EDC Weekly Commentary by Peter G. Hall (Audio) 70513h

This episode is with Ziynet Boz, who recently got a job at the University of Florida as an Assistant Professor. Her expertise is on sustainable packaging and she is also a full bright scholar. Ziynet brings a lot of insight into the sustainable packaging realm and teaches me about what type of packaging is truly sustainable, and how you can find more about it online. We also revisit the topic of lifecycle analysis, something in which I feel is becoming a bigger and bigger topic. Last week, at Expo West's Climate Day, I learned the opportunities in the packaging problem. 47% of waste we produce is actually consumer packages. Not only that, but our rate of using these packages are exponentially ri! Though we see many companies clean up the plastics in our ocean, because we are producing packaging so fast, it won’t even matter how much trash we try to clean up! With this, the speaker Tom Chi, presents us so many opportunities to solve this problem. From alternative packaging material to reducing. It’s definitively something to look into in the future. In this podcast, we just show you a little about the potential of sustainable packaging. Shownotes Sustainable Packaging Behavioral Analysis How do I know if a package is sustainable? : There are a lot of misconceptions with sustainable Greenwashing – companies just paint their package green Life Cycle Analysis Consumers have the ability to research sustainable packaging Plastic is more sustainable and less energy than glass B-Pack – Startup that uses reusable packaging for e-commerce Google Scholar– Write LCA food packaging and you can find food packaging. You can also find the material as well. If you use a package twice, it can improve the sustainability of packaging. It’s really ahrd to recycle plastic single-use bags California banned single-use plastic bags Modified Atmosphere Packaging In Turkey, we have Food Engineer Fullbright Scholarship – Choose 60 people who want to study in the US. You have avery intensive interview Senator Fullbright University of Florida Food Science Program What is the difference between Turkish education and English Univerisity?: research. It’s narutal to get research done with industry at the United States What made you go into packaging?: It’s in everything Silent Salesman Ship Test – Simulations for ship, train and flight shipping What kind of skills do you need to be a packaging engineer?: You can always develop your skillset. Food Technology: Food Printing Guiseppe – Nova Meats What’s the biggest challenge the food industry has to face?: Food waste, but we can make food waste be upcycled IFTNEXT – Food waste competitions Sara Ramirez – Food Waste class What is something in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: Innovation. It’s like the meatless burgers Favorite Book: Yuval Noah Harrari trilogy Favorite Quote: Average of the 5 people you hang out Turkish Food: It’s a food country. It harmonizes all cultures Stuffed Grape Leaves What do you think schools should teach people to be prepared for the workforce?: More practical things. Such as cooking or fixing machines. Twitter: @ziynetbot LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ziynetboz/

Joseph Robertson's job is to convince politicians to focus on Climate Change, and we get into many strategies and stories on how to do just that. Joseph’s a powerhouse when it comes to working together with political bodies to get them to understand and act on the impending climate change issue. He not only plays a key role in getting Congress to focus on sustainable solutions, but he also has a great way of rallying up great people to the cause. This episode gave me a bit of hope in the world. That with so many frequent catastrophes this year, more and more people are finally noticing what’s going on. And that people like you and me can actually make a difference in not just food, but policy, and so many other avenues. Thank you, Darin Detwiler, for this amazing guest. Perspectives like these really shock my system and it’s so cool getting a different, positive perspective on what’s going on in the world. Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the West Coast Nuriv Music and Tech festival a free music festival on March 6th, or the day before Expo West opens its doors. We have bands like The Bombpops, Direct Hit, Dog Party (opened for Green Day tour, 2017), Get Dead and a "Mystery" Headliner! FAT Wreck Chords presents, NURIV 2019 at the E Sports Arena in Santa Ana. email: [email protected] to get on the list and a chance for a VIP spot as well. invite your friends! If you want to sponsor, email [email protected] ..we have a few open spots for sponsorship. Show Notes Citizens Climate Lobby – A grassroots organization focused on education Geocitizen – A staff for free lifelong education Geoversity Foundation- Connecting and collaborating people in the policy space. Focus on sustainability How does the US view sustainability?: My World Survey. The general public feels like it’s common sense to solve sustainability options. Institutions and leaders have constraints Is Shifting Policy Difficult?: yes, it’s very difficult. You have to keep on coming back again and again to get them to say yes. Farm Bill Describe the Steps it took to where you are today?: I studied Philosophy. Then a masters in Spanish Language Literature, then I started a publishing company. After writing a ton, I ended up at Citizen’s Climate Lobby. Frontier Work Article on Joseph Robertson’s blog How do you inspire people to do more Frontier Work?: You never really get anyone to do it. People become inspired. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari  Why Does Your Food job Rock?: I get to work on ideas that people seem to be impossible and make them possible. How long does it take to convince someone that what you’re working on is a good idea?: A split second. What is our biggest problem in food?: Scale. The population is growning and the more wealthy a country becomes, the more they consume resource intensive food. There are so many moving parts. We’ve used technology to improve the food supply, but we are quickly exhausting that technology. We need to regenerate the soil. Our food system is very stressed. There will be a huge focus on data and food. Someone who wants to work on food, and food systems, there are many opportunities. Stockholm Food Forum - The Eat Foundation in Norway David Brooks Aspen Ideas Festival NPR: Community will allow the US to save itself Reinventing Fire, Amy Lovins The Big Lebowski – The whole script is based on words that other people have said. The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass (autobiography) How do we work with Citizen’s Climate lobby?: citizensclimatelobby.org Twitter: @poet_economist [email protected]

We have our final Podcast Showcase Series with Alex Sharzi. He does the Cultured Meat and Future Food Podcast. His guest is amazing, Peter Verstrate is the CEO of Mosa Meat, a clean meat company in the Neatherlands. If you’re familiar with the clean meat and cell-based world, then you might know this company, because the Chief Science Officer, is Mark Post, the man who made the first lab-grown burger. You’ll learn a ton of actionable tips about the Clean Meat Industry, and Alex’s portfolio of guests is all about this field. From the firms in the United States, to Japan, everywhere. If you’re interested in Cell-based technology, Alex Shirazi has the best portfolio of guests. A little story about Alex is that I first found him online. Paul Shapiro just did an interview with him and he showed me this simple website where his interview was posted. I thought Alex was a newbie, so I wanted to reach out and give him some tips on podcasting. We coincidentally met at Food Funded and I ended up giving him some coordination and technical advice when it came to content and stuff. Alex’s podcast took off, as he relentlessly posted and posted interviews about the clean meat industry. He upgraded his site, he started hosting events, this guy was so ionate about it. And he’s not even in the industry! Alex actually works at a digital marketing agency in San Francisco, but his ion for learning about this space exploded. He not only was consistently churning out, amazing episodes, with guests I could only dream of getting, but also created the packed event, the Cultured Meat Symposium, where I moderated a there. Alex was able to also throw me into public speaking opportunities. I was able to talk about food science to a crowd of 30 people at first. Then 50, then…. 300. All thanks to Alex, I learned how to be comfortable public speaking. I can’t thank him enough for that opportunity. So big news, is that I invited Alex, and two other past guests who have built amazing platforms in the online food space, to speak with me at IFT19 in New Orleans to talk about the rewards of building an amazing platform from scratch. Alex is amazing, as this guy who has no ties in the food industry has now become an influencer in the space, and an inspiration that tells you, that you can do this too. Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the West Coast Nuriv Music and Tech festival a free music festival on March 6th, or the day before Expo West opens its doors. We have bands like The Bombpops, Direct Hit, Dog Party (opened for Green Day tour, 2017), Get Dead and a "Mystery" Headliner! FAT Wreck Chords presents, NURIV 2019 at the E Sports Arena in Santa Ana. email: [email protected] to get on the list and a chance for a VIP spot as well. invite your friends! If you want to sponsor, email [email protected] ..we have a few open spots for sponsorship.

To continue with our Podcast Showcase Series, we have an episode from Katie Mleziva, podcast host of real food brands, a podcast that gives great insights on food marketing and how to get your amazing brand on the shelf. She will be interviewing Alli Ball, a well known retail consultant in the industry. I don’t think I would do justice talking about Katie, as she’s been a recent friend and addition to the food industry podcast space. So I decided to do a quick interview with her, to learn about what she does, and why she decided to do a podcast. Enjoy! Real Food Brands is a podcast that focuses on brand strategy concepts, and the main concept is to give actionable insights to scale food companies. Some fun facts Kaite started working at Kraft Foods and worked in the cheese industry in Wisconsin I then started consulting. Didn’t start with food, but ended up in food because I really want to be part of the solution. Katie has always had an entrepreneurial spirit, she used to draw “business plans” as a kid. Katie wanted to blog, and someone told her that her skill set was perfect for podcasting. Katie and I found out we had the same guest or the same company and that usually has to do with PR firms. Katie recommends the following podcasts on her channel. She has solo episodes and guest episodes. For example: How to Find Your Unfair Advantage Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the West Coast Nuriv Music and Tech festival a free music festival on March 6th, or the day before Expo West opens its doors. We have bands like The Bombpops, Direct Hit, Dog Party (opened for Green Day tour, 2017), Get Dead and a "Mystery" Headliner! FAT Wreck Chords presents, NURIV 2019 at the E Sports Arena in Santa Ana. email: [email protected] to get on the list and a chance for a VIP spot as well. invite your friends! If you want to sponsor, email [email protected] ..we have a few open spots for sponsorship.

To continue with our Podcast Showcase Series, we have an episode from Katie Jones from the Food Heroes Podcast. In this episode, she interviews a cool startup in the UK, a company that makes beer out of old bread. Katie Jones popped out of the scene last year when LinkedIn had this weird power of getting individuals to talk more. I was fortunate to ride the wave of this, and so did Katie. Katie has a very interesting story. You can actually listen to it on her podcast. I believe it’s episode 20. It’s a really good episode and you learn a ton about Katie’s background. Also, I get a shoutout on this episode, if you’re interested in seeing the inception of this, I’ve posted it on the show notes. So Kate is also an expert in plant-based foods such as vegan ice cream and vegan cheese. This is because of her experience at So Delicious, a very popular vegan ice cream company. Katie, who is inherently entrepreneurial, stayed in the company for 6 years building the company and creating vegan products and creating systems to execute these vegan products. After being laid off at So Delicious through an acquisition, she took time to find herself. How did she do this? Well, she took her dog and her RV and traveled around the United States. Through her RV journey, she really explored herself.  Around that time, she researched Copywriting and jumped into it. After a few months of writing, she decided to well, start a podcast! Her fascination with B-Corp spurred the development in podcasting and with 20 episodes, Katie has had some amazing guests who are doing good work in the food system we live in. Many of her episodes focus on things such as food waste, or ethical sourcing of unique ingredients like saffron or eggs. If you’re into hearing the stories of the people who are making the world just a little bit better, this is the podcast for you. Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the West Coast Nuriv Music and Tech festival a free music festival on March 6th, or the day before Expo West opens its doors. We have bands like The Bombpops, Direct Hit, Dog Party (opened for Green Day tour, 2017), Get Dead and a "Mystery" Headliner! FAT Wreck Chords presents, NURIV 2019 at the E Sports Arena in Santa Ana. email: [email protected] to get on the list and a chance for a VIP spot as well. invite your friends! If you want to sponsor, email [email protected] ..we have a few open spots for sponsorship.    

Welcome to the My Food Job Rocks Podcast, a weekly podcast where we interview experts in the food industry and hear about their career path, their insights on new trends and technology and their love of food. I’m your host, Adam Yee and You are listening to episode 157, where Dr. Lin Carson from Bakerpedia and Dr. Debi from the American Institute of Baking, answer complex questions about the baking industry. This isn’t just “how do I bake bread” or “why is my bread pale” questions, these two are the experts of the baking industry. If you are not familiar with the baking industry, you might need to search something up, but there’s a website for that. Bakerpedia, a long time sponsor of My Food Job Rocks, houses hundreds of articles that help the novice commercial baker learn about the potential of baking. Bakerpedia can tell you what to add to help you optimize your bread, dives into complex processes by breaking them down, and this is all for free. Lin also has a podcast called Baked In Science, which can be found on iTunes and on their website bakerpedia.org. Though she does interview podcasts too, she also does these nifty Q and A sessions where she gathers questions from her social media s. I am always impressed by Lin’s ability to go above and beyond the industry standard. I interviewed her back in episode 81 and her obsession with the subject of baking was big enough to create an amazing website with thousands of views a day. Anyways, sit back and relax and get ready to learn a ton about the questions the modern bakers have today. Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the West Coast Nuriv Music and Tech festival a free music festival on March 6th, or the day before Expo West opens its doors. We have bands like The Bombpops, Direct Hit, Dog Party (opened for Green Day tour, 2017), Get Dead and a "Mystery" Headliner! FAT Wreck Chords presents, NURIV 2019 at the E Sports Arena in Santa Ana. email: [email protected] to get on the list and a chance for a VIP spot as well. invite your friends! If you want to sponsor, email [email protected] ..we have a few open spots for sponsorship.      

Welcome to the My Food Job Rocks Podcast, a weekly podcast where we interview experts in the food industry and hear about their career path, their insights on new trends and technology and their love of food. I’m your host, Adam Yee and You are listening to episode 157, where Dr. Lin Carson from Bakerpedia and Dr. Debi from the American Institute of Baking, answer complex questions about the baking industry. This isn’t just “how do I bake bread” or “why is my bread pale” questions, these two are the experts of the baking industry. If you are not familiar with the baking industry, you might need to search something up, but there’s a website for that. Bakerpedia, a long time sponsor of My Food Job Rocks, houses hundreds of articles that help the novice commercial baker learn about the potential of baking. Bakerpedia can tell you what to add to help you optimize your bread, dives into complex processes by breaking them down, and this is all for free. Lin also has a podcast called Baked In Science, which can be found on iTunes and on their website bakerpedia.org. Though she does interview podcasts too, she also does these nifty Q and A sessions where she gathers questions from her social media s. I am always impressed by Lin’s ability to go above and beyond the industry standard. I interviewed her back in episode 81 and her obsession with the subject of baking was big enough to create an amazing website with thousands of views a day. Anyways, sit back and relax and get ready to learn a ton about the questions the modern bakers have today. Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the West Coast Nuriv Music and Tech festival a free music festival on March 6th, or the day before Expo West opens its doors. We have bands like The Bombpops, Direct Hit, Dog Party (opened for Green Day tour, 2017), Get Dead and a "Mystery" Headliner! FAT Wreck Chords presents, NURIV 2019 at the E Sports Arena in Santa Ana. email: [email protected] to get on the list and a chance for a VIP spot as well. invite your friends! If you want to sponsor, email [email protected] ..we have a few open spots for sponsorship.      

Welcome to the My Food Job Rocks Podcast, a weekly podcast where we interview experts in the food industry and hear about their career path, their insights on new trends and technology and their love of food. I’m your host, Adam Yee and You are listening to episode 157, where Dr. Lin Carson from Bakerpedia and Dr. Debi from the American Institute of Baking, answer complex questions about the baking industry. This isn’t just “how do I bake bread” or “why is my bread pale” questions, these two are the experts of the baking industry. If you are not familiar with the baking industry, you might need to search something up, but there’s a website for that. Bakerpedia, a long time sponsor of My Food Job Rocks, houses hundreds of articles that help the novice commercial baker learn about the potential of baking. Bakerpedia can tell you what to add to help you optimize your bread, dives into complex processes by breaking them down, and this is all for free. Lin also has a podcast called Baked In Science, which can be found on iTunes and on their website bakerpedia.org. Though she does interview podcasts too, she also does these nifty Q and A sessions where she gathers questions from her social media s. I am always impressed by Lin’s ability to go above and beyond the industry standard. I interviewed her back in episode 81 and her obsession with the subject of baking was big enough to create an amazing website with thousands of views a day. Anyways, sit back and relax and get ready to learn a ton about the questions the modern bakers have today. Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the West Coast Nuriv Music and Tech festival a free music festival on March 6th, or the day before Expo West opens its doors. We have bands like The Bombpops, Direct Hit, Dog Party (opened for Green Day tour, 2017), Get Dead and a "Mystery" Headliner! FAT Wreck Chords presents, NURIV 2019 at the E Sports Arena in Santa Ana. email: [email protected] to get on the list and a chance for a VIP spot as well. invite your friends! If you want to sponsor, email [email protected] ..we have a few open spots for sponsorship.      

Many of you know the story between Kim and I. We started our podcasts at the same time. I was able to reach out to her when I saw her posting on a super secret podcast facebook group. I reached out, because My Food Job Rocks was also in its infancy. We decided to do a podcast swap. I would interview Kim, and she would interview me. I launched episode 12 starring Kim, and now we’re here, on episode 156. Time flies, doesn’t it? But still, we persisted. Kim and my guests overlap a bit. We’ve had interviews with people such as Phil Saneski, Jessica Goldstein, Alan Reed, Rachel Zemser, and plenty more probably. However, Peas on Moss does a much better job on the culinary end of the equation. Since Kim lives the Research Chef life, she does a very good job interviewing high profile culinary geniuses in the industry. Kim was one of the people who helped me in a dark time early on in the podcast realm, I think it was in episode 20’s range, I was dropped from my host provider and was debating on dropping My Food Job Rocks. She encouraged me to stay, and also mentioned that “people don’t listen to you until you’re 30”. At the time, I was 25, and that quote motivated me to keep on going, that I needed to prove myself. Over time, Kim and I have become kindred spirits when it comes to the food industry. We connect with other people, we talk about the struggles of being ambitious and being valuable in product development. In fact, one of the most underrated episodes I did with Kim was just a one-hour break room session where I just rant about ambition. It’s a bonus episode, and it’s on the show notes. I don’t listen to my own podcast episodes after I publish them, but I always enjoy that one. Anyways, Kim is probably one of the hardest workers I’ve known. Her role at Bulletproof means she’s always traveling, making new products and I’m always impressed seeing her churn out episodes. So enjoy this episode, as Kim talks to her mentor, Graham Kerr. If you like this episode, you can find so much more at Peas On Moss.com  

Welcome to the first in our Podcast Showcase Series with Paul Shapiro and Toni Okamoto interviewing John Mackey. He started this little company, grew it, and then sold it to Amazon. You might know it as Whole Foods Market. Though Paul and Toni can tell you all about their guest, I can tell you a little bit about Paul and Toni. This super star duo is hosted by none other than Paul Shapiro, animal activist, author and now CEO of the Better Meat Co, and Toni Okamoto, who is a cookbook author, and the creator of Plant-based on a Budget, which encourages people that eating plant-based doesn’t have to be expensive. Toni was featured on What The Health and has a pretty viral youtube video where she and her business partner Michelle Cehn compare the Beyond Burger and the Impossible Burger.   As many know, Paul and I met on the My Food Job Rocks podcast and through chance, I got the opportunity to found Better Meat Co with him. Paul chose Sacramento to be the HQ of Better Meat Co, not because of strategy but because that is where Toni lives, his fiance’s home town. I was happy about the location for my own personal reasons as well. As Paul learned about how I did my podcast through the many talks we’ve had, he was very impressed with the number of connections and knowledge I’ve amassed throughout a couple of years of doing this and thought it would be valuable and fun to do a podcast with Toni. Business for Good is a podcast that focuses on the businesses that solve humanities biggest problems and one of those problems being food! Today, we go into the mind of John Mackey, Paul’s friend, but also the CEO and CEO-founder of Whole Foods. Business for Good as many other episodes that focus on food, such as slavery-free chocolate and investors for plant-based companies. But they also have an impressive list of other guests such as coral reef revitalists, musicians who are making a sustainable impact, and… toilet paper companies where if you buy their products, they will build toilets in third world countries. Without further ado, enjoy the first episode of the Business for Good’s podcast, their episode with John Mackey. You can check out more of Paul and Toni’s episode at businessforgoodpodcast.com Shownotes As a student, John Mackey was an idealistic hippie who worked in a vegetarian co-op while studying religion and philosophy. He never took a business class during his whole academic career. In other words, he wasn’t exactly the guy people would’ve placed bets on to become a businessman, let alone one who’d launch a natural foods empire called Whole Foods Market that would get purchased by Amazon for $14 billion. (Note: John long ago stopped taking a salary and even donated all of his Whole Foods stock, so he didn’t see a penny of the sale.) Listen to John discuss with Toni Okamoto and Paul Shapiro his thoughts on everything from venture capitalists and labor unions to Whole Foods’ sale to Amazon and of course how to do good in the world via business. John’s Books: Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World’s Problems The Whole Foods Diet: The Lifesaving Plan for Health and Longevity John’s book recommendations during the show: Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the Worldby Brad Stone The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder Books by Peter Drucker More info: Conscious Capitalism, the organization John cofounded  

When you go on a journey to improve a skill, there are likeminded people who will you, and there are people who will do the same as you. You either choose to treat them as competition, or treat them as cohorts. Over the past two years, I’ve communicated and even worked with people who have their own interview podcasts. These podcasts follow the same vein as My Food Job Rocks. Interview food experts and chronicle their life, advice and predictions. However, each podcast I’ll be sharing is focused on a  specific type of the food industry. From Research Chefs, to Clean Meat Scientists. Some of these podcasts I am proud to say, credit My Food Job Rocks as a source of inspiration. Others, I’ve had the pleasure to help improve their podcasting craft. I do this because I can’t tell everyone’s story, and everyone’s story needs to be told. By having a network which motivates people to share the stories in the food industry is very important to me. And hopefully, by the end of this series, you might also take on the reigns of a podcast. I’ll be keeping their guests a secret, but here is who will be on in the next 5 weeks: Paul Shapiro and Toni Okamoto – Business for Good Podcast As many know, Paul Shapiro has been not only a guest on My Food Job Rocks, but also has been my business partner for more than…half a year. Paul and his soon-to-be wife Toni Okamoto (who runs the very popular platform Plant-Based on a  Budget) decided to do this small venture called The Business for Good Podcast, a podcast that focuses on the buisnesses and people who are doing good in the world. Though the podcast is not just in the food industry, there are some great gems in regards to how food business is impacting the world. Paul and Toni are both influential figures in the plant-based and animal welfare movement and use their connections to bring in awesome guests. This Wednesday, we’ll be launching their episode with a guest that’s pretty famous around these parts. Kim Schaub from Peas on Moss Kim and I started our platforms at the same time. We actually met in a facebook group called Podcaster’s Paradise, an online course which helps build your own podcast. We had one mutual connection, another guest, Andrea Zeng, who worked under her. Kim created the Peas on Moss Podcast, a podcast that has different types of guests which mainly focusing on R+D and innovation. There are also many Research Chefs and regular chefs on the show, so if you are into that field, Kim goes more in-depth on that. Peas On Moss still regularly launches episodes and the guests are always insightful with a slight entrepreneurial flair. I usually see Kim in almost every expo and we have a good time just chatting over good food. Lin Carson from Bakerpedia Past guest and sponsor Lin Carson created the Bakerpedia platform through her own sweat and blood and has built it into a fully sponsored masterpiece which houses a wiki that has all the baking knowledge in the world. And this is not just the simple stuff like gluten or ascorbic acid, but maybe you want to know what’s diastatic malt or how garbonzo bean flour acts in your product. Their podcast Baked In Science takes on multiple formats. They not only do interview podcasts, but they also do Q and As, and more technical focused podcasts. I’m always amazed on how much content, from writing to podcasts, the Bakerpedia team dishes out. Katie Jones from Good Food Heroes Podcast Katie Jones has a pretty amazing story. She got laid off after an acquisition, traveled around the world in an RV car, then decided to go into copywriting for the food industry. I met Katie through her content on LinkedIn and she was very engaging the way she talks with her peers on the platform. Much better than me engaging on LinkedIn posts. So Katie decided to start her own podcast and I had a hand in helping her a bit set up the format. Her podcast interviews food businesses that have a bigger mission. Whether that’s food waste or ethical sourcing, that’s what she loves to do and that’s what she focuses on. If you’re into learning more about food businesses that are mission-driven, then this podcast gives great insights on how it works. Katie Mleziva from Real Food Brands Podcast Katie is a food brand consultant with whom I also met on LinkedIn. I think it first started when we coincidentally launched Carrie Arndt’s podcast on the same week. We’ve had some over lap in guests ever since including the executive team from Soom Foods. Katie generally focuses on branding and not only does she bring in some really awesome guests with practical advice, but she herself does solo episodes that talk about the tactics in branding. Alex Shirazi from the Cultured Meat and Future Food podcast Paul shared with me an interview that Alex did with Lisa from Stray Dog Capital. This was episode 4 out of 4, but seeing his guest list be top GFI brass and Paul himself, I wanted to reach out and help him with his podcast, because I didn’t like his design or audio quality. Surprisingly, he was happy to take my advice and even better, I was able to meet him during the food funded event and we’ve been friends ever since. Alex Shirazi is what I’d call a cultured meat enthusiast. He’s a managing director at a software development firm at his day job. Not a scientist or CEO, but he cares so much about the topic, he not only did a full-fledged podcast where he interviews CEOs of cultured meat companies, but he also did a full-on symposium in the heart of San Francisco on a small budget and impressive marketing. I was honored to be a at one of the s, and I can’t thank Alex enough for giving me opportunities to publically speak in Boneville Labs and Indiebio. I love the topic of cell-based meat. Everyone knows this but if you really want to learn more about the many companies behind it, Alex’s podcast has some really impressive guests from all over the world. If I were to map it out, My Food Job Rocks is considered a broad podcast. It’s a podcast about career advice and showcasing the food jobs that are present today. The podcasts listed here are part of this, but are much more specific and also have their unique twist on things, and maybe you want that type specificity in your podcast library. And if there isn’t a podcast that fits your need, perhaps this will show you the opportunity to create your own.  

I’ve been following Elaine Watson ever since I started working on the food industry. Every time I wanted to know a new trend or something happening in my industry, I read her articles. I’ve even commented in a few of her articles but most recently, I had the honor of being interviewed by Elaine when we debuted our article for Better Meat Co. Paul and I planned to get Elaine to debut Better Meat Co, we had this master plan to do a tasting with Elaine with our blended products only to learn she was vegetarian! So we just went with a phone interview. Over time, I’ve bumped into Elaine in conferences such as the Good Food Conference and so I decided that she would be an amazing guest for the podcast! In this episode, you’ll be introduced to what an editor for, what Elaine quotes, a technical magazine does for a living, how she organizes and prepares writing articles, and we have a great discussion on food trends and technologies. If you are in the food industry and do know Elaine from her articles, this interview also dives into some really cool hobbies Elaine does in her spare time. Namely listening to history podcasts and singing in a barbershop quartet. About Elaine Watson, editor, FoodNavigator-USA An award-winning journalist with more than 18 years’ experience in multimedia business-to-business journalism and events management on both sides of the Atlantic, Elaine has covered a diverse range of topics from nutrigenomics to corporate espionage. Elaine moved from the UK to the US in 2011, and as editor of FoodNavigator-USA.com – a leading online b2b title in the US food and beverage industry – she has helped to establish the site as a pre-eminent source of news and analysis on hot button issues from novel sweeteners to labeling conventions in plant-based foods and beverages. Elaine has also organized and chaired face-to-face and online events from seminars and round table debates to conferences for William Reed Business Media and other companies on topics from food for kids to investing in cell-based meat. About FoodNavigator-USA An award-winning online business-to-business publication covering start-ups and industry giants, FoodNavigator-USA provides a 360-degree view of the North American food and beverage market, spanning food investment and incubation, labeling, litigation, and legislation, to consumer trends, new products and new technology, from new shopping or nutrition apps to synthetic biology and personalized nutrition.  A multimedia publication with 200,000 unique visitors a month and a daily newsletter with 47,000 subscribers, FoodNavigator-USA provides daily news, features, analysis, online events, face to face events, a weekly podcast and video coverage of the issues and stories impacting CEOs, marketers, brand managers, R&D execs and regulatory affairs experts. FoodNavigator-USA also runs the annual FOOD FOR KIDS event in Chicago, a three-day conference that shines a spotlight on the companies – large and small – that are doing most to drive innovation and champion change in foods and beverages for children; and TRAILBLAZERS, a new initiative designed to celebrate early stage food & beverage companies that are bringing something genuinely new to the table from a formulation, sourcing, branding, marketing or business model perspective. Sponsor - FoodLabelPro.com Is your product packaging compliant with the new FDA rules?  The compliance deadline is January 1st, 2020. At FoodLabelPro.com we will upgrade your current s for only $50. FoodLabelPro.com also provides package and claim reviews, laboratory analysis, shelf life testing, printer/graphics services, and menu analysis.   We are your one-stop shop for food packaging: FoodLabelpro.com. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Show Notes FOOD FOR KIDS What do you do in a sentence or less?: I write for a technical publication. It’s hard to say I’m a food writer. Food Navigator Kids Nutrition Conference Chobani Kids Line Fred Hart Justin’s Nut butter Edible Insects and Jeff Flake Just Date Syrup Better Meat Co Article La Croix lawsuit Evaporated Cane Juice DH Lawrence The National Grocer What skills do you need for a reporter?: Develop a thick skin History Unplugged Tides of History American History Tellers Hardcore History – Black Death What else would you do besides reporting?: Talk about history Why does your food job rock?: I get to interview smart, talented people who might change the world and learn something new in any day What are your favorite food trends?: Many things: Plant based proteins on how to replace meat, Cell-based meat and sustainability, meal kit subscription models, Triton Algae Corporation Geltor JUST framed the question right so people like it GMO was an example of bad framing Soylent Pink Slime Kid’s food versus niche things What should we really be focusing on? Korean Yams Gochujang Keto Paleo Tasty the Art and Science of what we eat By John McQuaid Krave Jerky What is one thing you’d like to know about the food industry?: There is still so much about the food industry. But I really want to learn about Plant-Breeding or Wine/ alcohol industry Saskatchewan Canada How do you find the best way to get information from people?: Research the topic and the person. You need to look technically competent to talk to people because it opens the discussion a lot better. Favorite Kitchen Item: Marmite – Unilever - British Vegemite – Kraft - Australia Good source of Vitamin B12 Siracha Poutine Sonoma Brands Krave Jerky Any advice for people in the food industry?: You don’t need to create the iPhone of food. Elaine does Barbershop Quartet Sweet Adelines Pentatonix Pitch Perfect Where can we you?: LinkedIn and email. My email can be found on food navigator  

The Nourish Food Co is a meal delivery company that has a beautiful menu of healthy southern comfort food that can be delivered straight to your door. Located in Birmingham Alabama, they distribute to 38 different states and have a wide array of dishes to choose from. Mary and Tiffany have humble origins. Met at a test kitchen, started a catering business, pivoted to meal delivery and scaled to the moon, but the details that made their journey successful is captured in this interview such as how to hire people or the steps to scale, or how to build a network for tough times. We did into these details as we find the twists and turns that make working in the food industry so exciting. If you're interested in the concept of bootstrapping, and the meal delivery industry, this episode is for you. Sponsor - FoodLabelPro.com Is your product packaging compliant with the new FDA rules?  The compliance deadline is January 1st, 2020. At FoodLabelPro.com we will upgrade your current s for only $50. FoodLabelPro.com also provides package and claim reviews, laboratory analysis, shelf life testing, printer/graphics services, and menu analysis.   We are your one-stop shop for food packaging: FoodLabelpro.com. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Shownotes Where do you eat at Birmingham Alabama?: Bottega Café’s Cheese Burger Chez Fonfon What do you do for a living?: Tiffany: I own a food company. We make fully prepared meals and deliver it to 38 states. We distribute everything from Alabama We really showcase how our meals are changing the lives of other people We do deliver to California but it’s very difficult and too much competition Do you guys have different functions as co-founders? Both have culinary backgrounds Mary: Sales, marketing, Tiffany: R+D, packaging, procurement How did you guys meet?: At the Cooking Lite Test Kitchen (closed this year). At that job, we were testing and cooking recipes. We wanted to start a high-end catering company in 2007. What made you pivot?: Difference between meal kit and meal delivery service?: We do all of the work. All you need to do is to microwave it. Blue Apron What’s the hardest thing about starting a business?: Hiring well What was an essential person you onboarded in your business?: Jose, our first production manager. We hire people who take the work from us. Being autonomous and taking the role of what they’re supposed to do. Important Soft Skills: Motivation, teaching, Can you describe your first sale?: Before launching our own brand, we were doing private label for fitness companies. How does the operation work?: We used to change our recipes weekly. Then we ended up doing a 4-week recipe cycles What kind of products do you serve?: We create southern comfort food that’s healthy for you. For example, we make cauliflower grits and almond milk Why does your food job rock?: We get to see how our products positively impact our clients What type of food trends and technologies are exciting you right now?: Plant protein innovations What trends do you find in your industry?: The novelty of receiving the ingredients have worn off so they are going into supermarkets. People actually don’t have time to cook, so we think we’re on trend. Biggest Challenge of the food industry: educating our kids about healthy food. My kids choose to consume junk. What is one of the things you’d like to know more about?: Better thermal packaging and startup investing Meal Kits use Soft coating with Mylar coating Tips on logistics: Accept failure is part of the process. Have money in the bank. Bootstrapping vs Funding: If you can figure out how to grow a business and not give away your equity, then do it. Early, we ran as lean as possible. We would do all of the work the first year. There is nothing that we couldn’t do in the company. You have to understand all of the job roles. Also, find mentors and groups of people who have something different How do you find mentors and like-minded people?: Through my college, or even your neighbors might have their own business. Different jobs will always have the same problems. How did you get into food?: We had different origins. One from family, one from working ina college restaurant. Favorite Quote: from Mary’s family. “I hate when grown folks don’t act like they’re grown” Favorite Book: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner Favorite Kitchen Item: Immersion Blender Any advice about food business: Do your research! There’s a lot of noise and it’s hard to figure out the noise. What do you stand for? There has to be more story. Where do we find you for advice?: We’re both on linkedin. All of our food is sold on our website. They can reach out to us on our website on the list. Mary's LinkedIn Tiffany's LinkedIn    

I met Ana Maria Quiros during the IGNITE Session at IFT 2018 where she did an inspiring talk about the food industry in Costa Rica and the young professionals that are driving it. Now she not only helps small businesses in Costa Rica grow their businesses, but she also has had a chance to talk to Congress about food science. The Costa Rica Food industry has some interesting twists on how they educate their workforce on food science and you’ll learn a lot about how they train professionals and the way they businesses over there. Yet the issues in the Costa Rica food industry are the same issues Americans when it comes to small businesses, and science communication, in which I feel like the issues everyone faces in the food industry isn’t a national issue, but a global opportunity. Sponsor - FoodLabelPro.com Is your product packaging compliant with the new FDA rules?  The compliance deadline is January 1st, 2020. At FoodLabelPro.com we will upgrade your current s for only $50. FoodLabelPro.com also provides package and claim reviews, laboratory analysis, shelf life testing, printer/graphics services, and menu analysis.   We are your one-stop shop for food packaging: FoodLabelpro.com. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business.. Show Notes Bryson Bolton How did you find out about IGNITE?: I got an email about it. We are both in the Leadership program What do you tell people in a sentence or less?: I’m a food engineer, then people ask “what is that?” We actually changed the name from technologist to food engineer for public perception. It’s pretty much the same thing though Can you describe the course?: It’s a 5 year program and the final year, you have to do a thesis, which can take 2 more years. So it will take 7 years to get a Bachelors degree We have 3 universities that teach food science. The public colleges are very good in Costa Rica Where do you currently work now?:  I was a consultant assistant for 5 months and now I work at the University My role is in extension programs. You have to know everything which is why I love the role. Can you give me an example of some projects in Costa Rica?: Since Costa Rica is really close to each other, everyone can collaborate Cacao vs Cocoa What is the Food Technologist Association?: We activated it in 2012. I ed in 2014. This is a professional association and even though it’s started from students, but the students who graduated stayed with the club. In 2017 I became president What are some important skills that you’ve learned in your role?: Have ion when volunteering. Also, connect people who do tasks, to the actual goal How did you find out about food science?: I didn’t know much about food science, but my cousin talked about it, and my mother taught culinary classes in high school. She gave me a book called Food Microbiology. My mother asked me to speak to my cousin who is a food scientist and I was convinced to go into food science. After I did food-based community service, I wanted to do this. What type of food technologies are interesting right now?: Food safety, public health and public perception. Do people understand clean label and perception? Ultra Processed Foods – Specific only in Latin America – Published in the WHO Ultra-Processed foods are: Soda, ice cream, Cheetos. But because the definition is from a Dietitian and not a food engineer, there are a lot of holes in the logic What is the biggest challenge the food industry has to face?: Consumer perception Favorite Quote: Do something that scares you every day How would you convince a shy person to do something?: Just keep on doing it. Whatever you have to say, if people need to hear what you have to say, you need to be heard. New Hampshire Gallo Pinto – Rice and Beans in Costa Rica Fried Plantains Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to go into the food industry?: It’s a very awesome, relevant, and important. You are going to be happy here. If you were to tell something valuable to yourself that you know now in the first day of work?: You can’t do everything in one day, not even one week Where can we find you for advice?: Linkedin

This podcast was not scripted, so there are no shownotes.   Since this is a short episode, it's a freebie.    You can check out all of our articles and podcasts at myfoodjobrocks.com   If you’re a fan of My Food Job Rocks we’ve just released our annual survey. Though it’s shorter than last years, we know what to ask for now. If you’re a fan and want to help improve the platform for next year, I’d be greatful if you could fill out our survey. Of course, those who complete the survey will get a chance to win a $50 dollar Amazon Gift Card! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DRZP7XR

Darius has been a long time fan of My Food Job Rocks, who emailed me when we were in the episode 50 range. This year, I was able to meet Darius at IFT where we talked, and I loved how he talked about his job and his love of chocolate. Wow, I had to get him on the show! He has the coolest job in the world, playing his part making candy! Darius is in the procurement field, we talk a lot about this, as I find that it’s one of the most lesser known fields in the food industry. Procurement is super important in the food industry and you’ll learn a ton about how to get into this field. It’s not a well taught academic field, but it can be learned while doing your job. Procurement people can come from anywhere. Finance, supply chain, or even R and D all make amazing procurement people. And if you’re interested in negotiating and learning about the impact of ingredients, then maybe procurement is for you. Also, best thing about meeting people from Mars is that they will give you a shoe box size full of your favorite Mars chocolates and confections! Sponsor - FoodLabelPro.com Is your product packaging compliant with the new FDA rules?  The compliance deadline is January 1st, 2020. At FoodLabelPro.com we will upgrade your current s for only $50. FoodLabelPro.com also provides package and claim reviews, laboratory analysis, shelf life testing, printer/graphics services, and menu analysis.   We are your one-stop shop for food packaging: FoodLabelpro.com. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business.. Show Notes When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you do in a sentence or less?: I manage the mints and confection buyers. We have 14 manufacturing sites in US and Canada What the difference between mint and flavors?: Really based on the market they operate in. Vetting Process: How do you know who’s a really great vendor? It’s the sourcing manager’s job to find players in the market. My function is really about buying it well and defining buying it well We’ve been working without vendors What’s your favorite thing to do with your job?: I have a  sweet tooth. I love having a say and making the products come to life. Bringing what’s coming out from 2019 to 2020 to 2021 What’s your favorite Mars’ candy?: In my childhood, Skittles. Now twix is getting more popular. Portion control Describe the steps it took to get to where you are today?: I went to college at St. Joves and majored in Food Marketing. I actually did projects for Candy. Then I went to C+S Grocer Store for 2.5 years. Then ed Mars. Managed the ingredients like salt. We merged with Wrigley recently. How did you get to Procurement?: If you were to ask 9 out of 10 people how you got into procurement, they will say they got their job by accident. Very few major in procurement. Some R+D folks go to procurement and we like them because they have more depth in understanding Emperors of Chocolate: Hershey had to lower the gram weight of the chocolate, but Mars was pretty safe. What is the most important skill you need for your job?: Intellectual curiosity. Marry that with a good work ethic, you become so valuable. What is your definition of a good work ethic?: Don’t make any commitments that you can’t keep. Why Does Your Food Job Rock?: I’m a kid in the candy store Singapore What keeps you in Mars?: The opportunity to be challenged Food trends and technology: Regional flavors and authenticity of flavors. Whenever I travel, I give them awesome flavors to try Small meals or no set meals Favorite regional flavor: Incorporating a whole dessert into different products. For example: Birthday Cake 3 Muskateer Bar. We just launched that. We have edible glitter in that product Adam’s favorite dessert: S’mores Cooling technology: Menthol and mint. We also have warming perspectives. For examples Spicy Sprinkles Cross-Functional Collaboration Flaming Hot Cheetos What are the biggest challenge the food industry needs to face right now?: From a procurement standpoint, it’s a traceability and transparency standpoint. It’s great, but it’s a huge challenge. Every year we have to maintain the same level of flavor, but food changes every year Vanilla Crisis Legacy Brands have an advantage to shortages because our long-term suppliers can save us For smaller, niche ice cream shops, not the case What is one thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: How can the Japanese make money on gifts? Type 1 and Type 2 grocery stores The convenience stores in Japan can be completely different from one another Work ethic in Japan Culture of Work How did you get into food?: I grew up in Singapore Crazy Rich Asians Favorite thing you’ve eaten recently: Hokkaido crab (snow crab, king crab) Favorite Kitchen Item: I went to a casino, won money, and spent it all on a rice cooker Zoji Rushi Top of the line rice cooker Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to the food industry?: Find what area of the industry really interests you. What should colleges teach you about life?: It’s really about what you like. The individual needs to make that call Where can we find you for advice?: LinkedIn  

A lot happened this year. I started a company with two amazing people, I moved to Sacramento, I reconnected with old friends and I made new ones. So some updates for My Food Job Rocks. Lots of fun things happened this year. I was able to talk to some really amazing guests that made its mark in the food science community. I would say the past 100 episodes focused much more on innovative technologies, and startups, as well as having even better technical people on the show, in all sorts of disciplines from blockchain to clean meat. This was also the year where half of my guests weren’t people I had to hunt down and beg to be on the show. A big chunk of this years’ guests were actually from PR firms! And there were some really cool people. Susie Fogelson from the Food Network, Alan Reed from the City of Chicago, Claudia Sidoti from Hello Fresh, and so many more awesome people were pitched to me and I learned so much from them. However, this podcast has gotten a bit tough to manage. On the article, a Better Bet, I sprinkled throughout the article that the point of My Food Job Rocks was to develop a network so I could have the resources needed to create a great company when I was 30. However, things happened 4 years earlier and I’m now co-founder of a rising startup. The podcast’s initial purpose is done, so what now? I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t know. I still have a lot of fun doing it, and I find the learning experience like a routine. For me, it’s like jogging, or reading, or stuff like that. I learn and take away so much. Especially interviewing these CEO’s, I can now ask questions that are stumping Better Meat Co. For example, I asked Shelby Zitelman from Soom Foods and Sara Polon from Soupergirl, “how did you get your first sale?” And their answers were so good, I clipped them for our Smart Snack Bites (add bites). I learned a lot from that question, no one really expects their first sale, but when they do, it’s such a memorable experience. So what does that mean for next year? No idea actually. I’ll still be maintaining the blog, because it’s an outlet for me to talk, and it’s an outlet for me to share. Share my challenges and share my story so others can not make the same mistakes I did. Recording and writing helps me think clearer, talk better, and show people I’m a legitimate person, so I keep on doing it. We have a survey launching this week. It’s not about improving stuff, well it is, but the questions will be focused more on content variety. What do you want me to talk, or write about in the future? Who do you want me to interview? What would you want a T-shirt about Food Science to say? Stuff like that. I also find the My Food Job Rocks blog as great way to give food industry professionals an opportunity to write and show what they’re made of, and the growth of the people who have wrote for My Food Job Rocks has made me so proud. Veronica Hislop still writes, Julia Lamphear who wrote the Why Series, has her own Non-Profit, Faseeh Rahman who participated in our Food Science Global event is now posting food safety clips on LinkedIn and is getting so many opportunities! Carrie Ardnt, our latest guest poster used to just post her amazing packaging analysis posts on linkedin and they’d be swallowed in the abyss, but I wanted them to be achieved because they have value. These posts do so well on social media. Giving people who want to write the opportunity to write and see how their work is helping people is very valuable. If you’re interested, you know where to find me. However, I’m a tough boss because I want you to fall in love with writing on a consistent basis. What’s also nice is that my articles are actually being found in google. My name is also googleable, which definitively means I’m the best Adam Yee on the internet, right? Anyways, a handful of articles get a dozen views daily. Did I expect these articles to be searched so much? Sorta, I had a good hunch about them. Basically, here are the top 5 articles on My Food Job Rocks Food Science vs Nutrition Why You Shouldn’t Be a Food Scientist. What is Food Science, a Beginner’s Guide Resume Tips for Beginning Food Scientists The Graduate Student Series If you like stats like I do, I’ll have you know that David Despain’s podcast about being a CFS is actually the most viewed shownotes. Dr. Gabriel Keith Harris’ has the most s. In certain periods, Veronica’s articles also get a lot of views. For instance, this month, the Cotton Candy article is very popular. A couple of months back, Banana was trending and a couple of months before then, peanuts. The fruits of My Food Job Rocks’ labor has bore its benefits, not just in credibility. Heck, I think it saved me from a dark time when all of my friends left me in Phoenix. I have an article on Friday that’ll explain all of that. Many know the lessons of being consistent, and My Food Job Rocks is proof that if you do something everyday for two years…you’ll get better at it. But more importantly, people will respect you for it. Being consistent allowed me to get speaking gigs. Not just in IFT, but in San Francisco, and soon, perhaps some other conferences in the works. This was a lot of work, putting one block at a time, every week until it’s finally building to something pretty cool. To end on this, I wanted to talk about skills. Particularly, 5 of them These 5 skills are designed to get you through a startup, but now that I’m reviewing them, these skills will help you in any aspect of your career. As I think about these skills, these skills allowed me to excel at my last job, and is proving their worth at Better Meat Co. If you want to rise to the top, or want to survive the startup world, I suggest working on these skills. We’ll be analyzing why they’re important, and how you can get better at them. Top 5 Skills Autonomy Autonomy is the ability for you to confidentially do your job and deliver results without the help or permission of your equals or superiors. This is a very tough skill to master as it requires a lot of confidence in your craft. In school, you had to ask permission to do something, all the way to perhaps college. I would even guess that people who are We all go through this slope when it comes to acquiring a new skill. According to Wikipedia, we call this the four stages of competence. I actually learned about this when scanning through the brochure at my last job where it talked about how to sell nutrition products to your friends and family. The four stages are: Unconscious incompetence The individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit. They may deny the usefulness of the skill. The individual must recognize their own incompetence, and the value of the new skill, before moving on to the next stage. The length of time an individual spends in this stage depends on the strength of the stimulus to learn.[5] Conscious incompetence Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, they recognize the deficit, as well as the value of a new skill in addressing the deficit. The making of mistakes can be integral to the learning process at this stage. Conscious competence The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires concentration. It may be broken down into steps, and there is heavy conscious involvement in executing the new skill.[5] Unconscious competence The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it has become "second nature" and can be performed easily. As a result, the skill can be performed while executing another task. The individual may be able to teach it to others, depending upon how and when it was learned. Everyone deals with this when it becomes a skill. Yet learning how to be automomous this can become a problem, A bad boss who helicopters around you can traumatize you into always asking your superiors if your option is the right option to do. A bad boss can really affect your career just because they can cripple your ambitions. You never know if what you do is right and it really affects your psyche. It’s a really terrible thing. The best way I found to solve this is to read books about this type of stuff. Reading helps you understand different perspectives. In many books, the saying “It’s better to beg for forgiveness then ask for permission”. What helps in this regard is to publish or ship something on your own. By creating something where you can give out or even better, sell on your own will give you more confidence in of doing work. What giving out or selling something does is validates that what you do is valuable to whomever you’re giving it to. Knowing you have full control over what people find valuable, and not your superiors makes your job a lot easier. Resourcefulness Phil Saneski and I have had a great talk on the power of resources. The podcast has also given me a very powerful resource pool and I’ve used some of my guest’s services and products to get work done at the startup. Using your resources is directly connected to how well you network. As many know, networking is an art and takes time to cultivate, but the benefits is like your garden actually growing food for you to eat. Podcasting, or in general, interviewing, is the ultimate networking tool because you cater to two people in particular: the people you’re interviewing have a close connection to you and if it was a good, legitimate interview, they that. But also the people who read or listen to your stuff. Yet let’s look at this through a microscope. With podcasting I learned how to cold call people to get on the show, on social media, leverage and work together on other networks to amplify value on both sides, learned how to not be afraid of my own voice, to be consistent and deliver value every single week. Those are the skills, the crevices that get filled when you do a podcast and all of it, helps with being resourceful. Humility Back in college, I had a huge ego. I didn’t want to be wrong, and I made people cry. It took a lot of time working with different people to slowly break that down. Working in the multicultural center chipped it down, working with young, high school educated workers in the factory chipped it down, supervising coworkers who were older than me and were in a company longer than I was chipped that down. My coworkers are sometimes very surprised when I it I’m wrong when the data shows that I’m wrong. Humility is a vital skill, and it requires a great amount of confidence and self-awareness for it to actually work. When you’re humiliated, shame or the perception of shame overwhelms you and you are paralyzed, or worse, you make things worse. Working on being shameless improves so many things. When shame stops affecting you, two things happen: you can share everything, and you have the vision that sures you being right or wrong. In the grand scheme of things, does your opinion matter? This is a big question. Nobody wants to look incompetent, or weak, or embarrassed, but everyone’s gone through this before. You won’t ever be fired for itting your wrong if no damage has been done. In most cases, you’ll be thanked for your humility. Training for humility is hard, but it of course, involves risks. Failing high risk generally builds up humility but only if you can reflect on why your call was a bad one. I was fortunate enough for my CSO at Isagenix to throw me into very high risk situations. Sometimes, they didn’t work out the way I planned, so I reviewed what went wrong and tried again. Having a sort of Nihilistic or Stoic mindset when it comes to humility also works wonders. Reading books from Ryan Holiday, or Seth Godin helps wonders in understanding Humility. Understanding humility will help you put yourself out there more, and will allow you to sympathize with anyone. Curiosity This is a skill that always pops up on almost every interview with a ionate food scientist. They are generally curious on how things work. But on this episode, I want to emphasize the importance of learning the whole process. For the food industry, that means learning literally everything. This was resonated from Alan Reed from the Chicagoland Food and Beverage Network. This guy got an MBA and did marketing, but he was so interested in the whole process, he recently took a role of Executive Director. Will Holsworth started in Pepsi, where Pepsi knows the importance of knowing the whole process and many food companies develop leadership programs to explore the whole process. Maybe you don’t have the luxury to do this, but that doesn’t matter. You can still talk to your colleagues about learning what’s going on. You can still force yourself to attend meetings that bridge the knowledge gaps. You can still listen to My Food Job Rocks podcasts to see a glimpse of the day in the life of what goes in your food. Curiosity killing the cat is a threat. It doesn’t work anymore because now, the floodgates on gaining knowledge is now infinite. Even if someone will harm you for their knowledge, there are many ways to get around it, connect the dots, and create a different recipe. Secret formulas don’t make sense any more because brand is associated with flavor. Who cares if your product tastes like Coca Cola or your product tastes like KFC’s chicken? Will coke or KFC lose market share because you found their formula? Maybe 50 years ago, but now, their brands are so strong, it doesn’t matter. Instead, what if you just learned the process, or how the flavors work in products and make your own masterpiece? This takes curiosity to dive in and find our how to do things. Curiosity isn’t about copying products, it’s about discovering systems. Curiosity allows you to connect the dots and create innovation for the sake of innovation. Craft There is a difference between treating your profession as a job versus treating your profession as a craft. Treating your profession like a job is just doing the same thing, waiting to just be done, get money and spend it on whatever. And the cycle repeats. Treating your profession as a craft means that you want to improve the work you do enough where people will notice and love what you do. A job is a cyclical process, you do things for the sake of compensation, and that’s fine. A craft is like a spiral. You do things, but every day, every week, or every iteration, you want to improve. Making your job your craft delivers a lot of things that help see your life as a bit more palatable. For one, you deviate from the fact that you aren’t doing it for the money anymore. Most artists don’t do things for the money, you don’t have to either. Perhaps the payoff of improving your craft is appealing. That one day, you will get what you deserve through hard work and improvement. But most of all, improving on your craft gives you a sense of purpose. By slowly imporving what you do to make people’s lives’ better, for a chance to be the best of it is a very satisfying goal, that gives your life meaning. It’s a blessing if your job and your craft is one and the same, but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, I would say that if it wasn’t for podcasting, I wouldn’t have ever made food science my craft. Podcasting allowed me to dive deeply into this meta-learning state, reading more about the art of crafting. Now both food science and podcasting are a craft to me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Having a craft means having a goal where you will keep on improving it until you get to that goal, and then achieve a bigger goal. For podcasting, it was “make 6 episodes”, then “get sponsors” then “get 100 episodes”, and now, “get 300 episodes”. For Food Science, I started my job in a granola bar factory. The goal was to “get a product development job”, then it was “make really good products”. Then it was “start your own company”, now it’s “make an impact”. All of these skills can be cultivated all at the same time very easily. All you need to do is start something you’re ionate in. Someone last week came up to me and talked about trying to change the healthcare system. Instead of drugs, he wants turmeric, medicinal mushrooms, etc to solve our health problems. He mentioned in his question to the speakers “when can something like turmeric-mushroom mix, be sold in the stores instead of drugs?” Afterwards we talked, he said that he knows that our healthcare system is a big problem. I told him if he wanted to fix it, of course, he did. After I told him the story of the podcast, and the Better Meat Co, and how that all got started, all I said was “If you can’t sell your own turmeric-mushroom mix, what makes you think you have a shot of changing the healthcare system?”. People have the power to change things, but sometimes the problem is so big, nobody starts. This is the current issue with climate change. We’re getting close, we need more help. So finally, this is the final ask. You might be able to work for 8-12 hour a day, but afterwards, you have 8-12 hours to make an impact. You just have to start something. A blog, a podcast, an event every weekend, a food stand in a farmer’s market. Elon Musk said it takes 80 hours to change the world. There was a lot of backlash from his post, but I am a firm believe you have to work hard to make an impact. So do more than the 100 people I’ve interviewed. A lot of people don’t make an impact in their life. If you don’t want to, that’s fine, there are many people like you. But for those who do want to leave an impact, we need you. We need more heroes. And we’re all here, happy to you. And I'll be so happy when I can say "Welcome to the community"

Cultivating an ecosystem is extremely important in any industry. The most common example of this is Silicon Valley in the Bay Area. When everyone thrives in one place, and they all work together to build some amazing things I’m always curious how great ecosystems can be built, living in Phoenix and Sacramento, where the ecosystem is at its infancy, I was curious on how to grow these types of functions. As I found out interviewing Alan, it does indeed take a village, or perhaps a city, but it also takes a mediator. Alan is in charge of bridging food companies, big and small, in Chicago and heads the non-profit, the Chicagoland Food and Beverage Network. This non-profit hosts events and discussions to get the already thriving food industry in Chicago together with a  common theme that helps these different food companies understand each other. For example, a big company can learn innovation from a small company,and a small company can learn corporate structure, from a big company. Alan’s history is also pretty amazing. We get into the details in his 14 year stint at Dairy Management including sage advice on how to network and how to learn, and how knowing the whole process, can set you up for success.   Sponsor - FoodLabelPro.com Is your product packaging compliant with the new FDA rules?  The compliance deadline is January 1st, 2020. At FoodLabelPro.com we will upgrade your current s for only $50. FoodLabelPro.com also provides package and claim reviews, laboratory analysis, shelf life testing, printer/graphics services, and menu analysis.   We are your one-stop shop for food packaging: FoodLabelpro.com. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. About Alan Reed Alan Reed. Executive Director of Chicagoland Food & Beverage Network. Prior to this role, Alan was Executive Vice President, Strategy & Innovation at Dairy Management, Inc. He was responsible for creating and driving innovative strategies to grow dairy demand.  Alan has a degree in Telecommunications from Indiana University and an MBA in Management & Strategy from Northwestern University. About Chicagoland Food and Beverage   The Chicagoland Food & Beverage Network (CFBN) launched in 2017 to bring industry players together, to provide a forum for collaboration and , and to better connect the 4,500 companies in the industry across Chicagoland to drive innovation and growth in the region. Our Mission is to drive inclusive economic growth in Chicagoland by bringing together the region’s food and beverage industry stakeholders to pursue collaborative opportunities. Show Notes Chicagoland Food and Beverage Network Who’s all in Chicago Kraft Hinez Mars Wrigley Mondelez Tyson ConAgra McDonald's and many more! The History of Chicago’s food industry At least 100 years ago. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle is based in Chicago Advantaged in of transportation Advantaged in of agriculture Easy access by air and train. It’s the significant middle of of the country It’s in the center of the North America region O’hare Airport Midway Airport What do you prefer? O’hare or Midway?: O’hare has international flights. Midway lands in better flight paths When someone asks you what you do for a living, what do you tell them?: I bring together the food and beverage industry of Chicagoland and grow the economy, industry and jobs. We’re a next generation trade association. History of the non-profit: We started 18 months ago, so we’re relatively new. We have 75 corporate with like Kraft Wrigley, Mars, etc. We launched with the idea to foster innovation. We’re the mediators to get big companies and small companies together. One program is the Food Manufacturing Workforce Development Program which trains potential employees to work in manufacturing jobs. Young people and manufacturing: Before, you could see a career path with manufacturing. College made a gap in the manufacturing industry. However, many of the jobs are very technical and digitally enabled. You can still get paid a good middle-class wage. About $58,000 a year + benefits. High performing companies help employees in the manufacturing area to go to college and excel in their career. We are trying to tell those stories. SAFE+FAIR What do these events look like?: Sometimes they’re topical discussions. Other times, we bring them to cool restaurants or incubators One example: have a startup come in and tell large companies how to innovate. Large companies also share their interested. Another example of a topic: 5th and 6th generation companies. We have to reinvent themselves for every generation Chicago: The silicon valley of food and beverage What was your career path?: Indiana University: Telecommunication, English Literature, Spanish, and Business. I spent 8 years working in Advertising in an agency. Got a masters in Northwestern which put me on a different path. I ended up getting a job with the Got Milk people (Dairy Management). I spent 14 years and did their long term business management. The MacArthur Foundation reached out and recruited me to launch this organization with them. After 14 years in Got Milk, what did you learn?: The people that you work with today will always come back. The people with whom you do a great job they’ll be your boss or employee later on in life. Never burn a bridge. Learn as much as you can. Find a mentor and be a mentor. Why does your food job rock?: We are growing something nobody else is able to do How do you deal with the weather in Chicago?: Wear a coat and telecommute Most people I know telecommute a day or two a week. There are specific things when coming into the office What type of food trends and technologies are exciting you right now?: What is transparency? How much is enough? How much is too much? Who is doing a good job about transparency?: In Chicago: Simple Mills, RX Bar, Farmer’s Fridge Blockchain Anti-trend: Really good high fat, artisianal butters Dicotomous trends: Plants and Meat are both growing upwards, but not fighting against each other. Flexitarian Drone technology Microfertilization Favorite Kitchen Item: Pizza Stone Chicago Deep Dish Cauliflower crust pizza What’s the weirdest thing you ate on a pizza stone?: Brussel sprouts. They turned out awesome. Girl and Goat Tanta Purple Pig Fat Rice Alan’s choices: Alinea, Rick Bayless Topololabamba Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to go in the food industry?: Work hard, learn a lot, be serious about it. Those who learn their craft then to do the best. Really invest in your career and learning. Where can we find you for advice?: www.chicagolandfood.org. You can reach out to any of us. [email protected] especially moving to Chicago or working in Chicago.

SAFE+FAIR is a food company that believes everyone should have safe and allergen-friendly food at affordable prices.  As many know, sometimes these types of products are quite pricey but for Will, he makes it his mission for these products to be affordable. He does this with a nimble and ionate team, a strict allergen program, and years of experience in the food industry. Pay attention to how Will talks about his staff. I found his gratitude for his staff extremely inspiring. Will knows everything about his staff, and his team feels like one big family. Not only that, but Will talks about his amazing kids and fiancé throughout the episode and you can tell just how much he loves the people he surrounds himself with. Will has probably some of the best advice in of building company culture. He knows the mission he’s in, the company he wants to run, and the impact he wants to bring to the world, and you can definitively tell in this episode, he walks the walk, and talks the talk. About SAFE+FAIR Over lunch one day, longtime best friends Dave Leyrer and Pete Najarian found themselves sharing food allergy frustrations. Both dads were stressed out by the lack of safe foods for their kids, Abby and Remy, who both happened to have nut allergies. Fed up with scrutinizing labels and constantly reminding other parents to do so, Dave and Pete agreed: Safe products were hard to find or too expensive. Plus, pricey "food allergy brands" totally failed to appeal to the nut-allergic kids—much less the non-allergic ones. Dave and Pete set out to make living with food allergies easier and more delicious for families like theirs. The founders set their sights on creating products both safe for food allergic kids AND so appealing that all kids love them. To make products SAFE + FAIR means offering clear information and affordable prices—so whoever does the shopping can make easier, faster, more inclusive choices. And that's how The Safe + Fair Food Company was born. That's our story, and we'd love to hear yours. Reach out to us on Facebook or Instagram with #safeandfair.   Sponsor - FoodLabelPro.com Is your product packaging compliant with the new FDA rules?  The compliance deadline is January 1st, 2020. At FoodLabelPro.com we will upgrade your current s for only $50. FoodLabelPro.com also provides package and claim reviews, laboratory analysis, shelf life testing, printer/graphics services, and menu analysis.   We are your one-stop shop for food packaging: FoodLabelpro.com. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Show Notes When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you tell them in a sentence or less?: I make allergen-free food that is safe and affordable. How do you make the foods affordable?: It’s easy to make very expensive food but it doesn’t work for everyone. We want to be thoughtful on our business model and as long as we are net positive, GMA cost – General istration Costs. Toddy Rezende - COO Jessica Callan – Brand design Jessica Girrelli – Head of R+D Matt Blackman – Head of school sales Ashley Maynard – manages relationships for our copackers Conrad Sue – Head of manufacturing Christina Burns – Market Activation Do you find people who have the attributes to work for Safe+Fair?: There are people who are comfortable with it, or not. If you have a family matter to go to, go for it. If I need to call you at 9pm, then it’ll just be a few minutes. What does a CEO mean to you?: I break ties. I make the decision when there is conflict. I also need to make sure the business is operating correctly. I communicate externally, which is a real privilege. Describe the steps it took to get to where you are today?: I had my first kid at 25. So I had to make money. When I worked hard, I got a lot of opportunities “Don’t worry about the person next to you or behind you, just work” How did you make the jump for entrepreneurship?: First and foremost, the most important thing in your life is to take care of your family. I had enough financial stability to make it happen. I wanted to make a great impression for my kids. National Grocers Association How is your allergen program?: We source our ingredients carefully, our copackers also can’t eat peanutes on the line, and we test for allergens as two different locations You should partner with your copackers, and you shouldn’t make people uncomfortable in the relationship or it will bite you. We have a relationship from Stanford University. Allergens are an epidemic What does Growth mean to you?: We operate on revenue growth and customer growth. I wear the SAFE+FAIR shirt every day because people will always ask me what it is. The best way to market is to articulate the best you can. Be smart – only because you know what other people don’t know Be relevant – I’m telling something that matters to you Be inspiring – Enough so you can talk to us again You can only be the best version of you What type of food trends are you noticing in the industry?: Being authentic. It’s not just sugar-free, but how much sugar is in my soda. Soom Foods Advice: It’s better to serve one purpose, rather than hitting everything. At a small business with few folks, you can only focus on one thing What’s the challenge the food industry has to face right now?: Margins versus healthy food. Junk food has higher margins, but healthy food is very difficult. What is one thing in the food industry that you’d like to know more about?: I’d like to look in corners more. I wish I could see the trends from the beginnings Owyn Protein Supply Side West Who inspired you to go into food?: My father was the CEO of a grocery store and got me a job at Pepsi. He made me start at the very bottom. The food industry has evolved in such an interesting way. Pepsi young professional executive training Any advice for someone climbing up the corporate ladder?: Just work hard, you won’t be at the same job forever. You can decide how hard you work. What’s your favorite kitchen item?: My fiancé. She cooks everything well Wedding Soup Any advice for starting a food business?: It’s a good idea, don’t think that your idea is something everyone will pay for it. Think early on how you can make money off of it. How do you find traction for a product?; Ask your kids or your loved one. Or the most objective people in your life. Where can we find you for advice?: On LinkedIn, or Safe+Fair.com. Let the customer service know that you want to talk to me and we’ll be connected.

It’s been 2 years since Phil reached out to me when I was just starting My Food Job Rocks. After an interview, of course, we kept in touch. Through his period as the President of the RCA student association, to his job search, where he ended up in the famed upcycling startup, ReGrained. Who just got funded $2.5 million dollars last month. Moving back to California for my own startup, I kept on running into Phil because of the work we do at Kitchentown, a sort of shared production space for many startups. Seeing him zoom back and forth with his ReGrained swag, I wanted to interview him again, since so much as changed. I have this interview across the street at their warehouse, where ReGrained stores all of their products. Phil and I discuss the startup life and the challenges and rewards that come from it. One huge discussion that comes up is on how to use your mentors and resources to fill in what you don't know. After all, your friends have decades of experience and know what they're doing, unlike us. This is an amazing episode for food scientists who want to get into entrepreneurship. We as scientists think we really have to know everything to make the jump, but Phil and I are two examples on that there are ways to get through the parts you don’t know, with a little help from your friends. Lot’s of name dropping in the episode, but we’ve got you covered on the show notes. Sponsor - FoodLabelPro.com Is your product packaging compliant with the new FDA rules?  The compliance deadline is January 1st, 2020. At FoodLabelPro.com we will upgrade your current s for only $50. FoodLabelPro.com also provides package and claim reviews, laboratory analysis, shelf life testing, printer/graphics services, and menu analysis.   We are your one-stop shop for food packaging: FoodLabelpro.com. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Show Notes Kim Schaub - Peas On Moss Phillip Saneski Episode 17 ConAgra Hannah Dresden and Hailey Bell - CuliNex Karen Diep - Beyond Meat ReGrained – Upcycling bar Editor’s choice of Supply Side West ReGrained’s Seed round of 2.5 million Barilla Pasta Equity Based Crowdfunding Campaign – 700 ers. $700,000 Elliot Begoun from the Intertwine Group Kim Shaub Ali Bouzari - Speaker at the RCA Catherine Proper - RCA Larry Tong Sr. Scientist at McCormick Spices RCA board What does Innovation mean to you?: How can we turn historically wasteful ingredients to a new supply? We need to streamline better Ethan Brown-CEO of Beyond Meat: Sometimes people want innovation on their iPhone, they don’t want it in their mouth. Woodside, CA called the Village Pub Garde Manger - Protector of Salads AQ 7th and mission in San Francisco Modern California in 2014 Granada Bistro Bob’s Walbread in Los Alamos Rachel Zemser Research Chef Association Food Waste Production Development Competition Griffith Foods Foodbytes Terra Accelerator North taste Ingredients (Sea Food Concentrates) Open IDEO Food Waste Alliance Rockafeller Foundation Waste with Anthony Bourdain Phil and Dan met in IDEO Jordan Schwartz Danielle Gould – Food is a labor of love. When she tasted a food, it tasted so good then she sees the founder and she’s like “oh wow” Why does your food job rock?: We’re one of the companies who are promoting upcycling in beer grains and we are making good food and great impact Forbes 30 under 30 Food Trends and Technology: Plant-Based Protein Innovation Onion article Nut Sweat One thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: The regulatory. Especially for a waste ingredient How do you set up a sensory ?: Talk to your flavor house Savannah GA has a restaurant called The Gray that has Grits like risotto Cheese cake dish with beat 3 ways Sorrel – fruit shaped like a heart Climate Action Summit Ali Bouzari book: Ingredients You can find me at [email protected] and also on linkedin