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#HGAcademy: At a time when our physical spaces are confined and movement is stifled, the only constant in our lives is our own creativity. For a while, we, at Homegrown have been toying with the idea of evolving our platform into space that inspires generations to believe that their career paths are not limited to those shaped by our society and that there is a world out there that where creative industries are thriving. Our sole motivation behind this attempt is to shift the needle in the Indian creative industries.
Homegrown as a brand has always stood for responding to the Indian youth’s needs, and to this end, we bring to you HG Academy, to teach you everything your school didn’t. As we spend our days inside our homes and within ourselves, HGAcademy with its commune of creative thought leaders and pioneers will teach you the basics that you might not get access to elsewhere. We hope for it to evolve into a culture of creation, collaboration, discovery through an exchange of thoughts & ideas. The coming weeks will see digital festivals, skill-building sessions, new personal & professional strategies and similar efforts towards connecting you to the world of creators to learn and be inspired. The aim is to deep-dive into the creative process, new ways of learning, re-imagination of old ways and experience and learn more.
This week, we are talking about the food we consume. Humans like to eat meat. Even though all this knowledge has been in the public, the consumption rates have only gone up. However, the way the world manufactures meat is a tremendously negative process. Chicken, which is the most efficient meat industry, takes up 70% of all agricultural land available and contributes to global warming and other environmental concerns. Since these animals are fed antibiotics to keep them healthy before they are slaughtered, eating meat also has the potential of fuelling an anti-microbial reaction in the body of the consumers in the near future.
It’s usually taste, price, and convenience that people look at when they consume meat, but there is a deeper need for us to consider the larger impact of what we consume. While it’s a hard ask for people to switch over from chicken to chickpeas for every meal, Varun Deshpande, our HG Academy featured guest of the day has a solution. He points out that if the market is able to produce alternatives that taste the same, are easily available and are just as pocket-friendly, a major change can be made in the world.
For today’s takeover, we have Varun Deshpande, MD, The Good Food Institute, India. He is going to educate us on digital health and global food systems with this talk, “The Future Of Food: How They Are Building The New Protein Ecosystem.”
As of now, he says, there are two types of alternatives available:
i. Plant-based meat, which means manufacturing meat-like products that taste and look the same from plants.
ii. Cultivated meat, which involves taking a small sample of cells from the animal and cultivating it. Internationally, Memphis Meats and Mosa Meats are gearing up for the launch of the same.
Deshpande believes, “It’s a problem that can be solved during the lifetime and if more talented and conscientious, influential scientists and policy-makers take it up, it is not a difficult task.” He continues, “India has a massive role to play not only because of our massive population but also because of our tremendous agricultural biodiversity and talent in the pharmaceutical sector.”
As the son of a cancer surgeon from Mumbai, Varun has been deeply immersed in healthcare and technology from a very young age. He spent his formative years studying Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Technology Hub, Carnegie Mellon University. He then went on to work on implementing digital health in India and the United States, helping vulnerable populations through care coordination and a systematic approach to healthcare. While in the United States, Varun learnt about Effective Altruism, a philosophy that seeks to investigate and target the world’s most pressing problems. He came to understand the tremendous impact of industrial animal agriculture on the world, and the imperative need to transition away from it using markets and technology. In dedicating his work to the future of protein and combining his duty to human and planetary health, Varun aims to help build a more healthy, sustainable, and just global food system, starting right here in India.
Good Food aims to produce food in a new and better way as they bring together the brightest innovators, forward-thinking investors, and visionaries. Some of his recommendations to familiarise you with this work are:
Podcasts
Exponential View with Azeem Azhaar: Deep, insightful perspectives on technology, the political economy, and what the future holds for an ever-changing world.
Feeding 10 Billion with Varun & Ramya: Deep dives on why transforming the global protein supply is one of the most important challenges of our time - for people, planet, and profit.
Books
Factfulness, Hans Rosling: Why the world is better than we think, driven by good work, ingenuity, and expertise.
House on Fire - The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox, William Foege: Like watching Rocky, but for public health. The inside view on how beating back death and saving millions is entirely possible!
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius: The most powerful person in the world writes to himself about living a good life. Stoicism is fantastic, particularly in trying times.
Movies
The Sting (1973): Fun ‘long con’ film from decades before Clooney’s Danny Ocean. One of the best of all time.
Some websites:
GFI’s own US and India website and blog are rich sources of information about the alternative protein sector. (See this piece by him on India’s place at the centre of this transformation.)
AgFunderNews: The what’s happening at the forefront of agri-tech and food-tech. (It’s easy to get lost in there, so he particularly recommends this piece on the sector.)
For something different from his own everyday reading, Varun also likes Edible Issues, which compiles writing on food culture and its interplay with food systems.
Companies Working On Products With Similar Plant-Based Alternatives.
“On reflection, I think that it would be great to get people to check out the Instagram accounts of the companies in our sector” - Varun Deshpande
He enlists,
Just Inc, which makes delicious plant-based eggs from mung beans and other ingredients. Find them on Instagram at @eatjust.
Impossible Foods, whose plant-based beef burgers beat out the latest TVs and cell phones to be the ‘hottest technology on the planet’ per the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.Find them on Instagram at @impossible_foods
Beyond Meat, which also makes plant-based beef and chicken, had the hottest IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in 20 years, and is supporting an entire ecosystem of farmers growing yellow peas for protein ingredients. Find them on Instagram at @beyondmeat.
Memphis Meats, which is cultivating meat directly from animal cells instead of raising and slaughtering animals. Find them on Instagram at @memphismeats. They were founded by Andhra Pradesh-born Dr Uma Valeti, and are the first of an exciting cohort of global companies gearing up to launch ‘cultivated meat’ within the next couple of years.
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