupt a $30B market with sustainability and ethics at the heart of things.

The post Kelpon: German Female Founding Duo Raises 7-Figure Seed for World’s First Seaweed Tampon with Self-Created Financial Instrument appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
June 9, 2023

OpEd: Company Breastfeeding Policies Help Build A Better, More Equitable World

4 Mins Read
Feeding your child should not be a barrier to success, argues our special columnist Australian entrepreneur Glen Hare, and that means companies need explicit, comprehensive breastfeeding policies for working mothers.

In a major and unexpected turn of events, I’ve been thinking about breastfeeding – a lot. Naturally, a gay man, with no children, is not generally expected to be across the intricacies of breastfeeding and its interplay within the workplace. But, what about a gay man, with no children, who is the founder and managing director of a company with a fifty percent female workforce? Should he be expected to think about breastfeeding? Absolutely.

It may be surprising, jarring even, for some to hear a male business leader discuss breastfeeding so openly. What I find even more surprising, though, is the fact that it’s taken so long. Fifty-three percent of my team at Fox & Hare Financial Advice are women (none of whom are living under a gender pay gap) and fifty percent of them are mothers. But, until recently, zero percent were protected by a strong, fair breastfeeding policy. These numbers are not anomalies. Fifty percent of Hong Kong’s total labour force is female – the second highest in the Asia Pacific, only topped by Macao and just ahead of New Zealand.

Let’s be clear, breastfeeding is a natural and essential practice that provides numerous benefits for mothers and babies. These include, but are not limited to, the reduced risk of certain diseases, better cognitive development, and a reduction in the mother’s risk of some cancers. However, the professional burden of breastfeeding, that is the negative implications for long-term earning and career prospects often falls solely on women. This is an unfair burden that, as a business leader reliant on a team of talented, reliable, and extraordinary mothers, is my responsibility to alleviate.

Without a supportive work environment and the proper protections in place, extended maternity leave or frequent breaks to accommodate breastfeeding can result in a whole range of negative outcomes for mothers. Women may face challenges in maintaining continuity and progression within their careers, especially if they work in competitive fields or industries where rapid changes and advancements occur. These interruptions can impact salary growth, skill development, and opportunities for promotion. Not ideal in a world that upholds a persistent and alarming gender pay gap.

Some employers may view breastfeeding as a sign of reduced commitment to work, assuming that mothers who breastfeed will be less available or less dedicated to their job responsibilities. This perception can result in biased treatment, limited career advancement opportunities, or even the denial of certain professional opportunities for breastfeeding women. As a result, mothers may feel pressured to conceal their breastfeeding or may feel compelled to choose between breastfeeding and participating in professional settings. All of this can have far-reaching implications for an earning capacity, long-term career prospects and perhaps less importantly, depending on who you ask, the health of your organisation as a whole.

The scariest part about it all? The fact these negative effects are not inherent to breastfeeding itself but stem from a lack of supportive policies and business leaders’ tolerance for archaic, yet pervasive societal attitudes towards breastfeeding in the workplace. At Fox & Hare, we’ve chosen to tackle these challenges head-on. By implementing a comprehensive breastfeeding policy, and fostering a culture that values gender equity and work-life balance, we intend to build a workplace where starting a family and maintaining a career are not competing priorities.

The policy itself is far-reaching, yet surprisingly manageable. We provide suitable and reasonable facilities for team members who choose to express or breastfeed their child; lactation breaks during work hours; access to flexible work options and actively work to ensure the wider team is aware of our breastfeeding policies/facilities. As an already flexible workplace, the measures outlined in the policy offer little in the way of distraction or inconvenience for the wider team. For a new family, however, they can be revolutionary. The challenge of adjusting to their new lives just got a little easier, and we are incredibly proud to offer that opportunity.

Of course, for some in the business community, the ‘human angle’ is never enough to justify the cost of programs centered on equity and/or inclusion. For them I offer this, women now make up a majority of university enrolments and graduations across the developed world. It is inevitable that, at some point in the near future, the most skilled applicant for a role in your organization will be a woman. As is the case with every ‘must have’ hire, other companies will be competing for their attention, time and expertise. Which employer do you think they will choose?

As a founder and business leader, it is my responsibility to remove every possible barrier to my team’s success. Becoming a mother should not be a barrier to success. Feeding your child should not be a barrier to success and, as an extension, having a male leader who doesn’t think about breastfeeding should not be a barrier to success either. And so, I am very happy to report that the Fox & Hare breastfeeding policy brings us one step closer to a world where mothers are not penalised for caring for their children.
The post OpEd: Company Breastfeeding Policies Help Build A Better, More Equitable World first appeared on Green Queen.
The post OpEd: Company Breastfeeding Policies Help Build A Better, More Equitable World appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
June 6, 2023

Shiok Meat’s Sandhya Sriram Gets Personal: ‘As A Pioneer, You Have To Break A Lot More Barriers And A Lot More Glass Ceilings’

13 Mins Read
Sandhya Sriram is co-founder and CEO at Shiok Meats, a Singapore-headquartered cultivated meat and seafood company founded in 2018 that has raised over $30 million in funding. Below, she talks to Green Queen‘s Sonalie Figueiras about where cell-based seafood is going, her views on the future of cultivated meat, how investors should be thinking about the space, and going public with the personal.

Editor’s Note: This interview was recorded live on Tuesday, May 30th 2023 during the City University of Hong Kong’s Webinar Series The Future of Food: Seeking Sustainable Solutions. Watch the full video interview, including a Q&A with questions from students across Asia HERE.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

I’m thrilled to be here with you, one of the pioneers of cultivated meat and seafood. I really appreciate you doing this. You’re always so generous with your time and your expertise and your leadership. I want to start by asking you, one of the early people in the space, and definitely in Asia, one of the first faces that anyone saw, how are we doing in terms of cultivated meat and cultivated seafood in Asia and also globally? Are we where you thought that we would be when you started?

Sandhya Sriram: Sure, that’s a lot of complicated questions. [Laughs]. I think with any startup, any disruptive industry, any novel industry, you expect more downs than ups. And honestly, when I started in 2018, in this industry, I did not expect things to go as well as it went for specifically Shioak Meats and the way Singapore brought up the 30 by 2030 food story, and the amount of funding that went into this industry, and I’m not going to say it was easy capital raising, but definitely it was positive capital raising, with really good investors coming in, and you know, believing in this.

So, I did not expect it to go that positively or that well, as as, as we started the company, I was expecting more down days.

In fact, even with the pandemic, fundraising wasn’t that bad, even with investors, you know, looking at you only on Zoom and not being able to taste your product or visit your facility. But this was the time when capital was easily available, there was plenty of capital and everybody was into food tech, right?

GQ: What’s your outlook in terms of the timeline for the industry over the next few years?

Sandhya Sriram: I used to say this from day one: the world has a cycle of five years for a new technology or industry- it’s extremely sexy for five years. And then after that, it doesn’t go away, it’s still there, but something else is sexy. And when we started in 2018, around 2019, food tech became extremely sexy in Asia, be it the launch of Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, then Omni Foods, and then a lot of cultivated meat companies coming up, Singapore announcing the 30 by 2030 campaign, and approving the first cultivated product, so everything was extremely “up” for this industry. And we are sort of in the tail end of that five years, as you can see. And that has come with market changes, funding issues, companies not being able to scale…Regulatory-wise, it’s going the right way, but still, not many companies have gotten approval. So I would just say I’m not surprised. I’m not surprised about where we are. I’m not surprised by the challenges we have faced. I’m not surprised that we have seen the bad days.

What I am very mindful of is over-promising by the industry- over-promising with the research that we’re doing or over-promising by the companies themselves. I think the market is correcting itself right now and in the industry, we are all keeping it truthful right now.

But that also comes with a caveat- when you’re fundraising, you can’t tell an investor that you will make money for them 20 years down the line. You have to have some sort of a projection in place for them to see their return on investment. It’s quite complex, how do you talk about timelines when you launch and as you progress.

I’m not surprised as to where we are. The future of alt protein is 100% there, I don’t think it’s ever going away. The next few years are all about who can make it and consolidation. Unfortunately, some companies are dying and some of that technology is dying. But all of that is part of any industry- it is what it is. You can’t expect all 100 [cultivated meat] companies to do well. It’s survival of the fittest.

GQ: It’s very interesting to hear you say that you didn’t think it would go as well as it did. I think it’s also fair to say that there was probably a little bit of hype, there was also probably a lot of capital and interest in a field that let’s face it, most of us didn’t really understand five years ago and didn’t really know much about. In terms of concrete predictions, and I know predictions are a fool’s business to some extent, but just to understand from someone like you who’s in the space- do you anticipate there being more companies being founded in the cultivated industry? And do think more of those companies will be in Asia?

Sandhya Sriram: I don’t foresee many companies starting up now, especially with the markets as they are. And I think the whole industry is going through a bit of skepticism with challenges around scaling and the issues that we’re facing in funding. So I don’t foresee too many companies starting new. But I do foresee ancillary companies starting, for example, media bioreactors infrastructure, a lot more contract manufacturing organizations being set up for scale-up, and offering infrastructure for production. And I also foresee a lot more food like traditional or established food companies coming into this space via consolidation. So that’s what I am sort of forcing for the next decade or so.

GQ: That’s really interesting. Just building on that, one thing that I’ve noticed about cultivated seafood, is that it’s one of the few sub-sectors of alt protein where we’ve seen Big Food companies in Asia, Big Seafood, specifically, get involved. So you Vinh Hoan in Vietnam and Thai Union getting involved in cultivated, whereas you don’t see as many Big Meat companies in Asia getting involved in cultivated meat. Why is that?

Sandhya Sriram: Actually, it’s a good question. Yes, traditional or Big Meat producers haven’t really gotten into the Asian side, but the Western meat companies have, like Tyson and Cargill, right? That’s also because if you look worldwide, seafood production is mainly in Asia, whereas meat production is not. If you look at the numbers, seafood is the most consumed protein in this part of the world and is mostly produced in Asia. So you have the big leagues like Thai Union and CP Food all getting involved here.

It’s interesting because these companies, when they approached us or when we approached them, they said they understand that technology is the only way that they can keep their business long term, [it’s the only way] the way they can live up to the demand and the supply chain issues, that they can make sure that their businesses are still alive in 100 years to come. These companies know that disruption and technology is what’s going to happen.

One of the companies that we were working with, and they are invested as well, they initially used to do proper traditional fishing and everything was done by hand, manually. They realized 10-20 years down the line, okay, this is not going to work because we are producing a lot more, we have larger fish farms, everything has to be automated now. So they set up automated lines for everything from de-heading the fish to scaling them to processing them to the packaging. And I’ve gone to their production facilities and they are extremely impressive- fully automated, much less manpower, very clean, and very well done. But they also know that may not be enough to supply the growing global population [and service] the growing demand in the future.

Given that there are only so many fish farms you can set up, there are only so many animals in the ocean, they realized, okay, plant-based is one way to go, cultivated is another way to go. So why not explore these technologies? But they are not able to innovate internally, so they started investing in companies like ours.

Eventually the idea is for them to use us as a production hub. They will do the distribution and the sales, which is exactly what we are looking for. We are technology people, we are not looking to sell our products large scale, at least I can speak for Shiok means our idea is to license out the technology so that food companies like Thai Union, CP and any other seafood company can use it in the future to actually produce seafood the way we do.

GQ: They get to do what they’re good at, which is logistics, sales, marketing, and you get to do what you’re good at. They are essentially, and you see this in a lot of industries, outsourcing the R&D, to some extent.

You wrote a LinkedIn post a couple of weeks ago that was very moving and very transparent about the challenges that you have faced as a South Asian woman founder in Asia in a deep-tech space, and more specifically, in the cultivated meat and seafood space. I wanted to ask you about writing the post and some of the challenges that you’ve faced on your journey. What’s been the hardest part? What were you thinking about when you wrote that post?

Sandhya Sriram: So I have a rule. I don’t post anything when I’m emotional, when I’m angry when I’m bitter. All those emotions pass through and it’s very easy to get on social media to just express everything at that given point. But you’re not thinking straight when you’re extremely emotional. So I have a rule that I will always think, I will rest, I will take a few weeks, and then I will post something. And anything that I post is well thought-out, it’s not done in a hurry.

I write it, I read it, I go through it, I go back and edit it. I don’t want to hurt anybody. That’s my ultimate aim at the end of the day. But I also want to be sure that I can tell what is my opinion, and I don’t think everybody needs to have the same opinion or agree with me. I think most of them will disagree with a lot of things that I say. But it’s my point of view. And I want to make sure that I’m able to voice it. Because I also realize there are 500 people that are not voicing it. And they’re struggling with the fact that they have to keep it within themselves. So I’m thinking about the 500 people that are probably going through the same thing that I’m going through. Over time, I’ve realized that people actually appreciate my candidness and openness. It’s not very easy as an Asian to do that. Actually in Asia, it’s not very well appreciated.

GQ: Yes…as Asians and Asian women in particular, we are taught not to share our feelings in a public forum.

Sandhya Sriram: I’ve been told by a lot of people in Asia: don’t share your troubles, share only the good things. And I think, well, that doesn’t inspire anybody. On Instagram or social media, we show only the good part of our lives. And we don’t show the bad part. I think, let’s share everything, right? Especially as an entrepreneur, when people are inspired by you, they should know what you’re going through all the things, the bad, the good, the ugly, the best, the better, and everything. And as I said, I don’t post when I’m bitter, angry or emotional. So that post took me three hours to write. And it took me a lot of editing, it took me a lot of back and forth, thinking should I do it? Should I not do it? What will that person think? What will this person think? What will my investors think? What will the media think? And then I said, you know what? I need to listen to myself for once. Let’s just do it because I have things to say. And it is honest things that I’ve been going through. And I personally put it there, it’s my opinion, it’s my experience, it’s personal. And it doesn’t have to essentially agree with all of you. But certain parts of it can agree with you, certain parts can not agree with you, it’s fine. That is what it is.

I would be happy to read somebody else’s thoughts as well about running a company. It’s not easy, running a company of 60 people, then letting go of 30 people. It’s not easy raising $30 million. It’s not easy being a pioneer.

You know, pioneer is used as a positive word, and actually, for me, it’s got a negative connotation. It’s like, oh, my God, you’re the first! And that means you have to break a lot more barriers and a lot more glass ceilings and face a lot more issues.

Essentially, I’m a very resilient and very strong person, I can tolerate a lot. But that doesn’t mean I’m not human. So that post was about being human and being vulnerable. And also telling the world that I may look extremely strong, but I’m human and I have emotions also. And these are my thoughts, from my point of view. It is what it is, if you don’t like it, don’t read it.

GQ: In the post, one thing that really came out was that for the past few years, Shiok has been working on scaling cell lines for the three crustaceans you are addressing, so lobster, shrimp and crab. And in the post, you talk about how it has been very, very challenging to scale those lines. Can you share more about this?

Sandhya Sriram: So I think around last year, we realized, okay, seafood is gonna take longer than [what we thought]. And by then we had already acquired the red meat company Gaia Foods. And honestly, when we acquired them, it was strategic, it was opportunistic, but it was also Plan B for us from day one. We knew that seafood is going to take time.

To give a background to everybody listening here, seafood in general doesn’t have any background research. If you go to PubMed, or you go to Google, you can’t really find any research on stem cells for seafood, because stem cell research was done on animals that are closer to humans, like mammals, so that you understand human biology for human diseases and cancer treatment and all of that. So nobody really looked at stem cells from shrimps.

So when we started Shiok, it was a blank whiteboard. As a scientist, that’s super exciting, because that means you can make new discoveries, new IP, new patents, all of that. But that’s also not the best start for a startup or a company, which needs to make money in three years, five years, ten years- whatever it is.

So I think we went into it, we went into it knowing that it’s going to take time, but we thought it would be about four or five years until we figured it out. But last year, our fourth year, we said, okay, let’s take a pause here. We have tried as much as we can with the scale, and it’s not working, we are facing some issues that we could not have predicted that we would face because unless you scale up to a certain extent, you will not know. Only when you reach that destination, you realize, okay, there’s something wrong there. And then you have to figure out a different path to go for. So we said okay, we went two steps forward, but we also went six steps backwards. So let’s put a pause there. Let’s figure out that first step or second step again.

But in the meantime, we are a startup, and we have raised cash. We are answerable to our investors, let’s try to see what else can be accelerated. We thought of many other things that we could do with our technology. But then we said, well, we have red meat. Red meat is a more established and studied technology. There are many companies that are doing red meat and are closer to commercialization. So why not push that, even though it’s not the most competitive, or the most unique technology? Let’s do that first.

In the meantime, let’s figure out seafood. Nobody’s stopping seafood, we’re not stopping working on seafood, we just need more time. And so that was a conscious decision that we made in the company, to see what can be our first product. The survival of the company is very important.

For me, it came to a point where as a CEO and a founder, I asked myself: should I run a company for X amount of time with 60 people? Or Should I run it for 10x the amount of time with only 10 people? I’m going to choose the latter, right? I want the company to survive, the business to survive, the technology to survive.

So it’s been hard, it’s been extremely hard, as you know from my LinkedIn post, but I think at the end of the day, my fiduciary duty is to the company and the business. So I will make the decision that I make for the company, not for me, not for individuals, it’s for the whole company.

Listen to the rest of the interview here.

The post Shiok Meat’s Sandhya Sriram Gets Personal: ‘As A Pioneer, You Have To Break A Lot More Barriers And A Lot More Glass Ceilings’ first appeared on Green Queen.
The post Shiok Meat’s Sandhya Sriram Gets Personal: ‘As A Pioneer, You Have To Break A Lot More Barriers And A Lot More Glass Ceilings’ appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
April 3, 2023

Women’s Health Market Set to Explode As Millennials Hit Their 40s

3 Mins Read
New data point to an untapped market potential for female nutrition. But more work is needed to address the full range of women’s health requirements.

The findings about women’s health come from sector specialists at consultancy Sagentia Innovation. “The specific role of nutrition in female health is finally gaining attention,” Ankita Singal-Sareen, senior consultant at Sagentia Innovation told Nutrition Insight.

‘Female-specific data’

“Further fundamental and clinical research will generate female-specific data, especially for younger women and across racial and ethnic backgrounds,” Singal-Sareen said. “Science-led developments in female nutrition will help fill these gaps and we anticipate that they will accelerate over the next twelve months.”

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

The current lack of clinical research and data for women’s health conditions has left a significant gap in understanding of how women respond to different solutions and how different conditions can present in women.

Historically, women have not been included in clinical trials, which has perpetuated a “one size fits all” approach to nutrition solutions. To move away from this approach, experts say there’s a need to better understand each life stage for women to develop better-tailored solutions.

Enabling technologies such as data management tools is critical in developing these better solutions for women’ health. Companies must determine how to leverage available data and identify insights to deliver products to customers. Kerry’s RDA director for women and infant health, Monica Maria Olivares, told Nutrition Insight that there are myriad opportunities for manufacturers to develop products that meet women’s specific needs.

Unmet needs

Currently, digestive health, weight and fitness, and energy needs are already well-served by a number of brands offering everything from drinks and supplements to energy bars, but there are still unmet needs such as joint health, hormonal changes, and cognitive function — significant considerations as Gen X and millennials are aging. The oldest millennials have just hit their 40s. Women make up half of the world’s population.

Courtesy Jason Brisco on Unsplash

The research shows that there is untapped innovation potential in women’s nutrition, according to Singal-Sareen. She says companies need to conduct more clinical data and research to develop new solutions for women. “Start to think about how to get there. That could be looking at ingredient solutions. It could be leveraging data you’ve already collected through various platforms and looking at ecosystems of enabling partners out there,” she said.

“What we need is a robust approach focusing more on prevention than treatment,” adds Singal-Sareen.

“Targeted nutrition could support women across various life stages and the associated physiologic, neurologic and hormonal variabilities.”

The post Women’s Health Market Set to Explode As Millennials Hit Their 40s appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
March 27, 2023

Exclusive: Former Outcast Foods CEO Darren Burke Named In Wrongful Termination Lawsuit Alleging Discrimination On The Basis Of Sex

7 Mins Read
Canadian foodtech entrepreneur Marissa Bronfman says that after being recruited as co-founder for a new biotech mycelium fermentation company, she was subjected to a sexist work environment and was terminated by former Outcast Foods CEO Darren Burke for requesting that he hire a female scientist.

Earlier this week, Green Queen received a PDF copy of court filings detailing that on March 13, 2023, Marissa Bronfman filed a complaint case in the Ontario Superior Court Of Justice naming Darren Burke, of The Different Food Co Inc. as the sole defendant.

Ms. Bronfman’s complaint alleges that Mr. Burke misrepresented himself, his intentions and his company, terminated her in bad faith, defamed her, discriminated against her on the basis of sex and misled her.

The filings cite further complaints against Mr. Burke including Breach of Contract, Breach of the Duty of Honesty in Contractual Performance, Bad Faith Manner of Dismissal and Breach of the Human Rights Code, among others.

According to the case documents, Ms. Bronfman says that she entered into an employment contract with Mr. Burke as part of a new mycelium fermentation-related biotech company he was starting after he recruited her for many months. She says the agreement meant she was entitled to CA$150,000 in annual base salary and ‘generous benefits’, as well as equity in the company and co-founder status. Although Ms. Bronfman was originally going to consult with the company, she says Mr.Burke changed his mind and would only work with her if she didn’t work anywhere else.

In November 2022, Ms. Bronfman publicly announced that she was joining the company and then leveraged her personal network and social media presence to promote the company. She says she introduced Mr. Burke to potential investors, represented the company at an industry event in Toronto and offered him “significant” professional advice that “led to Mr. Burke changing his business model”.

She says that things started to go awry when she suggested to Mr. Burke that the company hire a female scientist towards the end of November. According to the court documents, “These comments upset Mr. Burke and he expressed his disagreement with them.”

By early December, Ms. Bronfman was told she was being laid off as the company needed to raise more funds and that she would be reinstated once the company had done so. However, Ms. Bronfman was actually wrongfully terminated after Mr. Burke said he did not wish to work with her any longer, and that “her opinions had been too ‘strong’ (emphasis in original).

In January of this year, Ms. Bronfman says Mr. Burke published a defamatory post about her on his personal Linkedin profile which has over 11,000 followers. The filings state that “This post was clearly designed to intimidate the Plaintiff, and harm her reputation within the foodtech industry.”

After her attorney sent Mr. Burke a cease and desist letter, he removed the post from his profile, though Ms. Bronfman says that by then it had caused “significant embarrassment and reputational damage”.

Ms. Bronfman says that she has suffered reputational harm, a limiting of employment opportunities in Canada, and mental and physical distress as a result of Mr. Burke’s actions.

Ms. Bronfman is asking for a range of damages in the amount of CA$1,000,000 as well as CA$150,000 in lost earnings, CA$500,000 for breach of contract and moral damages for bad faith dismissal, CA$250,000 in punitive damages, CA$75,000 for injuries to dignity, feelings, and self-respect as well as any legal costs incurred.

Further, she is requesting the 25% of company equity she was promised (in the court filings the latest valuation is listed at CAD$3,000,000, which Green Queen confirmed from the company’s most recent investment deck) and asking for a declaration that he breached their contractual duty of good faith and that he discriminated against her.

Screenshot from St Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada Website

According to the filings, The Different Food Co Inc is a food-tech company incorporated in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The company’s mission involved ‘Harnessing mycelium fermentation to reengineer almonds using 90% less water’ according to a presentation deck. While Ms. Bronfman lists herself as a co-founder of the company on her Linkedin profile, there is no mention of it on Mr. Burke’s Linkedin profile. Green Queen has seen proof that the company is still in operation and that Mr. Burke is listed as a Director.

On his profile, Mr Burke is described as a “celebrated science-based entrepreneur focused on plant-based and alternative protein nutrition and social impact ideas to save the planet” as well as a “Former tenured university professor who commercialized scientific research into a new category of sports nutrition products.”

Couresy Outcast Foods

Accordion to the page, Mr Burke spent 10 years as a professor at St. Francis Xavier University, in Halifax, Canada and then founded Rivalus, a nutritional supplements company that he says he grew to $20 million in revenue before a “successful exit.” He then, along with fellow entrepreneur and former professional NHL hockey player TJ Galiardi, co-founded Outcast Foods, a Canadian sustainable food waste company that transformed old and ugly produce into powdered nutrition supplements. The company raised CA$10 million led by District Ventures which counts well-known South African-Canadian investor Arlene Dickinson as a General Partner. In a 2021 article from this publication, Mr. Burke said that the company had experienced YoY online retail sales growth of close to 4,000%. He is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which Green Queen confirmed via phone. Mr Burke also features on the institution’s website as Dr Darren Burke.

We have reached out to Mr. Burke for comment and we will update the story once we hear back.

In an exclusive interview and over multiple conversations by phone, Ms Bronfman told me that the past few months leading up to the filing of the suit have been taxing: “Things have been very difficult, and the public nature of it has been challenging, but I am fortunate to have lots of support. Many people in the industry, especially women, have reached out to me.”

In addition, she said that fighting back is not easy but she believes it is necessary: ”I feel emboldened and empowered by the support I’ve received from people in the industry, and by the laws we have in Canada to protect people. I am looking forward to my day in court and pursuing justice.”

She also told me she believes that this kind of behavior by male executives is more prevalent in the industry than people realize: “Unfortunately, this is a very common story in tech and foodtech, though we rarely hear about it. All too often women are threatened, shamed and silenced into not talking about or seeking legal justice for unethical and illegal treatment in the workplace, whether from co-founders, investors and/or colleagues.”

She said that one of the reasons she is speaking out is to “help end an entrenched culture of mistreating, intimidating, shaming and silencing women, and inspire positive change and greater equality” in foodtech, where female founders and co-founders are a small minority yet suffer the majority of predatory, unethical and illegal behavior in the workplace.

“I will not be intimidated, I am not afraid and I will always fight for women’s rights,” she added.

She said that while she hopes the suit will result in “a fair and just resolution”, she wants her story to help make a difference to other women in the food tech space. “I hope that my story will empower others. It’s inspired me to launch my website, to expand my work with purpose-driven founders and investors, women in particular, and I look forward to continuing to speak on women in business and the future of food.”

Ms. Bronfman is being represented by Esq. Kathryn Marshall, attorney and partner at Levitt Sheik LLP, a leading labour and employment law firm in Toronto.

Asked why she chose to take up Ms. Bronfman’s case, Ms. Marshall told Green Queen: “I frequently act for women in the tech and start-up industry and have observed a disturbing trend of women being mistreated, silenced and taken advantage of. This is an important case that will hopefully result in changes in the industry and help to empower female founders. Marissa is strong and brave and has fought for women her entire career. I am honoured to be her advocate.”

For her part, Ms. Bronfman said: “I am grateful to be represented by such a passionate lawyer who has fought for women her entire career.

This is a developing story.

The post Exclusive: Former Outcast Foods CEO Darren Burke Named In Wrongful Termination Lawsuit Alleging Discrimination On The Basis Of Sex appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
March 27, 2023

How the E.U. — and Women CEOs — are Tackling Greenwashing

3 Mins Read
As the European Commission takes new steps to crack down on greenwashing in product labels and advertisements, research points to a foolproof way to avoid greenwashing in the first place: hire more women executives.

The E.U.’s proposed Green Claims Directive is expected to force the hands of major companies to be more transparent about their products’ climate impacts and change their labeling to accurately reflect their impacts.

The Green Claims Directive

According to an E.U. 2020 commission study, 53.3 percent of examined environmental claims in the E.U. were found to be vague, misleading, or unfounded, and 40 percent were entirely unsubstantiated. “The absence of common rules for companies making voluntary green claims leads to ‘greenwashing’ and creates an uneven playing field in the EU’s market, to the disadvantage of genuinely sustainable companies,” the Commission said in a statement.

The new rules will require businesses to assess and meet new minimum “substantiation requirements” for green claims. These requirements include relying on recognized scientific evidence and state-of-the-art knowledge, reporting greenhouse gas offsets in a transparent way, and providing information on whether the product performs environmentally significantly better than what is common practice.

Green claims can only cover environmental impacts that have been assessed in accordance with the substantiation requirements and identified as ‘significant’ for the product or business. Additionally, green claims will need to be accompanied by information on their substantiation, either in physical form or by way of a web link, QR code, or equivalent. This means that a number of businesses making green claims on products sold throughout Europe, may need to reconsider their product packaging.

The proposed rules will increase the enforcement of greenwashing in the E.U. and will create a class-action style mechanism in Europe, allowing consumer organizations to bring actions against green claims that they consider not properly substantiated.

Women leaders tackle greenwashing better

The announcement comes as another recent study found that when companies have women CEOs and in other leadership roles, they tend to be more transparent about their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance.

The research was conducted by a team from the University of Portsmouth, Brunel University, and Loughborough University, which looked at nearly 4,000 firms from 29 countries over a fourteen-year period.

Measures are needed to curb greenwashing. Photo by Johny Goerend on Unsplash

When a company has a female corporate leader, they were also less likely to exaggerate how positive their environmental impact is, better known as greenwashing.

“ESG decoupling is a major issue in the current corporate landscape, with many firms misrepresenting their actual ESG performance in their disclosures,” said Dr. Ahmed Aboud from the University of Portsmouth’s School of Accounting, Economics and Finance and one of the study leads.

“Our study supports existing theories that women directors are crucial players in preventing this, as they are more likely to speak out against unethical behaviour, and support environmentally conscious decisions.”

The post How the E.U. — and Women CEOs — are Tackling Greenwashing appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
March 8, 2023

The Power Plate: Why Women Should Lead Food Industry Disruption – My Ask for IWD 2024

5 Mins Read
In her OpEd for International Women’s Day, Green Queen’s founding editor Sonalie Figueiras has an ask: If we’re going to disrupt food systems, let’s make sure women are in charge.

Women control most household food purchasing decisions but almost none of the industry’s production decisions. Meanwhile, men have had a (very!) long run and made a mess of things. If we’re going to disrupt the food system, we need to put women in charge.

The world we live in is built by men, for men. And that includes the food we eat. Ironically, women across the world manage the vast majority of household grocery spending and are responsible for meal planning and meeting the nutrition needs of children and their families. Yet we control almost none of the policy and production decisions around food.

This International Women’s Day (IWD), I’m asking: why aren’t more women in charge of how food is grown and sold?

Every IWD, we’re supposed to celebrate women. This is a tall order because, despite some advances over the past few decades, it’s very much still a man’s world out there.

It’s 2023 and women still make less money than men in pretty much every job and in almost every country. Our bodies are policed. We’re at risk of sexual violence on a daily basis (the WHO describes this as devastatingly pervasive). There are entire hate groups dedicated to taking away our freedoms. In the few countries where we control our reproductive rights, they are getting taken away.

Soon, things may take a turn for the worse as we enter what I like to call the ‘Age of Artificiality’, an age where artificial intelligence will make decisions on our behalf that will govern our lives.

Silicon Valley titans (most of whom are white and male) are currently hosting press conferences, appearing on panels, and getting interviewed all over the interwebs about how terribly exciting it all is. I’m less enthused.

A world where we leverage AI to tell us what to eat, what to manufacture, how to work, and how to think is a world where women will continue to suffer. How do I know that? Because most AI-trained robots out there are already biased against women. AI algorithms are objectifying women’s bodies, refusing to hire women, and generally putting our lives at risk.

It’’s hard for women to change any of this because women are woefully underrepresented at all levels of political decision-making worldwide and women make up less than 30% of parliament in the majority of the world. This also helps explain why universal daycare, free education, and guaranteed maternity leave are still not mainstream across the planet. Even the world’s richest country does not offer these basic rights to its female population.

In addition, wealthy countries are grappling with population decline. Across Europe, North America, China, Australia, the UK, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand, women are choosing to have fewer or no kids. This trend is playing out all over the planet. Hundreds of millions of women in Asia, Africa, and Latin America will attain middle-class lifestyles as these regions get more financially prosperous, and they will have fewer children.

Why? Because as women get more educated and get their own income, they are increasingly deciding not to take the (pretty shitty!) motherhood deal that society is offering (no time for self-care, the dreaded second shift, lower earnings aka the motherhood penalty, limited career advancement, higher rates of divorce (note: this is not necessarily a bad thing, but I’d argue this is not exactly every young woman’s dream). Once they have freedom of movement and control over their reproductive rights, women don’t want to be beholden to domesticity. Neither do men. That’s why women do more grocery shopping and food preparation than men in the US and all over the world. In fact, 80% of US women say they are the primary grocery shopper, and 71% say they shop and prepare meals.

Here’s more data that makes clear why public investment in human health and nutrition is so low. Women tend to be in charge of family and child nutrition– responsible for food choices, menu planning, and meal preparation. Men are not dealing with the reality of these topics on a daily basis and therefore don’t prioritize it at a policy level.

And yet, most of the food products we eat and the decisions made about our food and agricultural systems are controlled by men.

According to a 2021 study, more than two-thirds of food systems leaders (execs at CPG/Big Food companies like Coca-Cola and Danone) are men; further, women in food jobs get paid up to 30% less than their male counterparts. This is despite the fact that women control over $31.8 trillion in worldwide spending, making up 85% of all consumer spending in the US alone.

And may I just say, men have done a pretty crappy job on the whole of keeping people healthy and ensuring our food systems are as safe, nutritious, and sustainable as they can be.

Rich countries are in the midst of a major public health crisis particularly when it comes to what researchers call lifestyle-related diseases. We are facing soaring rates of obesity (36% of the population in the US, 17-20% in Europe, 8% in Asia), heart disease (the leading cause of death globally), and diabetes (now affecting 422 million people worldwide).

It doesn’t help that thanks to a major medical research gap that excludes women from clinical trials all too often, we are subject to drug and nutrition protocols designed for male bodies.

And then there’s the pesky climate problem. Amidst a worsening climate crisis with extreme weather events that are causing havoc with our global food supply chains, farmers everywhere (another male-dominated industry) are grappling with more frequent heat waves, drought, loss of arable land, deforestation-linked and loss of biodiversity-related complications and water scarcity. We’re overly dependent on methane-emitting and carbon-heavy foods like beef and dairy products, which are pushing our food systems to the brink and making us sick.

The food tech industry is working to find solutions to all these issues as we at Green Queen report every day. But who’s in charge of the change?

NOT ENOUGH WOMEN, that’s who!

This has to change.

The post The Power Plate: Why Women Should Lead Food Industry Disruption – My Ask for IWD 2024 appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
March 8, 2023

Forget Princess, I Want To Be A Scientist: Celebrating Food Tech Researcher Maya Benami This IWD

16 Mins Read
If you’re in the know in the food tech world, then you will surely have heard Maya Benami’s name. The Israeli food-tech scientist is the secret research whisperer to the global alternative protein industry, consulting on all matters of R&D and her clients include startups, big corporates, governments and investors from all four corners of the globe.

Maya is someone I deeply admire and respect and I have personally turned to her for advice and insights more times than I can count. While we often lionize founders and funders, we’d be nowhere without scientists, which is why I could not think of anyone better to celebrate and interview this International Women’s Day.

Below, I talk to Maya about how she became a scientist, the challenges faced by women in STEM, why Israeli women are so strong and confident and how she balances life, work and family.

Can you tell us a little about your background and where you are from?

As the product of an Israeli father and a German-American mother and moving around in the U.S., I had the privilege to experience growing up among different communities and types of people. However, my desire to explore my paternal roots and live in a desert to study water science prompted me to move to Israel 15 years ago. Since then, I have earned a master’s and a doctorate in microbiology and hydrology, volunteered, traveled or studied in more than 30 countries, worked in multiple environmental and human health industries, and started a family here in Israel.

Through the lens of biology and chemistry, I’ve found a framework to explore, test, and question the inner workings of our world.

How did you become a scientist?

My experience may resonate with many immigrants and those who have grown up among them. My own family of mixed heritage, many with Jewish roots, and continual exposure to the stories of others in diverse communities marked me during my upbringing in the United States. These experiences instilled in me a profound appreciation for education, travel, language acquisition, critical thinking, and a refusal to accept things at face value. These values align with the scientific mindset, where independent thought, exposure to new concepts, perseverance, and curiosity are vital to success.

Through the lens of biology and chemistry, I’ve found a framework to explore, test, and question the inner workings of our world. They are fields that demand rigorous investigation, a deep commitment to intellectual curiosity, humility, and the willingness to challenge conventional wisdom. For me, nurturing scientific discovery has become a way of life that continually challenges me to create structure and organization in my own world, and surprisingly also opened the doors for me to discover how others approach the world more objectively.

How did you end up getting into food tech?

Over fifteen years of academic and industry-based work in environmental and human health has taken me on an interesting journey via exploring and writing about cutting-edge technologies across diverse disciplines in several countries. From tackling issues in agriculture via proper wastewater treatment, effective pathogen eradication to extend food shelf life, or examining how plant compounds affect mammalian cell physiology, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with diverse teams to study and test the latest tools and techniques and publish our findings. I was using techniques and applications that are now more widely applied in novel food production, such as molecular biology, wastewater treatment membranes, microbial and mammalian cell cultivation, and fungal biotechnology.

While attending GFI’s inaugural conference here in Israel in 2017, I discovered the immense potential of these cross-over technologies for scaling sustainable food production. I realized that my unique, cross-disciplinary approach to R&D challenges could offer a significant advantage. Through my consulting and technical due diligence services, I leverage my diverse background to provide companies and investors with innovative solutions that can save costs while addressing societal challenges like climate change. As global investment in R&D continues to increase and become more expensive, proper planning and cross-disciplinary collaboration have never been more critical. I hope my approach to R&D challenges can help accelerate innovation, improve products and services, and pave the way for a more sustainable future.

I consider it very important to give back what I have been given and devote significant time pro bono each week to supporting young start-ups.

What exactly do you do for work?

Today, I use my degrees and international experiences as an R&D consultant, specializing in the global alternative protein industry. My clients, which range from large food and biopharmaceutical companies to forward-thinking agriculturalists, rely on my guidance to help them navigate the intricacies of this rapidly-evolving field. I also regularly perform technical due diligence and consult for investors seeking to capitalize on cutting-edge food and microbial technologies like fermentation, cellular agriculture, novel ingredients, and molecular farming. It’s a thrilling time to be at the forefront of this industry, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to help shape its future.

But I try not to limit my efforts to just the big players. I consider it very important to give back what I have been given and devote significant time pro bono each week to supporting young start-ups, students, and scientists who share my vision for creating a more sustainable food system. Through this type of networking and mentoring these past years, I’m also co-leading a small global team to create an alternative protein product taste and consumer review database called Taste Like, which should launch to the public in the coming months.

I have had the opportunity to work with many innovative (and surprisingly many female-led) Israeli companies.

What are some of the companies you have worked with in food tech?

I owe much of my success in the consulting industry to Bright Green Partners, a boutique alternative protein consulting firm, where I have been part of exceptional consulting teams for almost three years. Through Bright Green Partners, I have been the lead technical consultant to solve R&D problems for sizeable global food and biopharmaceutical companies. I am also very grateful to InnovoPro, one of Israel’s leading chickpea food companies, which gave me my first consulting and writing project. I have also had the opportunity to work with many innovative (and surprisingly many are female-led) Israeli companies such as GreenOnyx, which produces water lentils, Nuversys, which specializes in fragile ingredient encapsulation, Aleph Farms, which cultivates meat, and BioRaptor.AI, which offers an AI-powered insight platform for food and biopharma. On an international level, I have consulted for Novozymes, Aqvita, and a range of generalist and food-focused venture capital firms seeking due diligence on food and medical-related technology investments. Some of this due diligence led to successful investments or acquisitions of companies that produce cultivated meat, insect alternatives, contaminant detection technologies, and novel plant or fungal-based ingredient production.

Women are actively encouraged to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in Israel.

Israel seems very supportive of women in science. Is that fair to say?

Yes, in most parts of Israeli society, a well-developed scientific and technological sector provides exposure opportunities to young men and women alike. Women are actively encouraged to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in Israel, and many initiatives are in place to support them. One of the first things I remember upon landing in Israel to begin my master’s degree was that a female, Muslim Ph.D. student in my lab was encouraging me to apply to as many grants as possible: she had recently found out that she was able to net a larger salary per month than one of our male advisors. It also helps to see role models and be mentored by them. I was lucky to be mentored by a strong female in science, my original advisor Dr. Osnat Gillor, who also constantly encouraged me to apply for grants, go to conferences, and publish my work. Cultural norms are generally also more accepting here in Israel of a woman leaving the work day earlier than usual to pick up and care for children. Work days and deadlines are also generally more flexible.

Within the international Jewish community and inside Israel, many organizations and initiatives specifically focus on encouraging and supporting women in STEM, especially immigrant and minority females. These include programs that provide mentorship, additional financial support, networking opportunities, and access to professional development resources for women in STEM fields.

There is, of course, a long way to go. There is still a gender gap in STEM fields in Israel, as in many other countries. There are many sectors of Israeli society where women and men cannot access the benefits I wrote above. Women remain underrepresented in specific scientific areas and leadership positions, facing barriers such as bias, discrimination, and lack of access to funding and resources. However, there is a growing awareness of these issues in Israel, and some efforts are being made to address them.

By giving women equal opportunities to serve in the military, the IDF aims to challenge gender stereotypes and encourage greater gender diversity in most areas of Israeli society.

I don’t want to stereotype but on average, it seems most of the Israeli women I know are super tough and confident. Is there something specific about Israeli culture that makes it so? Is it because Israeli women, like Israeli men, undergo military duty?

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has taken steps to ensure that women are integrated into the military and given equal opportunities to serve in various roles. Women can serve and lead combat units, intelligence, and technological roles as well as provide administrative and support positions. In addition, the IDF provides equal pay and benefits to male and female soldiers. These policies aim to create a more equal society by promoting gender equality and breaking down traditional gender roles. By giving women equal opportunities to serve in the military, the IDF aims to challenge gender stereotypes and encourage greater gender diversity in most areas of Israeli society. The mandatory military service in Israel also cultivates a sense of close community and creates a natural networking base, which is critical for future work opportunities regardless of gender. It brings together people from diverse backgrounds, further promoting cross-disciplinary collaboration and fostering innovation. When a farmer can work alongside a physicist in the IDF, these types of relationships further promote cross-disciplinary collaboration and foster innovation, which can benefit all sectors of society.

However, beyond a form of an equalizing factor that the IDF brings to society, large parts of the Israeli population are not required or choose not to participate in serving. I believe it may be more about the hardships and navigating mixed cultural values, which may affect how Israeli women approach the world.

First, Israel is a country with an interesting mix of many strong cultures that emphasizes self-reliance and reliance upon your community connections. All Israelis are generally encouraged to become educated, question authority, and be self-aware and assertive. Israel is also a country that values risk-taking and finding solutions at all costs.

Second, Israel is still quite a new country with a past and current history of conflict and adversity, requiring its citizens of all ethnicities to be resilient and adaptable. Daily life in Israel is expensive and bureaucratic, with the need to be resilient and adaptable. Travel is a common pursuit that also fosters a sense of autonomy and worldliness from a young age. Israeli women are accustomed to living in discomfort, advocating for themselves and their families, and overcoming obstacles when plans change last minute (e.g., running to a bomb shelter).

Third, Israeli women have high education rates and are well-represented in many fields such as law, education, medicine, and the sciences. This representation empowers and inspires Israeli women, and this progress can be traced back to the 1960s with the region’s first female Prime Minister, Golda Meir. Historically, women also played a vital role in building the first settlements of the country, and in the early years of the kibbutz movement, they were encouraged to participate in traditionally male-dominated fields. The stories of women and men in our families surviving the Holocaust and many Israeli wars, establishing kibbutzim, and sharing their other experiences have left a lasting impression on the current generation.

Despite these advancements, Israel still faces significant challenges in promoting gender equality and protecting their most vulnerable people. Domestic violence, harassment, trauma, limited promotional opportunities, wage disparities, and access to mental health services remain pervasive. Additionally, women have historically been underrepresented in Israel’s highest ministerial offices and continue to have limited political opportunities, which sets Israel apart from most Western nations.

My female advisor pulled all of us females aside, and she urged us to interrupt the men and contribute more.

What challenges do women in science face?

I believe there is a very high rate of both women and men who experience imposter syndrome in the sciences, as I discovered when interviewing numerous scientists for a book I wrote during my PhD. Impostor syndrome is a fear of being exposed as a fraud due to self-doubt about one’s skills and accomplishments. We don’t talk about this enough for also the fear of being seen as “naïve.” However, women and men react to this phenomenon differently. For example, the imposter syndrome can harm women’s confidence and make it challenging to speak up during meetings or ask for further guidance, leading others to view us as less knowledgeable.

I recall one lab meeting where out of the lab of six women and two men, the two men completely dominated the meeting with questions and answers to their questions. It prompted my female advisor to pull all of us females aside, and she urged us to interrupt them and contribute more. Especially in Israel, where assertiveness in meetings is highly valued, a male advisor also commented to me once that my failure to interrupt him during private meetings to get to an answer more quickly showed him that I possessed less initiative compared to a male colleague who did.

The way women and men navigate the worlds of science and business, which are becoming increasingly important in academic and industry-based technical fields, differs significantly. Men tend to dominate executive roles like CEOs and CTOs, often taking the lead in risk-taking and finding cost-effective solutions to technical challenges. In contrast, women face greater obstacles in achieving these positions and being heard that their ideas matter.

For women in science, balancing work and personal life can be a real tightrope act, especially when they also have caretaker responsibilities. Preparing and conducting experiments can demand long hours and inflexible schedules, leaving little room for personal obligations. On top of that, the constant pressure to deliver usable results, amidst the many failed experiments, and publish papers that undergo endless changes or rejections from peer reviewers, can be daunting. To complicate matters further, obtaining funding and the opportunity to attend international conferences is a luxury for many female scientists. This can hinder career advancement as these events provide valuable opportunities to present work, form beneficial collaborations, and network with peers.

What does International Women’s Day represent to you?

International Women’s Day is a vital reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and women’s rights worldwide. It is an opportunity to celebrate women’s achievements and contributions to society while recognizing the challenges and barriers that still exist for over 50% of the global population.

In terms of International Women’s Day and food, women are the center of where we should be improving and celebrating. Women play a crucial role in food production and purchasing. Across many regions, women participate in all stages of the food production cycle, from planting and harvesting to processing and selling products for consumption or commercial purposes. In developed and non-developed regions, women are almost universally the primary decision-makers in buying and preparing food for our families. Domestically, women are the center of knowledge and decisions regarding the preferences influencing food choices, cooking methods, and nutrition practices for multiple generations of large families. Both in the first and third worlds, we need access to affordable, nutritious, and preferably tasty food to improve dismal maternal and childhood mortality and morbidity statistics, such as half of preschool children and two-thirds of non-pregnant women (globally) being micronutrient deficient. Statistics like these are also a significant reason I entered into the intersection of science and nutrition – to address childhood and female malnutrition effectively and hopefully promote more sustainable food production.

Ask or be insistent about receiving credit for your work early on, so a paper trail can be made of your accomplishments.

What advice do you have for the younger generation of women coming up in the world and in their careers?

Prioritize your mental and physical health. It takes courage to ask for a break or additional support when faced with challenges or problems. In most cases, others are more than willing to lend a hand or provide a fresh perspective, but they may not know what you need until you effectively communicate it. Don’t be afraid to seek assistance from a variety of sources inside your industry or outside of it (like family and friends), as it can lead to finding alternative solutions or new ways of approaching a situation while creating the opportunity for what others want – the feeling of being useful. Asking for help can create the opportunity for a new friendship or deepen an existing relationship.

Ask or be insistent about receiving credit for your work early on, so a paper trail can be made of your accomplishments. Whether asking for your name to be put on a paper after contributing even a little bit or asking for better compensation, speaking up becomes easier the more you practice.

Building a support network can be instrumental in overcoming obstacles and achieving success. You can maximize your potential and accomplish your goals by surrounding yourself with supportive, positive people and creating a database of resources and tools you can access in times of stress.

Individuals in scientific fields often lack training in business economics.

What are the biggest challenges facing women in ‘future of food’ technical roles?

Successful leaders of food technology companies must have a strong technical background to oversee product development, scaling, and safety processes effectively. Creating new food products often involves specialized technical knowledge and hands-on experience in several disciplines, including food science, ingredient chemistry, and microbiology. However, individuals in scientific fields often lack training in business economics. In recent years, there has been a growing need for professionals who understand complex scientific disciplines and food formulation processes while possessing astute business acumen.

Furthermore, advancements in the novel foods movement and emerging technologies and ingredients produced by them, like fermentation, cellular agriculture, and molecular farming, have introduced new challenges in food production. These techniques require different approaches to creating food products, necessitating a deeper understanding of cell biology, bioprocessing, and plant and food science to stay current and innovative. Atop of the natural complexity of novel food production, technical leaders must keep up to date on new food regulations in multiple markets, and rapidly changing consumer preferences, effectively juggle investor, partnership, and client relationships, and keep expenses down through optimized supply chain management. Some are also tasked to be the face of the company in terms of public relations and marketing.

Science is a collaborative industry where success should be measured by contributing to a better understanding of human, animal, or environmental problems.

What do you wish could change about women in science?

Acquiring a research-based graduate degree or technical position in the sciences is principally thought of as an achievement based on intellectual rigor: this is only partially true. Many agree that maintaining discipline and stamina can prove to be more significant challenges than natural intellect. Perseverance is critical when facing obstacles such as failing experiments, difficult advisor relationships, lack of funding, and rejected publications. Even when transitioning to a highly technical job, the need for grit, supportive mentorship, and continual financial or knowledge-based resources remain essential.

Developing a network of supportive relationships within and outside of science can go a long way in overcoming these challenges. Rather than relying on your natural abilities in math and memorization, having a passion for a subject, perseverance, and a supportive network to find solutions can outweigh many deficits in these areas. Personally, I was fortunate to have access to and find the time to attend weekly math and science tutoring throughout my undergraduate and graduate degrees.

I would hope that we eventually shift the perception that success in science is defined solely by reaching high-ranking positions like CTO, patent creator, professor, or publishing in prestigious journals. The truth is that science is a collaborative industry where success should be measured by contributing to a better understanding of human, animal, or environmental problems. Any person, whether a citizen scientist or a student, who contributes to this cause and communicates it effectively is a successful scientist, in my opinion.

Producing usable research findings is a collaborative effort requiring a team of individuals working together for many months or years. From lab managers and technicians to interns, department secretaries, scientific writers, donors, and more experienced colleagues, every team member plays a crucial role in the success of an experiment and the publication of its findings. Effective mentorship and financial resources are also essential for success in the scientific industry. As someone who now works in the industry, I have continued to benefit from mentoring others and being mentored by those with more experience.

I’m honest and ask for help a lot..no one can do it all without that “village.”

How do you balance work, family, and everything else?

Juggling multiple responsibilities can be challenging for anyone, but I find that as a woman, the expectations placed on us in regard to food preparation, cleaning, work, self-care, and raising a family are increasingly challenging to balance. Managing everything at once is impossible, so I’m honest and ask for help a lot. I’ve learned to approach modern-day life with a willingness to outsource and compromise on expectations. Although I’m lucky and privileged to work from home primarily, this type of work creates collisions of family time, work, and domestic responsibilities.

For instance, my daughter is currently sitting next to me, working on a puzzle while I tackle emails and respond to this article. A few minutes ago, a homemade food delivery guy (I am not a fan of cooking, but my neighbor is) dropped off half a week’s worth of meals, and in the background, I’m listening to the hum of the washing machine. I’ll run some errands on the way to dropping off my daughter at her babysitter’s before heading to an on-site meeting. Later in the evening, I’ll join a virtual meeting with international clients while my husband puts our daughter to bed. There are rarely any days off and I combine my “relaxation time” of watching a Netflix episode with washing dishes, for example. It’s a lot to manage; no one can do it all without that “village.” In my attempt to be humble and honest with myself and others, create a support network (and prioritize assisting back those who help me), and stay as organized as possible, I can generally navigate the demands of modern-day life.

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September 20, 2022

Want to create a better world? Empower more women investors.

7 Mins Read
By: Helena Wasserman Eriksson & Sonalie Figueiras

Empowering more women to become investors will unlock billions into ESG investing and help fight the climate crisis.

You may have seen the recent headlines about Adam Neumann, formerly of WeWork, raising a whopping $350M from leading Silicon Valley venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz for his new startup Flow after having been famously ousted from his co-working startup for his reckless leadership and for losing billions of dollars of investor money. Apparently, if you are rich, white and male, failing upwards is welcomed and even funded. And this while women and minority founders continue to receive less than 3% of total venture capital investment globally. If white, middle-aged men continue to be the majority of all investors and startup owners, products and services will continue to be designed for them. A good example of this are car seat belts. The automotive industry is a male-led industry. Car seat belts were not designed for women’s bodies or for pregnant women. And wouldn’t you know it, studies show that women are more likely to die or get injured in a car crash. Representation is key so we can build products and services that serve not just a small section of society but also women, children, LGBTQI and people of color.

SoGal Ventures 2020 Pitch Competition / Courtesy Pocket Sun

Women-led VC firm Sogal Ventures, co-founded by Pocket Sun in 2015 , has been investing in diverse founders with ESG criteria right from the start- way before it was popular. As Sun shared with us, “as VCs, we need to exercise our great decision making power of where capital goes with great conscience. To me, this means supporting diverse companies, and fostering more diverse angels and VCs who are more inclined to support world-positive companies benefiting the environmental, social and corporate systems. We’re doing society a disservice and perpetuating the barriers if we do otherwise.”

As of 2022, most famous investors are men. How many of you can name even one of the twelve women on Forbes’ Midas 2022 List ? Most of us will draw a blank.This list ranks female investors by their portfolio companies that have gone public or been acquired for at least $200 million over the past five years, or that have at least doubled their private valuation since initial investment to $400 million or more over the same period. But the truth is, when we think of top global investors, most of us are picturing men. Folks like Warren Buffet. Or Bill Gates. Or Ray Dalio. So you can imagine how surprising it was to uncover that actually, women-led investor portfolios perform better than men.

Female investor & CEO of ZhenFund Anna Fang, who was named to Forbes’ 2021 Midas List 2022

Women outperform men as investors

There are countless more studies underlining this conclusion – see here for proof that women outperform as retail investors and here for data about how. VC firms with 10% more female investing partners make more successful investments at the portfolio company level, have 1.5% higher fund returns, and see 9.7% more profitable exits. Perhaps you’re wondering what makes women so different as investors. According to all the research, women tend to remain calm during market swings, have a tendency to save more, think long term and maintain a balanced portfolio amongst other reasons. None of this will come as a surprise to most women reading this. We are the mothers, the sisters, the family budget managers, the community helpers, the school PTA leaders. Thinking about the future and on behalf of others is in our DNA.

Women are instinctively back ESG-themed stocks and companies

A 2021 UBS study revealed that female investors are more inclined to invest in ways that align with ESG (Environmental and Social Governance) values. In other words, the very same investments that are currently making headlines in all major news outlets due to the climate crisis we are all finally waking up to. So not only does research show that women invest better than men, the data illustrates that women instinctively favor ESG themes when they back companies and stocks.

Marisa Drew, Chief Sustainability Officer at Standard Chartered Bank; she previously the same position at Credit Suisse / Courtesy FX News Group

Women own the corporate sustainability space

As ESG has become the investment trend du jour, corporates have been scrambling to hire talent to create and manage their internal strategy. More and more firms are appointing Chief Sustainability Officers or Heads of ESG, from luxury giant Kering to Big 4 accounting firm EY, as well as German industrial giant Siemens and Swiss bank Credit Suisse. These new leaders are charged with driving climate and equality actions in their organizations. A little bit of Linkedin digging reveals that in over 80% of cases, these leaders are female. This is yet again unsurprising. The same UBS study showed that women are naturally mindful of the social and environmental impact of their investments. In fact, women show a greater tendency to be prosocial, altruistic and empathetic; to display a stronger ethic of care; and to assume a future-focused perspective. In other words, women are more inclined to look for investments that are in line with their values instead of prioritizing opportunistic investments.

Impact investors of the future: Greatest of All Time tennis champion and Serena Ventures founder Serena Williams / Courtesy Pexels

Twenty years from now, the best investors will be female and they will back impact

According to 2020 data published by BCG, women make up half of the world’s population but own only a third of all global wealth, despite data suggesting women are investing now more than ever before.

If women are better investors and are naturally good at ESG investing, why aren’t there more women investors? Several reasons: The founders of Girls That Invest, a podcast run by two Australian female investors, collected data from over 200,000 female investors asking them what was holding them back from starting to invest. The studies showed that one of the main reasons is a belief they held that women were bad or frivolous investors instead that they could learn. Given the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, this is a tragedy.

In Singapore, one of the most progressive cities in Asia when it comes to environmental innovation and entrepreneurship, only 2% of VC funding goes into climate tech in Asia. Imagine the progress we could make on the climate emergency if more women became investors? Can you imagine how many trillions of funding would get unlocked if we simply empowered more women to invest whether as retail, angel or venture capital investors?

Becoming a good investor comes with practice. Crucially, it also comes with confidence. And women everywhere need more of it.

Angelina Kwan, CEO of Stratford Finance Ltd and investor, believes training and practice inspires confidence. “Just like professional athletes, women need to learn, train and practice at responsible investing and having the confidence that they are just as good if not better than the Warren Buffets or Ray Dalios of the world! They own it and now they have to SHOW it through their results! Only then can we move the needle to improve the results and have more women on the bench!”

In twenty years from now, the Warren Buffets and Ray Dalios of tomorrow will be female and they won’t be backing coal- they will be funding green hydrogen, medical psychedelics for mental health, progressive education, a safer food system and so much more. Let’s work to help them get there.

Helena Wasserman Eriksson is an impact investor and head of business development at Top Tier Impact – the global ecosystem for impact and sustainability leaders. Follow her on Instagram or contact her on Linkedin.

Sonalie Figueiras is an impact investor, journalist and serial entrepreneur who has dedicated her life to fighting the climate emergency. She is the founder of leading sustainability media Green Queen, climate tech startup Source Green and organic trade platform Ekowarehouse.

Lead image courtesy of Canva.

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May 18, 2022

Prakriti Varshney Becomes India’s First Vegan Woman To Conquer Everest

3 Mins Read
On May 12, 2022, Prakriti Varshney made history. Aged 26, she became the first vegan Indian woman to scale Mount Everest. Setting out from the Everest Base Camp on May 7, the expedition team took just five days to reach the peak, following rotations through lower camps.

The final climb totals 69 kilometres, encompassing ice, snow, and a high risk of avalanches. Low atmospheric pressure makes it hard for climbers to breathe and exposure to high temperatures is a real concern when climbing during the day. Despite the difficulties, Varshney overcame all obstacles and reached the summit, with an Indian flag and vegan mittens in hand. The latter should not be considered a throwaway concern, as performance clothing frequently features animal-derived materials, such as merino or alpaca wool.

Photo by Prakriti Varshney.

Choosing veganism for environmental benefits

Varshney has been vegan for more than five years. She originally embraced the lifestyle after learning about the devastating impact of the dairy industry on the environment. She brought her planetary concerns with her during her Everest expedition, by being cognisant of what she left behind on the mountain. She appears to be the exception, however, not the rule.

In 2019, 11 tonnes of garbage had to be removed from Everest. The clean-up took weeks, with food wrappers, drinks bottles, cans, empty toxic cylinders and more having to be removed. In addition, the bodies of four people who had died attempting to reach the top were recovered.

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A post shared by Prakriti Vegan (@itisinthename)

Varshney feels at home in the mountains

As a self-proclaimed introvert and lover of solo travel, Varshney takes her sense of self and stewardship wherever she visits, but it’s in the mountains where she appears to feel most at home. The qualified fashion designer has previously stated that travelling to mountains is her passion, which she looks to fulfil regularly. She has also noted that she would like to live in them one day, marking a change of pace from growing up in Delhi.

Back in November, Varshney became the second Indian woman to ever climb Mount Ama Dablam, in Nepal. Considered one of the most technically challenging mountains in the world, it gave her motivation to move onto Everest. The main stumbling block was funding, however.

At the time of launching a crowdfunding campaign to support her Everest expedition, Varshney was still repaying loans that helped her scale Ama Dablam. Mountaineering is a prohibitively expensive hobby and Varshney did not come from vast wealth. Her middle-class upbringing gave her access to opportunities but not the funding for her passion.

Before leaving for Everest, just over $15k had been raised to support her trip. In her campaign information, she included a section about how her veganism is a driving force in her life. She also included that completing physically demanding challenges will help break through the myth that vegans are not strong and capable.

With Everest under her belt, Varshney is now looking at new destinations. She has revealed her desire to climb all of the 8000ers (all 14 mountains globally that stand at more than 8,000 metres tall).

Kuntal Joisher on Everest. Photo by The Vegan Society.

Joining an elite club

Varshney may not be the first vegan to climb Everest, but she is in good company. Kuntal Joisher, a climber and mountaineer from Mumbai, scaled the mountain in 2016 to stand on the summit holding a vegan flag. Thanks to his high-profile adventuring, Joisher joined India’s Veganuary ambassador programme at the start of this year. He, along with Sadaa Sayad, Soundarya Sharma and Arvind Krisna head campaigns alerting citizens of the Veganuary initiative and try to encourage their fans to give plant-based living a try.

Lead photo by Prakriti Varshney.

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May 10, 2022

Slutty Vegan Gets $25 Million in Funding Led By Shake Shack Founder To Open 20 New Burger Restaurants

4 Mins Read Atlanta’s Slutty Vegan burger chain has closed a $25 million Series A funding round, led by New Voices Fund and restauranteur Danny Meyer’s Enlightened Hospitality Investments. The funding will be used to open 10 new restaurants in 2022 with a further 10 expected to follow next year. Hiring chief operations and chief marketing officers are […]

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April 30, 2022

The Vegan Women’s Summit Brought 800 Women Together for One Day. This Is What It Was Like Being One of Them.

6 Mins Read On a sunny and very hot Friday this past April, I attended the Vegan Women Summit (VWS) in downtown Los Angeles. The all-day event took place at the City Market Social House and brought together 800 vegan female vegan powerhouses, from entrepreneurs and visionary icons to activists and celebs, and I was stoked to be […]

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April 22, 2022

6 Female Scientists Making the World More Sustainable

7 Mins Read
Scientific research might be considered a male-dominated arena, but it’s time to recognise that there are plenty of female pioneers to celebrate.

Strong women who identified a niche or subject that was ripe for further exploration have led the charge for progress for centuries.

The following scientific powerhouses have made leaps in their respective fields and brought global attention to some of the most important environmental issues facing humanity.

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A post shared by Dr. Jane Goodall (@janegoodallinst)

1. Dr. Jane Goodall

Scientific niche: Primatology and anthropology. Goodall is globally regarded as the foremost expert on chimpanzees.

Seminal work: Research conducted at the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania that disproved theories that only humans can work with tools and that chimpanzees are vegetarian. The research project would lead to her gaining a Cambridge University PhD, without first completing a bachelor’s qualification.

In 1977, Goodall initiated the Jane Goodall Institute, a global organisation designed to support chimpanzee protection. It has become highly regarded for its conservation work in Africa. A number of rehabilitation, research and education centres have since followed.

The woman behind the white coat: Goodall grew up as an animal lover, following the gift of a stuffed chimpanzee, called Jubilee, from her father. She credits the figure as awakening her fascination with primates and, eventually, her move to Africa. An activist, vegetarian, Dame, and supporter of cultivated meat as a solution to animal agriculture, she remains an influential figure now in her late 80s. Some of us would still like to be Jane Goodall when we grow up.

Dr Sylvia Earle. Photo by Mission Blue.

2. Dr. Sylvia Earle

Scientific niche: Marine biology. Earle has been a National Geographic explorer-in-residence since 1998.

Seminal work: In 1970, Earle led an all-female team of aquanauts in a research project that saw them submerged in an installation, below the sea, for weeks. She had been rejected for the Tektite Project one year earlier but was asked to lead the subsequent Tektite II. the research studied underwater effects on humans, with a focus on diving impact. In 1979, Earle set a world record for the deepest untethered diving suit dive, reaching 381 metres. This remains unbeaten today.

Part of the founding team of Deep Ocean Engineering, Earle left in 1990 to take up position as chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She was the first woman to be given the role and advised on oil spill impact. When she left, she founded Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, to return to her roots in marine engineering. Her daughter has since taken the reins.

Earle is now a National Geographic explorer-in-residence and a regularly called-upon expert in the field of marine sustainability. In 2009 she was awarded the $1,000,000 TED prize, which she used to pursue ocean advocacy.

The woman behind the white coat: Vegetarian Earle is sometimes referred to as “Her Deepness” or “The Sturgeon General” by her peers. She has remained on numerous committees and boards designed to protect ocean habitats and was a featured expert in Netflix’s documentary Seaspiracy.

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3. Dr. Katherine Hayhoe

Scientific niche: Atmospheric science.

Seminal work: Authoring more than 120 peer-reviewed research papers, alongside co-authoring a number of reports that have brought climate change into modern discourse. Her work for the National Climate Assessment report in 2014 led to her declaring that “Climate change is here and now, and not in some distant time or place. The choices we’re making today will have a significant impact on our future.”

Contributing to the IPCC report, Hayhoe was named as one of the UN’s Champions of the Earth in 2019. Her work has identified her as a leading expert and communicator on climate action. This in turn has resulted in her being an outspoken critic of climate deniers. The New York Times published a quote from her that made her feelings clear: “The six stages of climate denial are: It’s not real. It’s not us. It’s not that bad. It’s too expensive to fix. Aha, here’s a great solution (that actually does nothing). And – oh no! Now it’s too late. You really should have warned us earlier.”

Today, Hayhoe is a professor of political science at Texas Tech University, alongside being director of the Climate Service Center. She has remained in position as CEO of ATMOS Research and Consulting and last year joined Nature Conservancy as its chief scientist.

The woman behind the white coat: Hayhoe has juggled evangelical Christian beliefs with a career in science, citing her father as inspiration for the two being able to co-exist. She was invited to the White House when Barack Obama was President and spoke alongside Leonardo DiCaprio on the subject of climate action.

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A post shared by Dr. Kimberley Miner (@dr.kimberleyrain)

4. Dr. Kimberley Miner

Scientific niche: Climate science.

Seminal work: Miner joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) following a stint at the U.S. Department of Defense. She had collaborated with JPL as part of her former role and made the permanent move to focus her efforts on earth science endeavours. Her current research project is based in the Arctic. The team recently published an article that highlighted the increasing risk of thawing permafrost, as a result of climate change.

Regarded globally as an important voice within the scientific community, Miner’s research has spanned new heights. Literally. Having reached the summit of Everest, a feat that gained her and her team a Guinness World Record, she revealed a compelling fact: pollutants and chemicals were present. Harmful PFAs were identified at such alarming levels that Miner conducted the tests three times, to be sure.

Miner has been explicit in her support of rewilding as a potential climate solution. Her work to generate more nature preserves and reintroduce native plants across a variety of ecosystems is ongoing, alongside her Arctic research. She is a professor at the University of Maine as well.

The woman behind the white coat: When she isn’t climbing Everest or hunkering down at the Arctic, Miner is a fierce champion for women and girls in STEM. having received supportive mentorship early in her education and career, she is keen to pay it forward by breaking down gender stereotypes in the scientific community.

Dr Paola Arias. Photo taken from Twitter.

5. Dr. Paola Arias

Scientific niche: Earth and atmospheric sciences plus geological sciences.

Seminal work: Arias looks at climate change and hydroclimate modelling in South America. She has two master’s degrees plus a doctorate. The latter came from her research into climate variability in monsoon and Amazonian regions. Her observations and understanding of water systems led to her being invited to co-author a chapter of the latest IPCC report.

Arias is a professor at the University of Antioquia, where she heads the Environmental School. Outside from her educational demands, she is a regular guest speaker and expert voice regarding climate and hydrological change and their links to South America. The 2019 TEDxBogotaMujeres event hosted her as a scientific expert.

The woman behind the white coat: Arias is the first Colombian woman to ever be invited to contribute to an IPCC report. She represents not only females in science, but also LATAM expertise.

Sunita Narain. Photo by Down to Earth.

6. Sunita Narain

Scientific niche: Environmentalism.

Seminal work: Narain started working at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in 1982. Having completed her studies at the University of Delhi, learning remotely while still in position, she co-edited the State of India’s Environmental Report in 1985. This led to in-depth studies into forest management systems and natural resource allocation. This would prove to be the foundation for specialising in identifying links between environment and development, within sustainable frameworks.

In 2012, Narain wrote the 7th State of India’s Environment Reports, Excreta Matters, which looked at India’s water supply and pollution levels in urban areas. Still working for the CSE, she has masterminded numerous research projects surrounding domestic and global environmental concerns. A prominent paper revealed high pesticide levels found in American soft drinks, including Pepsi and Coke.

A leading expert on water harvesting, Narain is featured in Before the Flood, a climate documentary also featuring Leonardo DiCaprio. In it, she talked about how the Moonsoon in India has been directly impacted by climate change and the resulting difficulties faced by domestic farmers and food security concerns.

2016 saw Narain declared as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

The woman behind the white coat: A staunch environmentalist, Narain is a keen cyclist. She was hit by a car in 2013 by a driver that failed to stop, resulting in numerous body and face injuries. She remains a cyclist today.

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April 13, 2022

Are Condoms Eco-Friendly? & Other (Green) Safe Sex Questions

5 Mins Read Condoms help protect against pregnancy and many sexually transmitted infections (STIs), are relatively inexpensive and widely available for purchase. However, when it comes to being as conscious about our environmental impact in every aspect of our daily lives, it is important to address whether the use of condoms, which is by nature a single-use product, […]

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March 27, 2022

Vyld Closes Undisclosed Seed Round To Make Sustainable Menstruation Products Mainstream

4 Mins Read Berlin-based Vyld has secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding. Participants in the round included The Case for Her, Purpose Ventures and multiple business angels. Investment will be used to take the startup’s stigma-busting seaweed-based tampons from small scale to mass production. Vyld was founded on the basis of revolutionising the menstruation product market and […]

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March 8, 2022

Why We Can’t Fix The Climate Crisis Without Women

5 Mins Read I often get asked what the connection between women and sustainability is and this continually surprises me. It seems fairly obvious, no? Without lifting women up, what chance do we have of creating a fairer, kinder, greener world? In honor of International Women’s Day, I want to write about why the climate crisis is not […]

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March 7, 2022

#IWD2022: 10 Women Changing The Future Of Impact In Asia

7 Mins Read International Women’s Day is internationally recognised on the March 8th every year, and represents a focal point for women’s rights and is a celebration of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. At times, it appears as though global environmental and social crises are too overwhelmingly large to tackle. But there are some […]

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February 13, 2022

10 Pro Vegan Female Olympic Athletes Redefining the Game

5 Mins Read
There’s a world of plant-based female-identifying Olympic competitors to be inspired by, across a broad spectrum of disciplines.

The rise of the professional vegan athlete is impossible to ignore, but step away from high-profile celebrity sportspeople such as Lewis Hamilton and the William’s sisters for a minute. From running to surfing and everything in between, these medal-chasing titans of sport are inspiring next-generation Olympians, all without any animal products in sight.

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1. Morgan Mitchell

From: Australia

Sport: Running

Specialising in the 400m initially, Mitchell switched to 800m and found her times improved significantly. She has a female coach and first entered the Olympics two years after switching to a vegan diet at age 19. Her switch to plant-based living wasn’t planned, but the results spoke for themselves with Mitchell citing faster recovery and easier weight management. She appeared in the 2018 documentary The Game Changers.

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2. Diana Taurasi

From: U.S.

Sport: Basketball

Four-time Olympic gold medalist Taurasi is the WNBA Greatest Of All Time (GOAT). With an unbeaten scoring record, agility on the court and countless competition wins, she is an impressive athlete. Reductively, she has been referred to as the “female Michael Jordan” in the past. The secret to her success, according to Taurasi, is her vegan diet. She claims it has made her more accountable for what she puts in her body, which as a younger athlete she took for granted. Improved health and a longer-than-average professional sports career has followed.

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3. Amelia Brodka

From: Poland

Sport: Skateboarding

Skateboarding entered the Olympics during the Tokyo 2020 games. Brodka was there, representing her home nation of Poland, though she now lives in California. A professional rider since 2007, she has long stood for female athlete advocacy and, surprising to some, has been vegan since 2010. Brodka embraced plant-based living in a bid to maximise how many years she could skateboard professionally, but also to give her better flexibility. She has talked about maintaining her diet easily with store-bought protein sources, highlighting that specialist nutrition is not essential, even when training.

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4. Alex Morgan

From: U.S.

Sport: Soccer

Morgan adopted a vegan diet in 2017. Since then, she has won a World Cup (as co-captain), gone to the Olympics and been awarded the significantly less prestigious title of ‘Most Beautiful Vegan’ by PETA. Aesthetics aside, she is recognised as an American sporting icon and has inspired a new generation of young women to play soccer. Her vegan journey started after deciding that loving some animals (Morgan is a committed dog rescuer) and eating others was paradoxical at best.

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5. Vivian Kong (Man Wai)

From: Hong Kong SAR

Sport: Fencing

Two-time Olympian Kong is a left-handed épée fencer with an Asian Fencing Championship title under her belt. She represented the first woman from Hong Kong to do so. Embracing a vegan diet came after a career-threatening knee injury in 2017. Wanting to recover as quickly as possible, she began researching plant-based nutrition and quickly eliminated all animal products from her diet. The competitor has faced prejudice at home, with her family citing a lack of meat in her diet as the reason she won a bronze, not gold medal at a competition in Cuba. Regardless, the vegan athlete continued on her journey and took the top place, at the same competition, just one year later.

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6. Hannah Teter

From: U.S.

Sport: Snowboarding

Teter has won the full spectrum of medal colours during her Olympic career. She reduced her meat and dairy intake six years ago as part of a weight loss plan, before converting to full veganism. Her love of animals and intrinsic connection to the environment, as a winter athlete, made the switch natural. Teter has since said that turning vegan has contributed to her professional success. She is one of a number of female U.S. winter sports professionals that have embraced veganism for performance.

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A post shared by Victoria Stambaugh (@victoriastambaugh)

7. Victoria Stambaugh

From: Puerto Rico

Sport: Taekwondo

Stambaugh recalls watching Jackie Chan films as a child and wanting to be just like him. Though not vegan, he has been reported to eat a less meat-heavy diet than many people. Stambaugh took things a step further and became a taekwondo Olympian powered by no meat or dairy products at all. Since turning vegan, she has revealed that her lung function has increased, as have her energy levels for competitions. Faster recovery times and much less inflammation are extra benefits that she enjoys.

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8. Dotsie Bausch

From: U.S.

Sport: Cycling

Bausch is more than just a vegan athlete, she’s an activist and all-around ambassador for plant-based power. As an Olympic cyclist, she podiumed in 2012, claiming the title of oldest rider in her discipline, ever. She credits her vegan diet with helping to extend her athletic career beyond expected timeframes. Now retired from competitive sport, she channels her veganism into new professional endeavours, including being the executive director of Switch4Good. The nonprofit recently hit the headlines by spoofing Starbucks and claiming the chain was dropping its plant milk surcharge. Bausch was featured in The Game Changers.

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9. Rachael Adams

From: U.S.

Sport: Volleyball

Olympic and World Championship medalist Adams entered volleyball accidentally, when her high school best friend joined volleyball camp. Tagging along, she found a love for the sport, but her journey to veganism was less kismet-like. Adams has previously talked about the way pro athletes are conditioned to believe that they need meat to achieve personal bests. Since fully committing, she has found that her recovery times are greatly reduced and joint inflammation is less impactful.

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10. Tia Blanco

From: Puerto Rico / U.S

Sport: Surfing

Blanco was raised in California, next to the water and has won the International Surfing Association Open Women’s World Surfing Championship twice, in 2015 and 2016. Heralded as one of the top 50 women surfers in the world, she was raised in a vegetarian family before turning vegan in 2013. She credits a PETA documentary with helping her to make the switch and personally advocates for the lifestyle via her social media channels. She has made it known that she hopes to compete in the Olympics one day, now that surfing has been added to the roster of events. If she does qualify, she will represent her birthplace, Puerto Rico, as a vegan athlete.

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February 10, 2022

5 Black Female Entrepreneurs Changing the Vegan Food Industry

4 Mins Read
Great food speaks for itself, and it tastes even better when it’s supporting Black women’s businesses.

Each entrepreneur featured here was founded on a desire to bring healthy, nourishing food to every community and was born out of a personal vegan journey.

The following five women have put more than just plant-based ingredients into their food, it’s about changing the food system, and bringing more Black women business owners to the forefront of our changing food system.

Pinky Cole.

1. Pinky Cole – Slutty Vegan

Something of a celebrity in the vegan fast-food world, Pinky Cole is the founder of Slutty Vegan. What started as a kitchen enterprise became a busy food truck and in 2018, Slutty Vegan landed on the Atlanta restaurant scene. From social media burger seller to restauranteur, Cole has never lost sight of her ultimate aim: to bring healthy vegan food to a community that has historically never gravitated towards it. Now, everybody wants it, thanks to the decadent creations and nostalgia-fuelled recipes.

Don’t miss: The One Night Stand burger, loaded with burger patties, bacon and cheese. The sweet potato pie is a must for dessert, if you have room. Even if you don’t grab a slice for later.

Samantha Edwards (right).

2. Samantha Edwards – New Breed Meats

A self-styled ‘health evangelist’, Samantha Edwards founded New Breed Meats, offering plant-based alternatives to conventional meat. What makes Edwards so interesting is her intensely emotive journey, which she freely shares with people. Crediting plant-forward living with healing her mother of breast cancer, she considers animal-free diets “heaven sent” and has sought to make them as accessible as possible to all communities. Taking the time to get certified in plant nutrition, she has gone on to formulate not a meat substitute but a “new life”, as she calls it. Products can be sourced in the U.S.online, direct from New Breed.

Don’t miss: The Sizzling Sausage Patties. You’ll never crave a drive-thru breakfast sandwich again.

Carolyn Simon.

3. Carolyn Simon – Choose Life Foods

Affectionately known as the ‘Patty Queen’, Carolyn Simon has had a love affair with Jamaican patties since her childhood. When she moved to a plant-based diet, she found herself disappointed at the lack of authentic patties that gave her a nostalgic hit with every bite. Making them for herself, her friends and family soon suggested that she started selling them and Choose Life Foods was founded. Today, her Jamaican patties with no meat can be found in the freezer section of grocery stores across Canada and online.

Don’t miss: The beef patties are a no-brainer but don’t snooze on the Coconut Kale Delight.

Cara Pitts (left).

4. Cara Pitts – Southern Roots Vegan Bakery

It’s not a cliche to say that southern food has a little extra love in it. For Cara Pitts, it’s especially true, as she began developing vegan treats for her 98-year-old grandmother, who she was caring for. The decision came after Pitt’s husband, Marcus, embraced plant-based eating as a result of working in healthcare. Developing animal product-free doughnuts that she regularly took to the church led to Southern Roots Vegan Bakery. Today, cookies, doughnuts, and cakes, all vegan, are available for shipping across the U.S. Products can be frozen for up to three months, making them a different breed of bakery goodness.

Don’t miss: The Mary Lee’s Favorites Bundle. Named after Pitt’s grandmother, there’s a little extra heart and soul in every bite.

Janay Jones (centre).

5. Janay Jones – Rooted Delights

Turning vegan wasn’t a struggle for Janay Jones, apart from one issue: she missed cheese. Fed up of disappointing flavours and mouthfeels, as well as allergen ingredients, she decided to tackle the problem head-on and founded Rooted Delights. Today, Jones creates small-batch vegan cheese wheels with oat milk bases. Products can be sourced at selected grocery stores in Richmond, Virginia, and foodservice partners use it as well. Online sales are currently paused.

Don’t miss: The Mozzah. It’s a melty, stretchy delight that amps up fresh pizzas and pasta dishes.

Check out more female founders, changing the alt-protein landscape with their companies.
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The post 5 Black Female Entrepreneurs Changing the Vegan Food Industry appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
February 1, 2022

‘It’s Not About Overnight Results’: A New DEI Program Means Designed For Food Tech Leaders Wants Startups To Build Better, More Diverse Teams

4 Mins Read Vegan Women Summit (VWS) has announced a new leadership initiative, to be run alongside Black History Month. The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Program is designed for key figures and leaders within the plant-based and food tech industries. The course will run through May 2022 with the intention of empowering businesses to create growth through […]

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This post was originally published on Green Queen.
January 13, 2022

Vegan Women Summit Reveals Increase In Bias Faced By Female-Identifying Company Founders

4 Mins Read The 2021 Women Founder Report, compiled by the Vegan Women’s Summit (VWS), highlights concerning trends facing female-identifying leaders. Despite the plant-based business world experiencing vast growth, attitudes towards non-male figures within it are not proving as progressive. In 2020, just three percent of $3 billion investment raised in the industry went to women-led companies. Harassment, […]

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December 22, 2021

Climate Change Is A Feminist Issue Not Just an Environmental One

6 Mins Read By: Sara London In 2015, Botswana experienced its worst drought in history. Since then, families have had to move, taking their children out of schools; farmers have lost crops, leaving communities hungry and desperate. Natural disasters like this have a particularly devastating effect on young women in Botswana, according to a study from the University […]

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November 22, 2021

The Climate Crisis Is Forcing Women and Girls to Sell Their Bodies

7 Mins Read By Anya Zoledziowski A family fell on such hard times after a cyclone that when a man offered their daughter, 17, a job, they agreed. They later learned she was forced into the sex trade. In May 2020, when the catastrophic Cyclone Amphan tore through her village in West Bengal, a state in eastern India, Seema […]

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October 18, 2021

Vegan Pitch Competition VWS Records 25% Increase in Women of Colour Founders

4 Mins Read VWS Pathfinder, the world’s first pitch competition for female vegan founders, has recorded a 25% rise in women of colour founders this year.

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