One week in a post #39: Pleasure, Fungi, Veg Eggs, Sweet Proteins.
One week in a post #39: Pleasure, Fungi, Veg Eggs, Sweet Proteins.
Food and climate highlights, with no overwhelm.
[Three pieces of news]
🔥 It’s all about pleasure (check out my new article!)
Climate anxiety isn’t necessarily translating into diet change, mainly because what we eat defines who we are, and most humans don’t like to put their identity on the grill. Familiarity offered a sense of agency (i.e. with a vegan burger that bleeds). To convert flexitarians, we need juiciness, fattiness, pleasure.
🥩 First LCA on Cultivated Beef
Less greenhouse gas emissions by 88.5% when compared to conventional beef burgers. 37% less energy, 90% less land, 97% less water. To be noted that some parts are very similar to conventional beef, such as cold storage, packaging, and distribution.
🍄 Fungi and Climate Change
Vast fungal networks below ground showed to play a crucial role in helping forests absorb carbon and limit climate change. And, 2022 was all about bringing fungi to the market (i.e. in sparkling teas, fancy chocolate bars, mocktails, coffee replacements)
[Three $ raises]
🦄 Plant-Based Unicorn / NotCo, Raises Another $70 Million in Series D.
🌯 Plant-Based Lamb / Black Sheep Foods grabs $12.3M to scale its lamb-flavored product.
🐮 Plant-Based Milk / Malk Organics Closes a $9 Million Series B.
[Three products]
🍳 Pepita Egg: egg replacement with 7 ingredients (and no oil!)
🥚 Chobani’s Oat Nog: Veg eggnog, limited Christmas edition.
🍫 Oobli: Dark chocolate sweetened with proprietary, fermentation-based, sweet proteins (no sugar!).