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Citizens of Soil on why olive oil is liquid gold

VA FLIX — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 10:50:00 +0000

In this episode of Future Food, we explore regenerative olive oil Analisa interviews Sarah Vachon, the CEO of UK-based Citizens Of Soil, which sources olive oil from female producers.

We talk about the fascinating history of olive oil from its importance in global trade to its healing health and beauty properties.

This episode also covers:

why olive oil is about to have a movement similar to what we saw in specialty coffee and wine
how to make sure you’re buying the best possible good liquid gold for your pantry
olive oil flavor profiles
the rise of female farmers producing regenerative olive oils
challenges around fraud
how farmers are tackling drought and wildfires in Southern Europe
how Citizen of Soil’s business model minimizes waste and strives for a low carbon footprint

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Want to connect with Sarah? Subscribe to the Future Food newsletter to access her contact details and the episode transcript.

Your subscription will also power the production of more episodes like this. Get access now!

Connect with Analisa Winther

Newsletter: www.analisawinther.substack.com
Website: www.analisawinther.com
Instagram:@analisa.winther
Show Host: Analisa Winther

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Lessons Learned from 1 Year of Business

Analisa Winther — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 20:29:00 +0000

October 2022 I decided to start my own business. To make my 1 year business anniversary, this minisode gives an honest, behind the scene look into my journey, why I decided to take the leap, and what I’ve learned since then.

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Work with me: www.analisawinther.com

Instagram: @analisa.winther

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How to Start Angel Investing in ClimateTech

VA FLIX — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 08:57:00 +0000

A few months ago, I was interviewed by Yoann Berno for his podcast Climate Insiders to talk about how I put together deals between startups and investors.

The conversation went so well that he then invited me back on hisnshow to interview him about his backstory, which turned into a great conversation on how anyone can start angel investing in ClimateTech with food and agtech falling under this umbrella.

I've been angel investing for the last few years in startups in Europe and the US. I started angel investing because I wanted to know what it was like to have skin in the game. While I work for investors helping them to find deals related to the future of food, this work has always been with someone else's money. Actually stepping into the role of investor was a learning curve with its own risks and upsides. This is what Yoann Berno and I debunk in this episode as we share our personal experiences detailing how we went from VC to angel investing.

Related Links

Get 20% off Yoann's ⁠Investing in Climate Tech⁠ course with code FRIENDS 20

Climate Insider's interview with me on what build strong investor-startup relationships

Meraki impact on investing in regenerative agriculture

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www.analisawinther.com

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Meraki Impact on investing in regenerative agriculture through venture philanthropy

Analisa Winther — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 21:43:00 +0000

Fernando Russo is the co-founder of Meraki Impact, a single family office from Brazil dedicated to investments in regenerative agriculture, forest and the future of sustainable food production. Guided by venture philanthropy, Meraki Impact has made dozens of investments in technology to enable the scale of regenerative agriculture and in large scale regenerative agriculture farms in Latin America and Europe.

In this episode, we discuss Fernando’s uncommon career path. He used to work for Playboy and AB InBev before he pivoted to food. We also explain what regenerative agriculture is, the industry’s potential, and technology enablers. Fernando also explains how they use the venture philanthropy model to invest in pioneering startups as well as grassroots initiatives, especially related to regenerating the Amazon rain forest.

⁠Become a subscriber⁠

Want to connect with Fernando? Subscribe to the Future Food newsletter to access his contact details and the episode transcript. You’ll subscription will also power the production of more episodes like this. Get access now

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Tony's Chocolonely on making chocolate 100% slave free

Analisa Winther — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 19:18:00 +0000

In 2007, journalist Teun van de Keuken turned himself in for eating chocolate. He claimed that by buying chocolate he was benefiting from child slavery and he wasn’t wrong.

The cocoa supply chain is shaped like an hourglass. The chain starts with millions of farmers that produce cocoa and ends with the billions of consumers like us that enjoy chocolate.

But what about the bit in between?

This section is dominated by a small group of chocolate giants that profit from keeping the cocoa purchasing price as low as possible. For the farmers, this creates a poverty trap that leads to illegal child labor and modern slavery.

From this revelation, Tony’s Chocolonely was born. By raising awareness with great marketing, leading by example in producing their own chocolate, and inspiring othersto act with initatives like the Open Chain they aim to make 100% slave free chocolate the industry norm.

Today’s episode is an awesome example of how a strong vision can shift an industry. I sit down with Joke Aerts to discuss how Tony’s got started, how the chocolate supply chain works, the power of transparency and collaborations, and how we can make 100% slave free chocolate the industry norm.

Connect with Analisa

Coaching Programs: https://nordicfoodtech.io/startup-services/

Investor Services: https://nordicfoodtech.io/investor-services/

Speaking: https://nordicfoodtech.io/speaking/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/analisa.winther/

Give Thanks To The Show
Has the show helped you learn about the future of food? Find a job? Make an investment? Partner with an org? Change how you eat? This podcast is powered by listener support and contributions. If the show has helped you in any way, please consider becoming a monthly or annual subscriber. Your contribution goes a long way to tell more stories about how we can create a better future through food.

Make a one-time contribution to support the show here

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What Makes Investor-Startup Relationships Great (Video)

VA FLIX — Tue, 30 May 2023 19:27:00 +0000

How can startups in the climate, ag, and foodtech space get the funding they need to scale their solutions? Climentum Capital, a European VC, asked me to come on their podcast Climate Insiders to discuss just that. I speak with Partner Yoann Berno about the art and science of fundraising giving you a behind the scenes look at how investors think, make decisions on deal flow, and what they typically look for.

Attracting the Right Investors - Get the Masterclass

Want to dive deeper on how you can create a fundraising strategy that closes your ideal investors? Download my Masterclass on ⁠Attracting the Right Investors here⁠.

Book a Workshop

In this 90 min 1:1 coaching workshop, you and Analisa will go through your pitch deck and review your fundraising strategy. Analisa will give constructive feedback from an investors’ point of view to help you find and land the right investors for your growth journey. ⁠Learn more and book here.⁠

Related Links

⁠Watch this episode as a YouTube video⁠

⁠Interview with a love matchmaker on building great business relationships⁠

⁠More episodes by Future Food with Analisa Winther⁠

⁠Climate Insiders Podcast⁠

⁠How to Pitch Your Company by Y Combinator⁠

⁠What You Do Is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz ⁠

Give Thanks To The ShownHas the show helped you learn about the future of food? Find a job? Make an investment? Partner with an org? Change how you eat? This podcast is powered by listener support and contributions. If the show has helped you in any way, please consider becoming a monthly or annual subscriber. Your contribution goes a long way to tell more stories about how we can create a better future through food.

⁠Become a subscriber and support the show here

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The Art & Science of Startup Fundraising {Video Guest Post}

Analisa Winther — Tue, 30 May 2023 19:27:00 +0000

Attracting the Right Investors – Get the Masterclass

Want to dive deeper on how you can create a fundraising strategy that closes your ideal investors? Download my Masterclass on ⁠Attracting the Right Investors here⁠.

Book a Workshop

⁠More episodes by Future Food with Analisa Winther⁠

⁠Climate Insiders Podcast⁠

⁠How to Pitch Your Company by Y Combinator⁠

⁠What You Do Is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz ⁠

⁠Become a subscriber and support the show here

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Claus Meyer on eating as an agricultural act

Analisa Winther — Tue, 09 May 2023 15:22:00 +0000

Claus Meyer is a true gastronomic entrepreneur. He co-founded Noma with Rene Redzepi, which has been voted the best restaurant in the world multiple times. In 2004, he spearheaded the writing of the New Nordic Manifesto, an influential philosophy that spread like wildfire on how chefs can approach cooking using traditional ingredients and local produce. Claus is also behind the Melting Pot Foundation, which trains individuals in underserved communities from Morocco to Bolivia and even in Danish prisons to become chefs. He’s also been the host of multiple cooking shows with global reach, authored several cookbooks, started a catering company, deli, bakery chain, country hotel, orchard, and is behind several high-end restaurants globally.

The red thread through all of Claus’s work is to create healthy, delicious meals that inspire us to see eating as an agricultural act. In this episode, we discuss Claus’ career and how his opinion on what a good food future looks like has changed over time.

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Why you should be drinking Bolivian wine

Puris’ CEO on the power of peas

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Attracting the Right Investors

VA FLIX — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 21:46:00 +0000

How do you find the right investor for a startup? This is a million dollar question that early stage startups ask me all the time. And, I get it. Finding the right investors IS super important. They can help to make or break the company.

Today's podcast episode is a snippet of my new masterclass ⁠Attracting the Right Investors⁠, which deep dives into this topic. In it, I share the seven strategies I teach my one-on-one coaching clients to help them land investors that align with their vision and values. These principles have been gleaned from years of experience putting together startup-investor relationships. It's a behind the scenes look at how investors think when evaluating a startup, which will help you to enter the fundraising process with confidence and clarity.

Enjoy!

Download ⁠⁠Attracting the Right Investors - Masterclass ⁠⁠⁠⁠here

Book a 1:1

In this 90 min 1:1 coaching workshop, Analisa will go through your pitch deck with you and review your fundraising strategy. Analisa will give constructive feedback from an investors’ point of view to help you find and land the right investors for your growth journey. Learn more and book here.

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Become a paid subscriber for access to exclusive content and to support the shpw

Join the newsletter to get regular updates about new episodes

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Introducing Future Food with Analisa Winther

VA FLIX — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 22:35:00 +0000

4 years ago I started the Nordic FoodTech Podcast. A lot has happened since then. I’ve evolved. The show’s evolved and now it’s time for a change.
I’m rebranding the show to be called Future Food with Analisa Winther and we’re going global!
The show’s core focus will stay the same: share stories of individuals and organizations creating a better future through food to foster more awareness and collaboration BUT the scope will now be global and more broad when it comes to topic areas.
I share the full thinking and reasoning behind the rebrand in this minisode.

Apply to be on the show

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WWF's Brent Loken on solving the great food puzzle

Analisa Winther — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 20:20:00 +0000

When it comes to the solving the climate crisis, food is a big part of the puzzle. Food is responsible for 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions, but historically it hasn’t been in the spotlight of climate conversations. In today’s episode, I speak with Brent Loken who is the Global Food Lead Scientist for the World Wildlife Fund.

We discuss the power each country has to create food system transformation. All of these natural climate solutions fit together to create an exponential roadmap for solving the Great Food Puzzle and reaching the biodiversity, climate, and health goals we’ve set as an international community.

Support The Show

Has the show helped you learn about the future of food? Find a job? Make an investment? Partner with an org? Change how you eat? This podcast is powered by listener support and contributions. If the show has helped you in any way, please consider becoming a monthly or annual subscriber. Your contribution goes a long way to tell more stories about how we can create a better future through food.

Make a one-time contribution to support the show here

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 5:14

I want to get started with what exactly you do for a living. So your title is Global Food Lead Scientist at the World Wildlife Fund. What exactly does a Global Food Lead Scientist do?

Brent Loken, WWF 5:27

So WWF is pretty huge. I think we’re in, geez, over 90 offices worldwide. I think we’re upwards of 10,000 employees. So we’re a massive, massive NGO. Each office is independent from the other offices. So what we found within WWF is having some sort of internal coordination between the offices in terms of directing where we’re going with a specific topic would be helpful. Then what the Global Food Lead Scientist does and my role is to coordinate the science and the scientific endeavors of food systems, and the research on food systems within the network and our network offices, and to gently guide and push and lead in terms of which way we would like to go.

Access the full transcript here

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NordGen's Lise Lykke Steffensen on storing seeds to safeguard our future food supply

Analisa Winther — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 18:21:00 +0000

At the top of Norway near the Arctic Circle, you will find the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Like you and I back up our phones and computers, seed banks around the world serve as the ultimate insurance policy for the world’s food supply. They store copies of every important crop variety available in the world today. Their goal is give future generations options. Whether we face war, climate change, or population growth, they make sure that we have seeds to replant and genetic diversity in our food supply for years to come.

My guest today is Lise Lykke Steffensen. She is the Director of NordGen or the Nordic Genetic Resource Center. NordGen runs the Svalbard Global Seed Vault along with the Norwegian Ministry of Agricutlure and Food and the Crop Trust. Their mission is to preserve and promote the sustainable use of the genetic resources within plants, farm animals, and forestry in the Nordic countries.

Join us as we discuss the importance of genetic diversity and the role of seed keepers in ensuring our future food supply.

More information about Analisa’s coaching services for startups

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Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 4:54

So, thank you so much for coming on the Nordic FoodTech Podcast. I’m very excited to be sitting at your offices. And maybe we can just start by explaining where we are. Like, what’s important about this building and the campus that we’re on?

Lise Lykke Steffensen, NordGen 5:06

Yeah, we are just outside of Malmö in Sweden at the campus of the Swedish Agricultural University, close to the garden and the greenhouses. We have just moved into a new building. It’s fully made of wood. It has solar panels on the roof. It’s the highest sustainability ranking that you can get and it fits so well to what we do here.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 5:33

So I would love to hear more about what it is you do, but also how you got into this line of work.

Lise Lykke Steffensen, NordGen 5:38

Yeah. NordGen is the Nordic Genetic Resources Center. We are a knowledge center on genetic resources. And we are also a gene bank for seeds. We are an institution under the Nordic Council of Ministers, meaning that we work for the five Nordic governments of Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland, but also the three self-governing areas of Greenland, and Faroe Island, and Åland. What we do is extremely important for any food production, food security, for our ecosystems, and biodiversity. And I will elaborate a little bit more about that. We work with genetic resources in relation to agricultural and horticultural plants, meaning the food that we eat or produces feed or fuel or whatever. And then we work with farm animals genetic resources and forest genetic resources. And then we also have the operating responsibility of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Everything that has to do with agricultural biodiversity.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 6:53

Yeah. And how did you get into this line of work? To be focused on biodiversity?

Access the full episode transcript here

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Instict vs. Intuition-Based Leadership

Analisa Winther — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 17:02:00 +0000

One of my favorite questions to ask leaders is: what is your relationship to your intuition? This question always leads to a fascinating conversation about how our intuition does or doesn’t influence decision-making. This is also a topic I love to discuss with my coaching clients. Our bodies carry so much wisdom and data around what we should do, but it can take time and practice for us to get in touch with our intuition and trust it as a knowledge source. In this episode, I explore the role of intuition in business.

Related Links

Apply for coaching with Analisa

Episode with the Kogi on merging indigenous wisdom with modern science and technology

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The Kogi on merging indigenous wisdom with modern science and tech

Analisa Winther — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 18:34:00 +0000

The Kogis escaped colonization by retreating high up into the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of Colombia. This is nothing short of a miracle. Their ancient, indigenous culture has been preserved since pre-Colombian times giving us a glimpse of what life would have been like when the Incans, Mayans, and Aztecs ruled and we interacted with the world in another way. They recently started traveling and connecting with us – The Little Brothers as they like to call us – to raise awareness about climate change, biodiversity loss, and the need for us to come together and create a new, third world that brings together indigenous wisdom with modern science and technology. In today’s episode, I speak with Lucas Buchholz who has written a book for the Kogi and traveled the world with them as their translator. We discuss the Kogi’s message and what a food system that supports life looks like from their point of view.

A big thank you to Mac Krol for sponsoring this episode. Mac is the Director of the European Institute of Miso, the Founder of a startup that produces miso from European ingredients, and a passionate advocate for all fermented food products and has spoken about miso all around the world from Chicago to Berlin. If you are looking for a speaker for your next event, consider getting in touch with him at mac@macferments.com. He’ll tell you the story of how miso is becoming a household staple just like the salt, pepper, and sugar in your pantry.

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 4:44

Hi, Lucas, and welcome to the Nordic FoodTech Podcast. I would love to start with your story of how you went to Colombia and met the Kogi people.

Lucas Buchholz, Kogi 4:54

Hey, Analisa. Yes, thank you for the invitation. Well, yeah, it’s been quite an adventure to go there. I saw I think in the newspaper that they were coming here for an event and asked the organizer if they needed a translator for them because I speak Spanish. And they said, “Yeah, we need a translator. And by the way, we need a place to stay.” I was like, “Okay. I mean, feel free to come to our house.” And they came to our house and I translated for them for a few weeks. And we had all sorts of funny intercultural misunderstandings. And then, at the end of this time, they invited me to come to Colombia to their village in a time of my life when I was trying to figure out what to do with my future. I thought I had my dream job working for the European Union in Pakistan, just to find out that’s absolutely not what I want to do.

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Intention Setting and Designing Your Year

VA FLIX — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 13:34:00 +0000

Here are two exercises I often do at the end of the year. The first one is about reflecting on what happened in the year past before defining what you want to create more of in the year to come. This is summarized by one word that anchors the vision. The second practice is one I love to do with family and friends around the holidays. It's about acknowledgement and enabling your community to support you.
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nOften when starting with a new client, we do a check-in on where they are right now before we take a look at what they want to create in the next 12 months. This is a practice I do with individuals and organizations. It's about creating the big vision and then working backwards to determine what needs to happen to get there. When we create a vision and share it with others - whether in our professional or personal lives - we enable others to support us in getting there.
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nIf you do either exercise, send me a message and let me know how it went. Feel free to tag me on Instagram or LinkedIn. I love to hear from you and sharing with others can inspire them to do the same.
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nIf you are interested in working with me in a 1:1 coaching container, shoot me an email at nordicfoodtechpodcast[@]gmail.com
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nRelated Links
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nWheel of Life Worksheet
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nMy Website
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Fiskerikajen's Jesper Hansen on modern day fishmongering

Analisa Winther — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Jesper Hansen started his career as a Michelin chef before getting into fish. He was the Sous Chef of Søllerød Kro in Denmark helping the famous fine dining restaurant get its first star in 2006. Then his career took a turn. Today, Jesper is the Executive Managing Director of Fiskerikajen, a modern-day fishmonger that has been selling sustainably sourced fish to many of the best and most famous restaurants in the world since 1999

A big thank you to Wavy Wonders seaweed snacks for sponsoring this episode.Today, you’re going to hear Jesper talk a lot about how we can respect our seas by minding what we consume and where it comes from. Seaweed is a great example of a sea vegetable that is not only wildly delicious, but also does wonders for the environment. If you are hosting a conference, event, or have a workplace where you’d like to serve healthy, sustainable snacks, Wavy Wonders is a great choice. Visit their website to learn more.

Why seaweed is a multi-billion dollar industry

The global rise of community ocean gardens

How Iceland is creating a circular economy for fish

Why Bergen, Hawaii, and Singapore are hubs for ocean startups

Aarstiderne on sustainable home grocery delivery

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How to get on a podcast

VA FLIX — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 17:00:00 +0000

In this minisode, I cover how to pitch a podcast you might want to appear on to promote your business. I go over the criteria I have for the Nordic FoodTech Podcast, how I evaluate potential interviewees, and give tips for writing cold pitch emails.
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nApply for the Nordic FoodTech Podcast here

Instagram: @nordicfoodtech

Show Host: Analisa Winther

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How to pitch a podcast

Analisa Winther — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 17:00:00 +0000

Apply for the Nordic FoodTech Podcast here

Website: www.nordicfoodtech.io

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Kaffe Bueno on unleashing coffee's full potential

Analisa Winther — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 16:10:00 +0000

Coffee is a filled with bioactive compounds that beneficial for our health and well being, but when you or I brew a cup we tap less than 1% of the plant’s full potential. The rest we throw away in the coffee grounds. That’s where Kaffe Bueno comes in. They are a bioscience company upcycling coffee grounds into ingredients for the cosmetic, nutraceutical, and functional food and beverage industry. Today, I speak with Alejandro Franco, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Kaffe Bueno. We talk about their startup journey, how we can unlock food waste to create high value products, and what it means to design a circular business model.

This episode was brought to you by Danish Technological Institute. Their experts have extensive knowledge within product development and market evaluation of food and you can use their technological facilities for upcycling, circular economy, and much more. Danish Technological Institute works with clients all around the world helping them to transform their ideas into business through technology and innovation. If you have an idea you want to get off the ground, consider partnering with them. You can learn more at www.dti.dk.

3 mistakes to avoid when pitching foreign investors

Analisa Winther — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 17:23:00 +0000

As a startup you have to pitch all of the time. As your company grows and takes on new markets and foreign investors, you have to adapt your pitch to speak to them. This means some cultural adjustments in how you do business. I just wrapped up doing the pitch coaching for the Nordic US Food Summit and noticed 3 common mistakes that almost all startups made when approaching the US market. In this minisode, I share what they are and how you can avoid them when pitching any VC, potential partner, or customer located outside of your home operating market.

Website: www.nordicfoodtech.io

Instagram: @nordicfoodtech

Show Host: Analisa Winther

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Marine Stewardship Council on the future of fisheries

Analisa Winther — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 17:33:00 +0000

The Marine Stewardship Council is kind of a big deal in the world of fish. They are the organization that sets the standards for sustainable fisheries worldwide. If a fishery meets MSC’s standards, their products are awarded with a blue ecolabel. Many global organizations like IKEA and McDonald’s exclusively purchase MSC certified fish. For them, its a standard that denotes quality and sustainability. This also means that who and what gets certified matters a lot in the global market.

In this episode, I sit down with Linnéa Engström. Before becoming the Director of the Baltic Sea Region & Scandinavia at Marine Stewardship Council, Linnéa worked in politics. She was the Former First Vice Chair of the Fisheries Committee in the European Parliament. While in office, she wrote the first report in the European Parliament on climate justice along with legislation for the sustainable management of the EU’s external fishing fleet. She is also the author of two books, Climate Feminism and Queen Fish. We discuss how the organization is working to stop overfishing and ensure that our oceans are filled with fish for generations to come.

The global rise of community ocean gardens

How Iceland is creating a circular economy for fish

Website: www.nordicfoodtech.io

Instagram: @nordicfoodtech

Show Host: Analisa Winther

Edits: The fee in Sweden is 0.8% not 0.5%. CAB stands for conformity assessment body.

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Big News!

VA FLIX — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 20:34:00 +0000

I've got big news to share! I am going 100% in on starting my own business, which includes growing the podcast. In this episode, I share the details behind the move. If you believe in me and would like to support this work, consider becoming a paid subscriber of the podcast on Substack. To celebrate, I'm offering 20% off an annual subscription to the podcast, which makes it $39 for the year or about $3.50 every month. Sign up here.
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Line Rise Nielsen on big kitchens for food system transformation

Analisa Winther — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 13:40:00 +0000

Hospitals, schools, prisons, elderly homes, day cares, and corporate canteens are all examples of public or professional kitchens. Every day these kitchens churn out hundreds of meals, which means they have a pretty major influence not only on what people eat, but also the entire supply chain. In today’s episode, I sit down with Line Rise Nielsen, The Food Policy Director of Changing Food a consultancy that helps kitchens convert to more sustainable practices. Line and I get into how these kitchens are undergoing transition and why their role is sup important.

A big thank you to Lund University and Region Skåne for sponsoring this episode. They hosted a workshop at Skåne Innovation Week along with Krinova and Greater Copenhagen looking at the role of public meals in Scandinavia. Read more here.

Greenland's Maliina Abelsen on unleashing sustainable solutions

VA FLIX — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 21:13:00 +0000

Maliina Abelsen is the Head of Programme at UNICEF in Greenland. From 2009-2013 she was a Member of Parliament in the Greenlandic Inatsisartut where she first served as the Minister of Social Affairs and Equality and then as the Minister of Finance. She has also served as the CCO of Air Greenland and the CEO of the Arctic Winter Games 2016. This episode was recorded in Nuuk as part of the UNLEASH Regional Innovation Lab, which gathered 200 people under the age of 35 from the Arctic and Nordics to develop solutions to the challenges we are facing as a region. We had a particular focus on biodiversity, education, and health and wellbeing. In this episode, we discuss what creating a sustainable solution from indigenous knowledge and modern science and technology can look like, why food is a powerful healer, and how we must consider the whole in our creations.

More episodes on the Nordics food heritage

Trailer: Sumé - The Sound of a Revolution

Subscribe and support the show

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Maliina Abelsen on unleashing sustainable solutions

Analisa Winther — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 21:13:00 +0000

More episodes on the Nordics food heritage

Trailer: Sumé – The Sound of a Revolution

Subscribe and support the show

The post Maliina Abelsen on unleashing sustainable solutions appeared first on Analisa Winther.

Kitchen Collective Founder Mia Maja Hansson on launching new food ventures

Analisa Winther — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 07:41:00 +0000

Mia Maja Hansson has been super influential in nurturing Copenhagen’s food startup scene. She launched Kitchen Collective, one of the first test kitchens in Europe followed by a co-working collective and street food festival for startups to test new products. The red thread in everything she does is a vision to create a more sustainable, diverse food culture that’s supported by healthy businesses and healthy people. In today’s episode, we talk to Mia Maja about her journey, common mistakes she sees food entrepreneurs make, and recommendations for running a test kitchen.

Top 10 startup Interviews

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These investors are focused on food and ag

Ocean Harvest on regenerative ocean farming

The post Kitchen Collective Founder Mia Maja Hansson on launching new food ventures appeared first on Analisa Winther.

Aarstiderne Founder Søren Ejlersen on pioneering home grocery delivery

Analisa Winther — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 04:31:00 +0000

It feels like grocery delivery services and subscription meal boxes are everywhere these days. But it’s actually not that new of a trend. Aarstiderne was one of the first to enter the space over 20 years ago. Today, they supply around 80,000 households in Denmark and 10,000 in Sweden with organic groceries. Their goal is to help more families make green food choices. Join me and the Co-Founder of Aarstiderne Søren Ejlersen as we dive into the highs and low of their startup journey and the philosophy behind their universe of good food ventures.

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Related Episodes

How supermarkets are preparing for the future of food

Ellen MacArthur Foundation on building circular food cities

More founder interviews and startup stories

Top episodes from Denmark

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Give Feedback, Win $200

VA FLIX — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 14:50:00 +0000

Once a year I crowdsource feedback from listeners about the show as well as ideas for future guests / topics you’d like to see me cover. The 10 question survey is now open. Find it here.

To say thank for answering it, I’m raffling off two prizes!

A $200 gift certificate to the restaurant of your choice anywhere in the world (the restaurant must agree to / offer digital gift certificates). The goal here is to support small businesses and good food

3 coaching sessions with me. We can tackle any problems you might be facing around designing what’s next in your life to your career, biz advice, pitch deck review, etc. We will co-create what the sessions should look like together (this is the same process I follow with my coaching clients)

And if you’re not interested in a prize, but still want to give feedback that’s also okay! I read everything that’s submitted and it really helps me to get to know who is listening and what topics you want to hear more about.

Deadline to answer the survey is Septmeber 30, 2022.

Answer the survey here

About the Nordic FoodTech Podcast

Top 10 Most Popular Episodes

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Fringe Flavors and Ingredients (Sparks & Honey Guest Post)

Analisa Winther — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 12:00:00 +0000

If you’re only now talking about turmeric, you’re too late. Sparks & Honey’s Daily Culture Briefings focus on the cultural signals that are constantly shaping our new normal and how that affects your brand. Today, we look at new and emerging ingredients and discuss strategies for determining which flavors are fads and which are here to stay. Our guest expert is Analisa Winther, Host of the Nordic FoodTech Podcast and corporate innovation venture scout.

This episode was recorded live on July 19, 2022 at the Sparks & Honey studio in NYC. It’s available as a podcast and video.

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Heja Framtiden: Analisa Winther (Guest Post)

Analisa Winther — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 16:16:00 +0000

Heja Framtiden (Go Future) is a popular Swedish podcast by Christian von Essen. He interviews all kinds of people about the future and how we can make it better. While in Stockholm, I got to pop by his studio to share my story and thoughts on where the future of food is going.nAbout Heja FramtidennAbout the Nordic FoodTech PodcastnThe Top 10 EpisodesnNewsletternLink the show? The biggest way to thank you is by becoming a patron for a few dollars a month on our Substack. Sign up here.

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3 Nordic Investors Views on the Future of Food

Analisa Winther — Sat, 02 Jul 2022 06:00:00 +0000

I pulled together three of the top investors in food and ag from the Nordics for a fast-paced, spirit conversation on how they view and are investing in the future of food. We have Marika King from PINC representing corporate venture capital, Lauri Reuter from the Nordic FoodTech VC looking at the bridge between science and entrepreneurship, and Gustaf Brandberg from the family office of Gullspånge Invest Re:Food, which has an evergreen strucutre. I’ve done individual episodes with each of these investors diving into their backstory and investment thesis. Find those in the show links below. This conversation was recorded at Sweden FoodTech’s Big Meet.

Interviews with other Nordic investors

Related Links

Marika King on Paulig’s investment arm (PINC)

Lauri Reuter on the Nordic FoodTech VC

Gustaf Brandberg on Gullspång Invest’s Re:Food

Chromologics on fermenting natural red colors

Nick’s on the future of sweets

Oatly’s startup story with Founder Björn Öste

Support the show for a few dollars every month by subscribing to our Substack

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 02:05

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Nordic FoodTech Podcast. We are sitting at the Big Meet and I have pulled in a couple of investors from the Nordics into the podcasting room to have a conversation around what we think about the future of food and how these different investors are putting capital to good use to try and create change in the space and really make a difference. So maybe we’ll get started just by going around the table and Marika, you’re sitting right next to me so I’ll have you start. Who are you, and what company are you with?

Marika King, PINC 2:36

Yes. Hi, everyone. My name is Marika King. I’m with PINC, which is the Paulig venture arm. Paulig is a Finnish house of brands with brands like Santa Maria and also Paulig Coffee, for example. Yeah, so corporate venture capital with an impact twist.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 2:54

All right. And then Lauri, what about you?

Lauri Reuter, Nordic FoodTech VC 2:56

I’m Lauri Reuter. I’m with Nordic FoodTech VC. We do exactly what the name suggests, we invest in early-stage, very techie FoodTech companies across the Nordics and Baltics. We tend to like especially the research-based wild ideas solving the really underlying issues in the food system.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 3:19

All right. And then Gustaf?

Gustaf Brandberg, Gullspång Re:food 3:22

I’m Gustaf Brandberg at Gullspång Re:Food. We also want to solve underlying problems in the food system, but invest in Europe and the US apart from the Nordics with a little bit bigger tickets. So $5 million and upwards and we’re really focused on driving sustainability.

Full episode transcript

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Gullspång Re:Food Gustaf Brandberg on investing patient capital in the food system

Analisa Winther — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 14:25:00 +0000

Building a food company and transitioning to more sustainable agriculture takes time and requires more patient capital with a long-term view. Re:food is part of Gullspång Invest, a Swedish family office that operates with an evergreen structure. This means that they can invest for the long term without posing time constraints. Located in Stockholm and San Francisco, Re:Food invested early in some of the most successful food companies that have come out of the Nordics so far like Oatly and Nick’s. The firm focuses on investing across four themes: alternative proteins & fats, regenerative farming, sustainable supply chains, and healthy diets. In this episode, Re:Food’s Co-Founder Gustaf Brandberg shares the company’s investment thesis, background, and vision for the future food system.

Oatly’s Startup Story with Founder Bjorn Oste

Nick’s Startup Story with Founder Niclas Luthman

Stockholm Resilience Center on supporting people and the planet

Sweden FoodTech on Stockholm as a future food city

Gullspång’s “Food Is Solvable” Report

More interviews with Nordic VCs

More interviews from Sweden

Liked this episode? Subscribe to the show for a few dollars a month to support the creation of more content like this!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2tXC7YKEYgAtvBhinMjIif?si=f5fd29d50bf64196

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 2:31

Hello Gustaf and welcome to the Nordic FoodTech Podcast. We are sitting live at the Big Meet in Stockholm, a two-day event all about the future of food and you’re investing in the future of food. So, maybe start by introducing who you are and then how you got into food.

Gustaf Brandberg, Gullspång Re:food 2:52

Thank you. So my background is in technology. I founded a software consulting firm and we worked with Spotify, King, iZettle and all the tech unicorns in Stockholm before they were unicorns. The first time we engaged with Spotify they were 10 developers and having seen them grow to global leaders in their niche has been very inspiring. So, when I started out investing with my father and now my two brothers… we are shareholders in Klarna, for example. Then I attended a program at the Stockholm Resilience Centre in 2014 and I realized how big and I used to say how broken the food system is. Now I tend to say that the food system is very efficient. We transport calories all over the world and in some aspects have built a very impressive system that also creates a lot of damage. But I got interested in food and started doing investments first in a company called Mat.se, which is an online grocery store and then the second investment was in Oatly.

Full episode transcript

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Aquaporin on using nature's genius to solve the water crisis

Analisa Winther — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 07:59:00 +0000

Water is key because we cannot live without it. We needed to nurture and water our crops and to manufacture all kinds of different things. In today’s episode, we explore the future of water as it relates to agriculture and life on Earth. My guest is Peter Holme Jensen, who is the Chief Innovation Officer of Aquaporin. They have developed an innovative technology to treat and filter water on an industrial scale. The design is based on how our bodies naturally filter water through something called an aquaporin protein. In this episode, we dive into Aquaporin’s approach to innovation and how they have built a business based on biomimicry or the science of applying nature’s genius to solve human problems. We also get into the science behind Aquaporin’s technology, why watter matters, and the company’s startup story since it was founded in 2005.

Book: The Age of Living Machines

Related Links

Aquaporin’s publication in Science that started it all

Carlsberg on sustainability and water in food production

Chr Hansen on the world of enzymes

Chromologics on fermenting natural colors

Spinning out research into a business

DTU on desiging university innovation environments

Liked this episode? Subscribe to the show for a few dollars a month to support the creation of more content like this.

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 0:31

Hello Peter. Welcome to the Nordic FoodTech Podcast. I’m excited to start today’s show with a little bit of a science mystery because you work with aquaporins, which are nature’s own water purifiers. But for a long time, there was a big mystery around aquaporins and how water moves in and out of cells. So, can you talk a little bit about how the aquaporin was discovered and what this mystery was in the science world?

Peter Holme Jensen, Aquaporin 2:33

Thank you, Analisa. For a couple of decades, it was sort of a mystery how water could actually go so fast in and out of living cells as it actually does. So, there was a hypothesis that we had this water channel that could very efficiently and selectively transport water in and out of living cells. A in the late 80s, there was an American professor, Peter Agre, who a little bit by accident actually discovered the aquaporin protein. He was looking for another protein and then he had this protein that kept on showing in his chemical analysis. And he said, “Well, maybe that actually might be the long sought after water channel.” And he used the next three years to examine that. He figured it out and also got proof that it actually was the water channel in living cells. Then I think in 1992 or 1993, he named this water channel the aquaporin protein. So, not only did he discover it, but he also named it. Prior to that, the aquaporin protein was called the major intrinsic protein because nobody knew what it was doing. So, if you look into the literature, there were a lot of things published about the major intrinsic protein, which is actually the aquaporin protein, but nobody knew what it was.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 4:02

Yeah. But what is an aquaporin protein in terms of what proteins actually do for us?

Keep Reading on Substack

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Nordic Wasabi grows in the greenhouses of Iceland

Analisa Winther — Sat, 21 May 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Real wasabi is rare and expensive. It requires a specific temperature and a constant stream of fresh water to grow, which has isolated it to the mountains of Japan. That was until Nordic Wasabi came along. They’re growing wasabi in Iceland using the country’s natural geothermal energy and freshwater. In today’s episode, we tell Nordic Wasabi’s startup story. We cover everything you could want to know about real wasabi, the amazing possibilities that come with greenhouses, and the challenges of being the first company in Iceland to try and export vegetables.

Why food matters to tourism

Exploring different kinds of agriculture

More episodes on Iceland

Subscribe to the podcast

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Bård Jervan on why tourism needs food

Analisa Winther — Sat, 07 May 2022 05:00:00 +0000

Bård Jervan is a Senior Partner at Mimir. He was deeply involved in writing and developing the new Norwegian national Tourism Strategy for 2030. A cornerstone of the report is centered around food in tourism and how it connects to economic development. It’s also a way to preserve culture, protect natural resources, and trace history. Today, we dive into what sustainable tourism is, why the context of a meal matters, the best places to visit in Norway, why seafood is a major opportunity, and the Nordics as a gastronomic destination.

Get the full episode transcript here

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 2:23

Hello, Bård. Welcome to the Nordic FoodTech Podcast. I think we should start today’s conversation about you and just give a little background on who you are and how you got into tourism.

Bård Jervan, Mimir 2:36

I got into tourism through my education 40 years ago. 25 years ago, I started a consultancy called Mimir with a former colleague. We’re eight consultants and we have been working with the development of tourism in Norway for the last 25 years. So, you can say that the consultancy is kind of focused around what can we do to develop tourism as a business, create more working places, and develop possibilities for living all over Norway. We also do regional planning together with the regional authorities. We do some marketing studies and we also do development of regions’ identity as a tourist destination.

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Maersk's VC arm on tackling food waste

VA FLIX — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 12:00:00 +0000

Maersk Growth is the venture arm of A. P. Moller – Maersk, one of the largest shipping and logitics companies in the world. 1/3 of all food is wasted or lost as it moves from the farm to our tables. Fixing inefficenices along the supply chain is key for cutting down on waste. To discuss how Maersk is thinking about food, my guest today is Peter Jorgensen, a Partner at Maersk Growth focused on their FoodTrack.

A small note, that this was one of the first podcast episodes I recorded back in 2019. I re-read the transcript the other day and it felt more relevant than ever, so I wanted to share it with you again.

Matt Homewood on stopping supermarket food waste

Amass on creating a zero-waste restaurant

Electrolux on using appliances to curb consumer food waste

How companies like Coffee Collective figure out shipping when starting up

More interviews with corporations investing in food solutions

Join us on Instagram

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Puris's CEO Tyler Lorenzen on the power of peas

Analisa Winther — Sun, 10 Apr 2022 12:00:00 +0000

Based in Minnesota, Puris is the largest producer of pea protein in North America supplying the likes of Beyond Meat. Fast Company named them the most innovative food company in 2021 for their end-to-end solution to food production. To speak about the company’s philosophy, history, business model, and future, my guest today is CEO Tyler Lorenzen who runs the company alongside his sister Nicole Atchinson.

Episode transcript

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 3:23

So, I think we need to start today’s story with your father because a lot of this takes root with him. And he had this idea of feeding people first and protein independence. So, can you talk a little bit about the seeds that he first planted and just his story and then we’ll take it from there?

Tyler Lorenzen, PURIS 3:42

Absolutely. You know, my dad is my hero. Obviously, your dad is your dad and growing up in a family business, it was hard to know he was such a visionary back then. My sister always reminds me of that. Many people thought, including us, that he was a little crazy about how he forecasted the future and the role that we were supposed to play in shaping that. And, it seems kind of cliche today when we talk about the world moving from 7 to 10 billion people. We need to address how we feed those people because otherwise, people will go hungry and the way we’re doing it today isn’t sustainable. Now, there’s millions of companies that get funded through that pitch alone. Whether it’s good food, bad food, or whatever you believe, that’s the story. Everyone’s trying to save the world, so to say. And my dad’s vision was pretty simple. If you give farmers a choice and you give farmers the tools, growers are what we call them, they’ll grow it. And, if you can secure their markets and give them a place to sell those products, they’ll be able to grow more. And, if you create great tasting foods that people like to eat, then they’ll eat it. And, if you pull out all the friction of the system, you can create a food system of the types of foods that we want to eat forever. That was his whole premise. And sure enough, he built that company. Slowly, but surely.

Growing hemp on the island of Bornholm

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Lakrids by Bülow's Founder on creating an iconic brand

Analisa Winther — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 00:42:00 +0000

If you’ve been to the Nordics, odds are you’ve tried licorice. In today’s episode, we dive into the story of the luxury licorice and chocolate company Lakrids by Bülow. Johan Bülow started cooking licorice in his mom’s kitchen on the Danish island of Bornholm in 2007. Fast forward to today and they’ve become an iconic brand with sales in 35 countries and counting. Their mission: to make the world love licorice. This episode traces the evolution of the company, diving into valuable lessons around food entrepreneurship, branding, and sales.

Vivino’s startup story

Oatly’s Startup Story

True Gum on developing a plastic-free chewing gum

Why Seaweed is the ocean’s miracle crop

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 1:36

I think we should start by talking about the fact that licorice is a very beloved Nordic confectionery. But it’s also the kind of thing that people either love or hate and it can be very controversial. So given this, what on earth made you go, “I want to start a licorice company.”

Johan Bülow, Lakrids by Bülow. 1:58

First of all, I’m from a family of entrepreneurs. Actually, my mother told me since I was a very young boy to go out there and create something for myself, something to be proud of. So since I was a very young boy, I’ve been thinking about what to actually do with my life. And I found out that I needed to create something new and something that was mine, a project that was mine. When I was 21, I was staying at my uncle’s. He had like a small niche production of rocks and I sold that. And he showcased it to all the tourists coming into the store and people went crazy buying these rocks. I saw that and I love licorice and I thought, “There might actually be a new category for gourmet licorice if you just look at the ingredients and you improve it and you work with the experience, etc, etc. So I got the idea when I was 21. But I think I have thought about the idea since the age of eight or 10 or something like that. Because my mother told me to really– the perfect situation would be to work with something you love and do it every day. Yeah, that would be the perfect position for me.

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The Miracle of Hemp on the Island of Bornholm

Analisa Winther — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 23:53:00 +0000

Signe Anker is the Co-Founder of Bornholmerhampen. She and her partner were some of the first people in Denmark to start growing hemp again. Today, they hand harvest it to produce teas, flours, oils, and cosmetics on the beautiful Danish island of Bornholm. In this episode, we explore why it’s considered a miracle crop, how it’s making a comeback, and the roots of its bad reputation.

As a listener of the podcast, get 20% off all Bornholmerhampen products using the code NORDICFOODTECH at checkout. Episode Transcript This episode was first published on October 16, 2020

This episode was first published on October 16, 2020

Related Links

Growing clothes – oroducing textiles from hemp and other crops

How food startups are using crowdfunding to launch

The next generation of fertilizers will be green

Why one of the world’s best baristas got into biological coffee farmer

Why this Norwegian family became regenerative farmers

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 3:20

I’m so excited to have you on. I always like starting with a little bit of background on who you are. So, how did you discover hemp? How did you get to Bornholm? What’s your story?

Signe Anker, Bornholmerhampen 3:37

Well, I started this project with my husband four years ago. At that time, I’d been working as a high school teacher for quite a few years and my husband had been working in an IT position for a company in Buenos Aires in Argentina. We both wanted to change our field of work completely to something completely else. Something less theoretical, also. We met each other in a hut on this small island in the Baltic Sea, and the question became do we stay on Bornholm or go somewhere else.

Access full episode transcript here

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The Story of Denmark's Billion Kroner Investment Into Plant-based

Analisa Winther — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 22:58:00 +0000

In October 2021, the Danish government announced that it was allocating 1 billion kroner or 168 million euro to ramp up plant-based food production. This is one of the largest investments into plant-based by any country to date. Join me and Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl, the Secretary General of The Vegetarian Society of Denmark, as we discuss the details of the agreement and what it means for the future. It’s not just about politics, it’s also about culture, history, and relationships.

9:30 The history and cultural significance of vegetarianism
19:00 How the Vegetarian Society of Denmark got started
42:00 Details of the agreement
56:00 Tips for other countries looking to do something similar

How a vegan food blogger helps new plant-based products succeed

Related Links

Regenerative agriculture

ICA on shifting Sweden to more plant-based foods

Why plant-based is not for all

Livestock’s Long Shadow report

This is a listener support podcast. Your contribution of a few dollars every month enables me to produce more stories like this and share them with the world. Subscribe here.

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech 1:58

Hi Rune-Christoffer. You are the Secretary General of the Vegetarian Society of Denmark. Today, we’re going to discuss this fund for plant-based foods that recently launched in Denmark. The fund is for 168 million euro and is the largest investment in plant-based research and development by any EU country to date, which is kind of really cool. But before we dive into that, I think we should start with a little bit of your backstory and who you are like, when did you first become a vegetarian? Are you even a vegetarian?

Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl, Vegetarian Society of Denmark 2:32

I was born into a vegetarian family. In Denmark, we have a kind of boarding school for adults called højskole. It sounds like high school, but it’s really for lifelong education with all sorts of courses possible. There are like a hundred of them in Denmark. My father founded such a school back in the 1950s after the Second World War. That became an alternative place really inspiring people on different visions of society, which also included visions for food and agriculture as well. So, I grew up in a place that was different than much of society with a very open mindset. They decided to serve vegetarian food as a way to ensure that people’s minds were also kept open regarding what they were eating.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech 3:26

And for people listening that are not familiar with what a højskole is, can you just explain that a little bit more? Why is that so interesting and what was the alternate vision for society they held?

Access the full episode transcript here

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Chromologics' CEO Gerit Tolborg on natural vs artificial food colorants

VA FLIX — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 00:27:00 +0000

There is a big trend in the food and cosmetic industry to move away from artificial colors and flavors, replacing them with natural ingredients. My guest today is Gerit Tolborg, the CEO of Chromologics. Gerit describes herself as an accidental entrepreneur. Through her research at the Danish Technical University, she stumbled upon a way to naturally produce a red colorant using fungi and fermentation. Listen in as we discuss the business of artificial and natural ingredients, what it takes to build an R&D heavy startup, and the journey of becoming an entrepreneur when you never thought that was in the cards.

2:09 Why companies are moving away from artificial colors
9:40 Producing colors through precision fermentation
16:00 How Chromologics started
23:00 Building an R&D heavy startup
41:00 Challenges of being a female CEO

Is artificial really bad? An investigation with artist Alexandra Genis

How DTU helps startups spin out

Hey Planet makes burgers from insects

For more conversations, join our community on Instagram

Like what you hear? This is a listener-supported podcast. Show your love by subscribing for a few dollars every month.

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Chromologics' CEO Gerit Tolberg on natural vs artificial food colorants

Analisa Winther — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 00:27:00 +0000

2:09 Why companies are moving away from artificial colors
9:40 Producing colors through precision fermentation
16:00 How Chromologics started
23:00 Building an R&D heavy startup
41:00 Challenges of being a female CEO

Is artificial really bad? An investigation with artist Alexandra Genis

How DTU helps startups spin out

Hey Planet makes burgers from insects

More interviews with Nordic Food and AgTech investors

For more conversations, join our community on Instagram. Like what you hear? This is a listener-supported podcast. Show your love by subscribing for a few dollars every month.

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 1:45

I want to start today’s conversation a couple years back. Because I read that in 2015, Nestle actually announced that they were going to remove artificial flavors and certified colors from their chocolates in the US. And I think they’ve done it with some other brands around the world. So, just to kind of open and frame what we’re talking about today, why are artificial colors such a big problem for big food companies?

Gerit Tolborg, Chromologics 2:09

I think that started back in the days around 2007 and 2008 with the publication of a study that’s now kind of called the Southampton Study. It was the first time that scientists could link ADHD in kids with artificial colors. And that kind of started a debate: how good are artificial colors? Are there health effects that we didn’t know about or that we didn’t see? And then also the regulatory agencies like the FDA and the EFSA started looking closer at the artificial colors, and they could actually make some connections. They started banning some of the artificial colorants also. And all this created more and more consumer awareness about colorants, which then forced the companies to react to the consumer demands, stop using synthetic colorants and switch to natural ones instead.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 2:55

Yeah, and I want to dive a little bit deeper into when we talk about artificial colors, like what have been the common ones that we’ve seen? The ones that I’ve heard of are kind of beta carotene, which I think is what’s in carrots and carmine.

Access the full episode transcript here

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Artist Alexandra Genis on 3D printing flavor molecules

Analisa Winther — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 22:03:00 +0000

Listen again. Artist and food designer Alexandra Genis is set on challenging your notion of artificiality and what sustainability means in the context of food production. Are natural and wild foods really better? We explore her work and how artificial foods, technology, and art can help us reimagine a better food system.

1:50 The Atoma project, turning individual molecules into spices
2:48 The complexity of flavor and the limits of what we can taste
10:45 The importance of artificial foods in a post-agricultural age
22:00 Other projects Alexandra’s worked on
24:00 Vision for the future food system

Access the full episode transcript here.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 1:52

You did this big project called Atoma, which has gotten a lot of recognition in different places. What was that project about?

Alexandra Genis 2:02

So, I created spices from the 24 main volatile organic compounds of the strawberry. Volatile organic compounds are basically flavoring molecules. So, when we eat something like an apple or coffee, or you know, a pizza, then we think it’s apple or coffee or pizza flavor, but that’s not the truth. It’s actually always a combination of different flavoring molecules. And in total, there are like 11,000 flavoring molecules that we know of, which are in everything we eat. So, they are in natural and artificial foods. They are even in petroleum or in old books.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 2:44

But we can’t taste all 11,000 of those, right?

This episode was recorded on March 11, 2020 with the support of and is supported by the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture.

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Dr. Mikelis Grivins on foraging and the black market for wild foods

VA FLIX — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 14:32:00 +0000

Listen again. Foraging exists in a delicate balanace with nature. If we take too much, it can lead to environmental degradation. At the same time, it survives as a cultural tradition and a key way families put food on the table. My guest today is Dr. Mikelis Grivins a researcher at the Baltic Studies Center. In this episode, we discuss the four kinds of foragers commonly seen in Europe, the ethics of foraging, and the black market that exists around wild foods.

4:00 Overview of alternative food systems are important
17:00 4 types of foragers across Europe
20:20 Exploitation, transparency & regulation in the wild food market
25:00 Wild washing

Artist Alexandra Genis on why all foods are artificial

Links

Using blockchain to trace food from farm to fork

The chef preserving Iceland’s food traditions

The Importance of Microbes in the Greenlandic Diet

Regenerative agriculture and our connection with nature

This episode was first released in February 2020 with the support of the Nordic Council of Minister’s Office in Latvia.

Like the show? Support more stories like this by contributing a few dollars a month. You can do so here.

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Dr. Mikelis Grivins on foraging and the blackmarket for wild foods

Analisa Winther — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 14:32:00 +0000

4:00 Overview of alternative food systems are important
17:00 4 types of foragers across Europe
20:20 Exploitation, transparency & regulation in the wild food market
25:00 Wild washing

Links

Artist Alexandra Genis on why all foods are artificial

Using blockchain to trace food from farm to fork

The chef preserving Iceland’s food traditions

The Importance of Microbes in the Greenlandic Diet

Regenerative agriculture and our connection with nature

This episode was first released in February 2020 with the support of the Nordic Council of Minister’s Office in Latvia.

Read the Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 2:24

And I’d love to start by talking about how you got into this area of study. So how did you end up studying the Latvian food system?

Dr. Mikelis Grivins 2:35

Well, I’m a sociologist. I have a Doctoral Degree in Sociology, but it’s originally in Sociology of Education. So, that’s a quite different topic. But the next day, after I defended my thesis, I was approached by the professor who is the main person studying food in Baltic countries. And he invited me to participate and join his Institute. And since I knew what he was doing, and I liked his ideas, I said, “Yeah, why shouldn’t I try? And since then, it’s was eight years ago, I have grown into a position of Senior Researcher and I’m fully dedicated to studying only food in Baltics.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 3:08

Latvia is a nation of about 2 million people, or about 13 people per square kilometer. How would you characterize the food system of Latvia? What’s going on here when we talk about food?

Access the full episode transcript here

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ICA on shifting the Swedish food system

Analisa Winther — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 23:53:00 +0000

ICA is one of the biggest grocery retailers in Sweden. Every week, around 12 million people pass through their stores. Recognizing the important role they play in the everyday life of Swedes, ICA is intent on supporting the shift to a sustainable food system. A system that supports biodiversity, plant-based, and local foods. They launched ICA Växa, a new unit of the organization, to bring new products to market and connect with the startup community. Today, I speak with Jacqueline Engdahl, the Head of ICA Växa, to hear what exactly their up to.

6:00 ICA’s vision for the next 100 years
8:50 Jacqueline’s story
19:00 What ICA Växa does
32:00 Different pathways of getting into ICA from pitching the category manager to the store owner or co-branding with ICA’s private label.

Links

How other Nordic grocery retailers are thinking about the future of food

The 2020 Future Report that launched ICA Växa

Delås Farm on what it means to be a regenerative farmer

Coop Crowdfunding on enabling their customers to invest in food startups

How a vegan blog helps new products get on Sweden’s supermarket shelves

The largest online recipe base in Sweden is ICA’s

How blockchain is being used in the food system

Set a food climate goal with this tool from ICA

Read the Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech 2:43

You work for ICA, which is one of the biggest supermarkets in Sweden. Can you tell us when and how ICA got started?

Jacqueline Engdahl, ICA Växa 2:58

Yeah, sure. To go back to the origins, we have to go back 100 years when the Swedish society looked completely different. Hakon Swenson had the idea of joining different individual store owners and bringing efficiency across the grocery stores. So, we started about 100 years ago as a central purchasing order, which has since then both helped shape the Swedish society and build it with more services. Everything from distribution and communication to being a conglomerate with a bank, real estate, pharmacy…. We have over 1,200 stores in our network.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech 3:51

And as you just mentioned, back then Sweden looked completely different. So, what was the structure? Why did it make sense to put together a centralized system?

Access the full episode transcript here.

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Chef Gunnar Karl Gíslason on Iceland's food traditions

Analisa Winther — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 00:06:00 +0000

Gunnar Karl Gíslason is the founding chef behind Dill, which was the first restaurant in Iceland to receive a Michelin star. He is also the author of North: The New Northern Cuisine of Iceland. In this episode, we trace Iceland’s food traditions through the individuals that are helping to keep them alive

2:15 Rundown of Gunnar’s career and opening a res
7:30 Defining New Nordic food and the Icelandic kitchen
16:00 Finding inspiration in old traditions
33:00 The evolution of the Icelandic kitchen

We also reference this episode with Amass on creating a zero-waste kitchen. As well as Saltverk’s startup story. Show your love for the podcast. Support the show for $5 a month here: https://nordicfoodtechpodcast.substack.com/

Read the full show transcript here

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 1:53
So you’re calling in from Iceland. When did you first think about becoming a chef?

Gunnar Karl Gíslason 2:08
It’s probably when I was around 16. I was actually working as a dishwasher at the point. I had been in a school where we would learn the basic of the trade. I went there not because I wanted to become a restaurant person, I went there because I was piss poor at school in general. But somehow I very quickly figured out that it was the kind of environment and something that I really love doing. Before that, I was going to be a farmer. Working with my hands and body was something that I really loved doing. So, coming into a kitchen it felt, in a way, a little bit similar. When I began washing dishes at this restaurant, I just learned that if I was very quick they would allow me to help a little bit in the kitchen. So, I became quicker and quicker at washing dishes just so I could help the chefs. And then in a little while, I went to kind of the best restaurant in the North and applied for a job as a student.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 3:18
Which one was that at the time?

Icelandic Food Entrepreneurs & Changemakers

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A Special Message

VA FLIX — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 17:07:00 +0000

As the year wraps up, here are a few reflections from 2021 as well as some announcements for what’s to come in 2022. If you would like to support the podcast, consider contributing $5 a month by going to https://nordicfoodtechpodcast.substack.com/

You can also subscribe to the podcast’s newsletter here. You’ll be notified about new episodes as soon as they are released.

Lots of love, Analisa

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Delås Farm on regenerative agriculture and REKO rings

Analisa Winther — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 17:34:00 +0000

In 2017, Camilla and Raymund were trying to get the best food possible to feed their family. Realizing that food is tightly linked with health, they were looking for high-quality, nutrient-dense foods, but actually struggled to find it in Norwegian grocery stores. So, they decided to start growing their own food. This is the story of how they traded city life and taught themselves how to farm according to regenerative principles.

5:00 How Camilly and Raymund started farming
12:20 What regenerative agriculture is and how it works
23:00 Norway’s farming capacity
27:00 How Reko Rings directly connect consumers and farmers
52:00 Advice for farming and the cost of getting started

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 2:49

We’re here today to talk about how you two became farmers. And I’d love to go back to the beginning of just understanding your journey to becoming a farmer and how you got into this life.

Raymund Lester-Watvedt, Regenerative Agriculture Delas Gard 3:01

We used to live in the city in the capital of Norway, which is Oslo. And it all started with food quality. Because we were modern hunters, like a lot of people are in the city, looking for high quality meat, vegetables. In the city, there is a big variety. But we found that a lot of the food didn’t hold the right quality, it wasn’t nutrient dense enough. So we buying meat and milk straight from the farms. But then we found out that we wanted to grow our own stuff. So, when we got kids and moved out of the city/ We moved an hour from the capital, bought a house, ad started growing our own potatoes and carrots in the lawn.

Camilla Watvedt, Regenerative Agriculture Delas Gard 3:48

And we first started as many other people live, like a house and small garden. And there was a lawn outside. It wasn’t much, but if you grow food on every lawn then you get a lot of food. So, you can prepare and have it stored for winter time. And you know all of this. And also, the house was prepared for building a garage. But we didn’t build the garage, we built a greenhouse. Because the car doesn’t need a house, we thought, and we need food. That was the beginning of our farming education. And it was the like, YouTube and books and it’s all things we have learned on the way and then just experiencing. But still, we wanted to connect more to nature. It was like there were houses everywhere and we couldn’t have chickens. The way we wanted to.

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Yara's EVP of Farming Solutions Terje Knutsen on green fertilizer, carbon sequestration, and precision agriculture

Analisa Winther — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 19:31:00 +0000

Yara is the world’s leading producer of nitrate-based fertilizer. Most fertilizers are produced using fossil fuels. Fertilizer runoff has also been linked to environmental degradation. At the same time, fertilizer plays a critical role in our food system’s productivity. Over half of the world’s population relies on mineral fertilizer to be fed. Yara’s mission is to responsibly feed the world and protect the planet. In this episode, I sit down with Executive Vice President of Farming Solution Terje Knutsen to explore exactly how they are doing that. We cover green fertilizer, the hydrogen economy, soil carbon sequestration, and precision agriculture.

8:30 The role of fertilizer in crop production
19:30 Green fertilizer and clean ammonia
26:30 Details of Yara’s investment arm, Yara Growth Ventures
31:30 The Agoro Carbon Alliance and helping farmers to sequester carbon
49:00 AtFarm and other digital solutions for precision agriculture

If you like this episode on corporate innovation, check out this series of podcasts. For more conversations, join our community on Instagram or check out o

Delas Farm on regenerative agriculture

More corporate interviews

More interviews with corporate VCs

Top interviews from Norway

Subscribe here to access the show transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 3:04
So hello, and welcome to the Nordic FoodTech Podcast. How are you today?

Terje Knutsen, Yara 3:08
I’m very well. Thank you. Happy to be here.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 3:12
Happy to have you here. I’d love to start today’s episode, speaking a little bit about Yara’s origins, meaning that you were born out of a famine in Europe. So can you go through what the early history of the company is and when it got started?

Terje Knutsen, Yara 3:26
Yeah, so we have a long history. The company was established back in 1905. And as you just said, at that time, Europe was on the brink of famine, and there was a desperate need to be able to feed the growing population of Europe. And basically, we were founded by two founders, one businessman, Sam Eyde and a scientist, Kristian Birkeland. And the scientist, Birkeland, he invented how you can extract nitrogen from the air by having forceful energy and extract that and convert that into a nitrogen that is available for the plants in the form of fertilizer. So that was in those days based on hydroelectric power. So we actually started as a fully green fertilizer back in 1905, and actually produced with the use of hydroelectric power, even up to the 90s. But we have had them for a long time when gas has been the key, raw material for being able to have enough energy to extract the nitrogen from air. But from that start in 1905, based on an innovation we have always been very innovation-focused and expanded gradually. Today we are in 60 countries around the world with feet on the ground. We are about 16,000 employees and we are more than 800 agronomists. A lot of our business is to be able to advise farmers to improve productivity, improve quality, and more importantly, to be able to supply the world with sustainable food.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 5:29
But I also understand that your family has their own history with Yara, meaning that you’re second generation. And I think between you and your dad, you have 70 years with the company?

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Saltverk's CEO Björn Steinar Jónsson on Icelandic salt production from geothermal energy

VA FLIX — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 14:56:00 +0000

The Danish king established salt production in Iceland in the 18th century using geothermal energy. The production stopped a few decades later, but the tradition was not lost forever. In 2011, Björn Steinar Jónsson co-founded Saltverk, re-instating Icelandic salt production in one of the most remote parts of Europe. The result is a delicious, hand-harvested flaky sea salt that tastes like the ocean and is used by many of the best restaurants in the world. Join us we explore Saltverk's startup journey.

10:00 Producing salt with geothermal energy

16:00 Selling to restaurants

24:00 Finding product market fit

35:30 How Saltverk self-funded growth

43:00 Setting up production

Episode Transcript

Related Links

Liked this episode? Subscribe to the show for a few dollars a month to support the creation of more content like this! You’re also invited to join our community on Instagram

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Saltverk’s CEO Björn Steinar Jónsson on Icelandic salt production from geothermal energy

Analisa Winther — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 14:56:00 +0000

10:00 Producing salt with geothermal energy
16:00 Selling to restaurants
24:00 Finding product market fit
35:30 How Saltverk self-funded growth
43:00 Setting up production

Interested in learning more about oceans and the future of food? Check out this series. You’re also invited to join our community on Instagram

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Iceland Ocean Cluster's Founder Thor Sigfusson on using 100% of a fish

Analisa Winther — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 16:36:00 +0000

Iceland is known for having some of the most productive fisheries in the world. Some even call it the Silicon Valley of white fish. In this episode, Thor Sigfusson, the Founder of The Iceland Ocean Cluster, dives into why Iceland is a leader in seafood processing technology, the innovative ways they are using 100% of a fish, and what the fishing ship of tomorrow will look like. Thor is also the author of The New Fish Wave: How To Ignite the Seafood Industry.

7:00 Low-hanging fruit as an impetus for collaboration
10:30 The history of Fish & Ships in Iceland
19:30 Using 100% of the fish
21:30 How the Iceland Ocean Cluster started
36:30 How the cluster’s model is being applied elsewhere

Interested in learning more about oceans and the future of food? Check out this series of podcasts. You’re also invited to join our community on Instagram

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Seaweed Solutions on the multi-billion market for European seaweed

Analisa Winther — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 13:16:00 +0000

Jon Funderud the CEO of Seaweed Solutions. Since 2009, they have been a pioneer in building up Europe’s seaweed production, collaborating with players across the value chain to set up and establish growing and cultivation. Seaweed is an incredible raw material. Regenerative, sustainable, and versatile seaweed is being used for animal feeds, food ingredients, biofuels, bio-plastics, and pharmaceuticals. It is estimated that the seaweed market will grow to 9.3 billion euro by 2030, 30% of which could be captured by Europe. This episode is a crash course on seaweed’s potential. We dive into what’s unfolding in Norway and beyond and why seaweed is such a big deal.

6:30 Seaweed’s many applications
15:30 The up and coming European market
22:00 Ways of farming seaweed
31:30 Seaweed Solutions operations
37:00 Why industry collaborations matter

Interested in learning more about oceans and the future of food? Check out this series of podcasts. Find the full report on Seaweed in Europe here.

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 2:27

It’s always a little bit fun to get started with the origin story of the company. So, how did Seaweed Solutions get started?

Jon Funderud, Seaweed Solutions 2:36

Seaweed Solutions was founded in 2009 by a guy called Pål Bakken. He has a background from the seafood sector in Asia where he was selling the salmon to the Japanese market. And being in Asia, he also saw the widespread consumption of seaweed, which is something we don’t really know much about in Europe. We don’t eat seaweed, traditionally. But he saw that this was a major industry in Asia. And he thought, “Why has this not been done before in Europe?” and he wanted to bring seaweed farming to Norway and Europe.

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Electrolux Innovation Hub's Tove Chevalley on designing a future kitchen for sustainable eating

Analisa Winther — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 23:15:00 +0000

Electrolux was founded in 1901. Today, they offer a full line of kitchen and laundry appliances, inspired by their work in designing professional products for the world’s best chefs. Tove Chevalley is the Head of Electrolux’s Innovation Hub focused on rethinking the way we cook, clean, and take care of our homes. In this episode, we dive into how the Innovation Team co-creates with chefs, teenagers, colleagues, and startups to develop new solutions that facilitate sustainable eating, better clothing care, and wellbeing in the home.

11:00 Electrolux’s sustainability targets for 2030
18:12 The future kitchen in 10 years
24:00 Defining sustainable eating
29:00 How Electrolux sources innovation
43:30 How the hub facilitates internal innovation

Episode transcript.

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 1:41

Hi Tove. Welcome to the Nordic FoodTech Podcast.

Tove Chevalley, Electrolux 1:44

Thank you. So nice to be here.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 1:46

So, you have had a pretty interesting career thus far in terms of what led you to Electrolux. And I think it’d be great to start just by giving some background on where you’re coming from and how you got to where you are now?

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Tim Wendelboe on biological coffee farming and chasing great taste from seed to cup

Analisa Winther — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 13:07:00 +0000

Tim Wendelboe runs his own roastery and espresso bar in Oslo, Norway where he imports, roasts and serves high quality coffees. Tim has won multiple international barista competitions and is known for his ability to create great taste. In this episode, we trace Tim’s career starting as a barista, moving into coffee roasting, and then starting his own Farm, Finca el Suelo, in Columbia where he practices biological coffee farming. We also discuss how Tim works closely and transparently with farmers to improve their coffee quality.

8:30 Positively influencing great taste in coffee
15:30 The Tim Wendelboe coffee shop experience
18:00 How Tim works with farmers around the world
27:30 Adventures in biological coffee farming in Columbia
43:20 Sustainability and transparency

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 2:27

So, I want to start a little bit with your startup journey of how you even got into coffee and, you know, like where you began versus where you are now, just so we get some context. So, how did you get started?

Tim Wendelboe 2:40

It’s kind of a standard story in coffee. I just fell into it, I guess. But I started right after high school actually. I just needed a job. And back then, you know, we didn’t have internet, so I kind of just wandered the streets to look for vacancies in the windows of stores and cafes and bars and stuff. And then there was one coffee shop that needed people. That was when coffee shops were brand new, like it was, I think the second year of the modern coffee shops in Oslo, and I didn’t even know what it was. So, I just thought I applied for a job at a normal café, but it turned out to be one of the first coffee shops in Oslo. And, I got the job and kind of fell in love with coffee. I didn’t really drink coffee before I started working there. So, it was kind of a journey.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 3:34

Do you remember your first cup of coffee?

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Coffee Collective's Klaus Thomsen on creating sustainability and transparency across the coffee supply chain

Analisa Winther — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 12:50:00 +0000

Klaus Thomsen is one of the Founders of Coffee Collective. Their goal is to explore and unfold exceptional coffee experiences, in a manner that gives better living conditions to coffee farmers across the globe. For nearly, 15 years they have been pushing the coffee industry to do business differently. In this episode, we discuss their many initiatives from transparently sharing what they pay for coffee to going carbon neutral by 2022. Their dream is for a coffee farmer in Kenya to obtain the same status and living conditions as a winegrower in France.

11:30 What creates great taste across the supply chain
19:30 Paying farmer’s a fair price
24:00 Direct trade and opening up the books for transparency
33:00 Creating a market for specialty coffee
50:30 Going carbon neutral by 2022

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 3:17

So, I would love to start with the founding story of how Coffee Collective got off the ground.

Klaus Thomsen, Coffee Collective 3:24

Yeah. Well, we started back in 2007 and we were three, at that time, young baristas. We had been baristas for a number of years and at this point in our career, we’d actually moved in different directions. So, I was responsible for a coffee shop. Our partner, Peter DuPont, was responsible for roastery, and the third guy, Casper, was in England doing wholesale operations. And we started out actually working together in another company and realized that there was a lot of stuff we felt we could do better. And that’s always a good steppingstone for doing your own thing. So, we got off the ground back then. I had won the World Barista Championship the year before, and that also created some opportunities for talking about coffee and traveling the world learning about coffee and bringing some of those experiences back to Denmark where we could see the coffee market was still in a very early stage and there wasn’t really a lot of things going on at that point. So, we thought, “Well, we got to do it ourselves.”

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 4:39

What was it back then that you thought you could do better?

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OceanHarvest Founder Joachim Hjerl on regenerative ocean farming

Analisa Winther — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 14:19:00 +0000

Regenerative ocean farming has been identified as a key solution to climate change. It’s the practice of growing seaweed along with several kinds of shellfish like oysters and mussels not just to feed people, but also to heal the oceans. HavHøst or OceanHarvest is an NGO helping communities throughout the Nordics get set up with toolkits to grow, harvest, and eat from the sea without harming nature or existing underwater ecosystems. In this episode, Joachim Hjerl shares how a crazy idea of growing 20 oysters in Copenhagen’s central harbor became a movement of blue community gardens.

7:30 An intro to regenerative ocean farming
14:30 Growing a network of community-supported farms
23:00 Working with policymakers to enable solutions
36:00 Creating a market to support supply
43:00 Cultural acceptance around new foods

If you liked this episode, check out this podcast with Hatch from Norway on innovations within aquaculture (farming in water). For more conversations, join our community on Instagram or check out other episodes on www.nordicfoodtech.io.

Top Food & Wine Podcasts

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Oatly’s Founder Björn Öste on the 25 year journey of building an overnight success

Analisa Winther — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 16:32:00 +0000

Björn Öste founded Oatly with his brother Rickard in 1994. Fast forward to today and Oatly IPOed in May 2021 at a value of $10 billion. But how did this startup from Lund, Sweden become the world’s leading alt-milk brand? In today’s episode, we cover Oatly’s startup journey from the early academic days focused on lactose intolerance to the development of their famous barista strategy. We also cover the brothers’ other entrepreneurial endeavors to develop food with clear health benefits.

5:00 How Oatly started
18:00 Nailing branding and product-market fit
41:00 Tips for entering the US market
47:00 Aventure and developing science-backed ventures
57:00 The story of Good Idea – sparkling water that reduces blood sugar

Episode Transcript

nalisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 1:39

I kind of want to start by just checking in and knowing how you are, but also how you’re feeling because on May 20th 2021, Oatly IPOed, and that was a company that you helped to found. So how is it now, it’s two months later, how are you feeling?

Björn Öste, Oatly 1:55

Oh, I feel great. It’s been quite a journey. And people seem to think that an IPO is some kind of an end pointer. It’s just the beginning, the end of one chapter and the beginning of the new chapter. I’m super excited to follow the company into the future.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 2:15

And I want to go back to the very beginning of the chapter when Oatly was founded, it was started by you and your brother. And that’s not something that necessarily happens every day. So, how did that come about that you two went into business together?

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Alchemist's Diego Prado on the R&D behind Holisitic Cuisine

Analisa Winther — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 16:40:00 +0000

Diego Prado is the Head of R&D at Alchemist Explore – the research and development arm of restaurant Alchemist focused on making new dishes and conducting scientific research on products and techniques that create future building blocks for gastronomy. Alchemist was founded in 2015 by Rasmus Munk and introduced a new approach to gastronomy called Holistic Cuisine, which looks at the whole instead of the parts. In this episode, we explore how the Alchemist brings artists, designers, engineers, researchers and chefs together to challenge food as we know it.

10:20 An intro to Holistic Cuisine
14:40 Restaurant Alchemist vs the R&D Test Kitchen
22:30 Academic papers as a foundation for new dishes
28:30 What food will look like in space
38:30 Eating invasive species from jellyfish to butterflies

For more conversations, join our community on Instagram or check out other episodes on www.nordicfoodtech.io.

Want more interviews about food & wine?

The Nordics have been gaining more and more notoriety for their gastronomy. Here is a curated list of the most downloaded episodes about chefs, restaurants, sommeliers, and winemakers who are making waves in the industry.

Top Food & Wine Podcasts

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Carlsberg's Tenna Skov Thorsted on sustainability and the Together Towards Zero program

Analisa Winther — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 19:04:00 +0000

Carlsberg’s Together Towards Zero program consists of four major ambitions – ZERO carbon footprint, ZERO water waste, ZERO irresponsible drinking, and a ZERO accidents culture. Tenna Skov Thorsted leads Carlsberg Denmark’s sustainability efforts. Her job is to ensure that these targets are met and that they create value. Join us as Tenna shares how sustainability at Carlsberg works in practice and how they collaborate to get there.

4:00 The organizational structure of sustainability
6:30 The Together Towards Zero campaign
12:00 Where ideas come from
16:00 Examples around water and packaging
35:00 Carlsberg Research Laboratory

For more conversations, join our community on Instagram or check out other episodes on www.nordicfoodtech.io. Your host, Analisa Winther, always appreciates hearing your feedback, thoughts, and key takeaways!

Want more corporate interviews?

Check out more Nordic FoodTech Podcast interviews on how big corporations like Chr. Hansen, Arla, Maersk, Paulig, K Group and more are innovating and collaborating to create the future of food here.

Top 10 Corporate Interviews

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How and why the Nordic FoodTech Podcast got started

VA FLIX — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 10:36:00 +0000

The Nordic FoodTech Podcast spotlights individuals and organizations who are creating the future through food. In this episode, the Host and Creator of the podcast Analisa Winther is interviewed by radio and podcast personality Andreas Graulund. Listen in as Analisa explains how and why the show started, her background, common themes, how guests are chosen, and so much more.

8:10 How the podcast got started

12:00 The purpose of the show

16:00 How guests are chosen

22:30 Fostering collaboration and breaking down silos

30:00 Why every asked is asked the same 4 questions

To get in touch with Analisa, connect on Instagram or LinkedIn.

Like the show? Help keep the Nordic FoodTech Podcast running by becoming a subscriber here.

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Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host Analisa Winther on how and why the show got started

Analisa Winther — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 10:36:00 +0000

8:10 How the podcast got started
12:00 The purpose of the show
16:00 How guests are chosen
22:30 Fostering collaboration and breaking down silos
30:00 Why every asked is asked the same 4 questions

To get in touch with Analisa, connect on Instagram or LinkedIn.

Episode transcript.

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 0:35

So Andy, the tables have turned today and you are going to be interviewing me for the Nordic FoodTech podcast. So, maybe start by saying who you are and then I’ll let you ask me all the questions.

Andreas Graulund 0:47

So, my name is Andy. I’m from Denmark and for the last few years, I’ve been doing podcasts. So, I have a lot of experience talking on a microphone and talking to and about people and all that stuff. I’ve been doing a lot of that.

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Vivino Founder Heini Zachariassen on disrupting the wine industry with tech and community

Analisa Winther — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 17:31:00 +0000

Over 10 years ago, Heini Zachariassen and his co-founder Theis Søndergaard founded Vivino because they were frustrated by not knowing which wine to buy. Today, Vivino’s 50 million users can purchase nearly 13 million wines from around the world. The Vivino community has scanned over 1.6 billion wine labels, written 72 million reviews, and given 204 million ratings on 13.5 million bottles of wine. In this episode, Vivino Founder Heini Zachariassen shares the startup’s story of how they disrupted the wine industry.

6:30 How Vivino started
10:30 The first MVP – staying lean and frugal
16:15 The technology and community behind Vivino
30:30 The moment Vivino found product-market fit
40:00 Lessons in leadership

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Top 10 Startup Interviews

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Nick's Founder Niclas Luthman on fighting diabetes with guilt free sweets

VA FLIX — Tue, 25 May 2021 02:46:00 +0000

The story of Nick’s begins in 2014, when a Swedish serial entrepreneur with a background in mechanical engineering was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. Niclas Luthman had to change his diet, but he still loved and craved sweets. This led to him tinkering around in the kitchen and creating a line of “better for you” snacks and sweets that have no added sugar, gluten, or palm oil. Nick’s products involve an enormous amount of R&D. enabling them to achieve new food feats like offering an ice cream with 70% fewer calories than other leading brands. Nick’s recently closed $30 million in funding, launched its ice cream in 4,000 stores across the US, and has expanded into 15 European markets. Tune in for this startup’s how I built this story.

9:30 How Nick’s started
17:00 Building every ingredient from scratch
23:00 The power of a good team in an emerging industry
32:00 Developing innovative products from science
42:00 Advice for scaling in Sweden vs the USA

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Nick's Ice Cream Founder Niclas Luthman on developing high-tech, good for you sweets

Analisa Winther — Tue, 25 May 2021 02:46:00 +0000

9:30 How Nick’s started
17:00 Building every ingredient from scratch
23:00 The power of a good team in an emerging industry
32:00 Developing innovative products from science
42:00 Advice for scaling in Sweden vs the USA

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Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 2:51

So, I would love to start by talking about the origin story of how the company got started and why.

Niclas Luthman, N!CK’S Ice Cream 2:58

Yeah, well, being an entrepreneur, you have no clue where life is going to take you. I never had a job to begin with. I started in the music industry because I’m a failed musician that needed a studio. I wasn’t failed at the time. It took me a couple more years. Then I built a career in electronics for the music industry and you can probably say I was quite successful. I had a fairly big company if you compare it to Swedish companies in general. That went on for a number of years, and it came to a situation where I made an exit. I also realized I was becoming diabetic like my mom. I’m a science guy with a science background and when I started looking at the science, nutritional science, it was all crap. It wasn’t science, seriously. If somebody comes up with a real scientific find like let’s say that “Eggs are definitely going to kill you” the egg lobby will completely come up with different science that tells you that eggs are the best thing on the planet. There’s nothing wrong with eggs, by the way. I eat a lot of eggs. It’s just an example. So, the dairy industry is very good at lobbying. So is the sugar industry and there’s been quite weird science. If you compare it to where I come from, which is electronics and mechanical engineering where everything has been pretty well mapped out and you know what’s right and what’s wrong. In nutritional science, I think people are still grappling, not really knowing if it’s fat, sugar, calories. I mean, what should we do?…

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C40 Cities Zachary Tofias on how a network of the world’s megacities is addressing climate change

Analisa Winther — Tue, 04 May 2021 02:50:00 +0000

The C40 network consists of 97 cities representing 700+ million citizens and one quarter of the global economy. The mayors of these cities are committed to delivering on the most ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement at the local level and C40 supports them in collaborating effectively, sharing knowledge and driving meaningful, measurable and sustainable action on climate change. In today’s episode, I speak with Zachary Tofias who serves as the Director of the Food and Waste Program at C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. We discuss the ins and outs of how C40 works, the power of cities to create change, why networks matter, how to spread good ideas, and examples of how cities are taking bold climate action.

2:30 What C40 is and how it works
7:40 Why cities can have big food system impact
11:15 How good ideas spread across cities
30:00 The big opportunity around food systems
36:00 How to establish a network

Share your feedback and thoughts or discover new episodes on Instagram @nordicfoodtech.

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Love matchmaker LeMarc Thomas on building strong partnerships and collaborations

Analisa Winther — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 18:03:00 +0000

My guest today is the internationally renowned love matchmaker Lemarc Thomas who is based in Stockholm. A life-long student of psychology, Lemarc learned through his studies and interactions that love is at the core of human behavior, and that helping someone become aware of how they love not only improves that individual’s life, but transforms many, if not all relationships connected to that person. In today’s conversation, we focus on the lessons that can be learned from love matchmaking when it comes to building stronger relationships and collaborations throughout the food system.

6:00 The blurred line between our professional and personal selves
7:00 Values and needs as predictors of long term relationships
22:20 The 3 layers of being in a relationship
40:00 What it means to do business with love

Share your thoughts with us on Instagram @lemarcthomas and @nordicfoodtech

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True Gum's Founder on creating a plastic-free chewing gum

Analisa Winther — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 18:02:00 +0000

In 2016, Peter Juul Regnersgaard and his co-founders realized that most gum is made with a plastic core. This launched a hobby project, which turned into a business to see if a plastic-free gum could be made. It took the founders 472 prototypes until they finally perfected the recipe in their home kitchens and launched True Gum, which is now sold all across Europe. In this episode, Peter shares the company’s startup story from going up against industry conglomerates to building a brand and setting up a factory with no prior startup or food production experience. This is a story you won’t want to miss!

2:30 Why gum is an environmental problem
17:50 Why True Gum set up their own factory
39:00 Finding product-market fit
37:20 Sourcing and making plastic-free gum

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Chufly Import’s Ramon Escobar on how drinking wine can lead to economic prosperity in Bolivia and beyond

Analisa Winther — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 00:57:00 +0000

My guest today is Ramon Escobar, the founder of Chufly Imports, which curates, imports, and markets a portfolio of premium wine and spirits from the world’s lesser-developed countries. Their mission is to drive transformative socio-economic development in local economies by expanding market access, promoting social mobility, and fostering economic diversification.

During our episode today, we’ll talk about how Ramon arrived at this business model from his background in diplomacy, economics and international affairs. We will particularly focus on Bolivia’s five-century old wine-making tradition. This is a friendly warning that this episode will likely give you very strong wanderlust and is best enjoyed while drinking a glass of wine.

9:10 The impossibility of Bolivia making wine
20:30 How drinking wine from developing nations leads to economic development and prosperity
25:00 Ramon’s vision for the future of food
29:00 How to check if your business model is having a positive impact

Want more interviews about food & wine?

Food & Wine

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Paulig Group's investment arm on the future of taste

Analisa Winther — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 02:44:00 +0000

My guest today is Marika King who is the Head of PINC, Paulig Group’s corporate venture capital arm, which is focused on investing in the future of taste. Paulig is a house of brands with a presence in 13 European countries, a turnover of almost 1 billion euros, and around 2,000 employees. Headquartered in Finland, its portfolio consists of Santa Maria, Risenta, Gold & Green, and PocoLoco along with Paulig coffee. PINC stands for Paulig Incubator and was launched in 2018. In this episode, we discuss how PINC is helping Paulig to invest in future innovations while contributing to a tastier, healthier, and more sustainable planet.

6:10 How Paulig’s corporate venture capital arm works
10:00 The future of taste and how PINC looks at radical innovation
13:30 Due diligence and what PINC expects to see from startups
33:00 Vision for the future of food in 10-15 years
48:00 Tips for fundraising and valuating your company

This month, we are hosting a feedback competition. If you fill out this form, you will be entered in a lottery to win a $200 gift certificate to the bar or restaurant of your choice OR an hour of coaching / consulting with your host. Enter here.

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Norrsken Impact Accelerator and Trellis Road on scaling impact

Analisa Winther — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 13:49:00 +0000

The Norrsken Impact Accelerator is based in Stockholm. This year, the program is focused on accepting startups who are addressing big challenges related to our global good system. The accelerator has created quite a buzz for the incredible network of unicorn founders behind companies like Soundcloud, Klarna, Meltwater, Acne Studios, etc who will be advising the selected applicants. Today, I am joined by Funda Sezgi who is the Chief Growth Officer of Norrsken Foundation and the Manager Director of the accelerator program. I also have Anna Ottosson, a FoodTech investor at Trellis Road and a Venture Partner of the accelerator.

15:00 How the accelerator works and perks
22:00 How will startups be able to tap these unicorn founders?
28:00 What do we need more of in the Nordics to build our ecosystem?
37:20 What does it mean to scale impact?
42:00 What's the best place to start a food startup globally?

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Dumpster diver and activist Matt Homewood on supermarket food waste

Analisa Winther — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:53:00 +0000

Matt Homewood better known as @anurbanharvester on Instagram is a food waste activist. He is part of a community of urban harvesters who have taken to social media to document their dumpster diving finds. Matt is particularly interested in raising awareness around supermarket food waste and is working towards finding solutions for the electronics to kilos of meat that he sees thrown out. In this episode, we talk about Matt’s journey to becoming a food waste activist, how to dumpster dive, the economics behind why this is happening, and what needs to change.

5:00 What is dumpster diving?
9:50 How do you use social media to spread the word?
23:55 What are the solutions to this problem?
30:45 How does someone start urban harvesting?

This month, we are hosting a feedback competition. If you fill out this form, you will be entered in a lottery to win a $200 gift certificate to the bar or restaurant OR an hour of coaching / consulting with your host. To enter fill out this form here.

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Chr. Hansen's Julien Biolley on building their microbial platform and working with startups

Analisa Winther — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 14:32:00 +0000

Chr. Hansen has a library of more than 40,000 microbes. They’re one of the those companies with huge reach in the food and agriculture industry, but few might know their name. For over 145 years, the company has supplied bacteria and enzymes for dairy products, fermentation, plant health and more. They’ve done much to look at how microbes can improve health, reduce waste, and the limit antibiotics and pesticides. In this episode, I speak with Julien Biolley heads up the Marketing and Business Development for Chr. Hansen North America’s Food Cultures & Enzymes team. Listen in on how the company is approaching innovation, sustainability, and partnering with different stakeholders from startups to universities to unleash the power of good bacteria.

3:10 What is good bacteria?
13:00 How do startup partnerships happen?
20:30 What is your 2025 strategy?
28:00 How do you do new product development?
40:00 How does Chr. Hansen define sustainability?

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Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 1:28

I would love to start by just understanding a little bit about where you work, Chr. Hansen, and what your role at the company is. So, can you give us some background information on the company itself and then what you do?

Julien Biolley, Chr. Hansen 1:41

Yeah, sure. Well, I work for a company named Chr. Hansen I am actually heading the Marketing and Business Development team in North America. But this company is Danish company and it’s a pretty old company. We’ve been around for about 145 years now, and the headquarters is based in Copenhagen. So, what we do is basically bioscience. We started long ago working with enzymes back in the 19th century. But over time, all of our portfolio and technology has evolved. And now what we work with is mainly bacteria and enzymes to supply different types of industry. And through that work, we are pretty happy to see that these technologies are extremely relevant in today’s world. And we are trying to have our customers and partners benefit as much as we can through these technologies. In terms of what I do, I’m basically working with my team. Here in North America, what we try to strive for is empowering people as much as we can to live by what we do at Chr. Hansen. We have a lot of people with a lot of passion for microbes. So, we try to have these people basically working together with customers and partners to really get the value out of these tiny bacteria. And we try to push as much as we can, our agenda, which is basically unleashing the power of these bacteria to do good for the world.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 3:12

When you talk about getting the value out of bacteria, what does that mean? What does that look like for someone that’s not in that domain?

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Restaurant bloggers Anders Husa and Kaitlin Orr on creating community through food

Analisa Winther — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 02:40:00 +0000

Anders Husa (@anderhusa) and Kaitlin Orr (@carnivorr) are Scandinavia’s most influential restaurant bloggers with an audience of over 300,000 people on Instagram, YouTube, and their website. Both Husa and Orr are global jurors for the 360° Eat Guide, which promotes sustainability in the food industry, and official TasteHunters (digital ambassadors) for The World’s 50 Best. They are also behind the food community The Hungries. In this episode, we talk about how Husa and Orr got into blogging, their process for reviewing restaurants, what makes for a memorable dining experience, and the impact of COVID-19.

9:00 How Kaitlin and Anders met
15:20 Criteria and process for recommending restaurants
30:00 The impact of COVID-19
41:30 Strengths and weaknesses of the Nordic food scene
49:00 The power of food communities

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 1:44

So, I would love to just start with some backstory and have each of you tell the story of how you got into food blogging, and kind of made your way into this industry.

Anders Husa 1:56

The short version, I started blogging almost 10 years ago, I guess. It came from a passion for food and cooking at home. I started with a cook at home recipe blog. Going from being a student to having a job, I had the money to go out and started exploring the city of Oslo, which I lived in back then. And I thought it was super interesting. Ten years ago, there weren’t that many people writing about food apart from the traditional media. So, I guess that helped me get some attention around my blog back then. And then about five years ago, I was at a point where I was spending all my time, all my money, all my weekends, holidays, everything on either traveling or going to restaurants. So, I figured, okay, I have to do something about this because it’s taking up all my free time. So, I decided to try to pursue it as a job. And I mean, it worked out.

Kaitlin Orr 3:08

For me, I’ve always loved food. My family loves eating. And since I was little, I would joke with my mom that she was asking, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” And I said, “I wish I could just eat for a living,” which I didn’t think was possible. And especially in the US, the only food critics were like old, white men at that time. So, I was not thinking that that was going to be any part of my career. And I went to New York for school and I was actually studying psychology, so nothing related to food at all. But living in New York was just like an eye opener to how many amazing restaurants there are. And the diversity of food. You have Chinatown and you have all these things that I was exposed to for the first time. So again, I didn’t have money from a job like Anders. But it was the same, like a hobby, like a passion to go out and eat during my free time as a student. Having a blog made it like a job for me. It was an excuse. “Okay, I can go spend my money on this meal instead of eating at the cafeteria.” And it was just fun for me. I started an Instagram first, just documenting what I was eating. Which at the time was like cronuts and rainbow bagels. Nothing elevated at all. But quickly, I began to learn a lot more about food and about chefs and started reading cookbooks, memoirs, and watching more food TV. Chef’s Table came out and it just kind of all happened at the same time. And then I started traveling internationally, wanting to go to more talked about restaurants around the world. And yeah, that’s how it all started.

Anders Husa 4:49

I guess I should also add that a large part of why I started writing about restaurants was because whenever I was traveling, just like for a holiday, I would be so annoyed at the bad food I would find. It was so hard to find good food, like right there on the spot. All you had was maybe Tripadvisor, which I never thought was a great service. And I just started doing a lot of research in advance before every trip, and because of that, I accumulated a lot of knowledge and eventually got a network of people I could ask where to eat. And so, it just came from a need and a want to share that with people and guide them to better food experiences around the world.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 5:36

So, for both of you, it grew out of passion. Is there a tipping point you remember where it went from being what you were doing on the side to really being what it is today?

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Vækstfonden's Eric-Alan Rapp on how the Danish state is investing in the future of food

Analisa Winther — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 23:48:00 +0000

Vaekstfonden is the Danish State’s investment fund. Since 1992, they’ve funded over 9 thousand companies with investments amounting to more than 4.4 billion euro. Eric-Alan Rapp is a partner at Vækstfonden investing in FoodTech companies. He has more than 25 years in the world of start-ups, venture capital, and corporate finance in both Europe and the United States. In this episode, we explore how Vaekstfonden is investing and thinking about the future of food. Eric-Alan and I also discuss why connecting on values is key for finding the right investor, the future of Denmark as a leader in meat and dairy, and the role of

5:30 Vækstfonden’s food and ag investment thesis
10:00 The future of meat and dairy in Denmark
26:20 What Vækstfonden looks for when investing
39:40 Why values matter
42:00 Eric-Alan’s vision for the future in 10-15 years

For more conversations, join our community on Instagram or check out other episodes on www.nordicfoodtech.io. I’d also love to connect with you on LinkedIn and hear your feedback and thoughts on the episode!

2:50 How does Vækstfonden relate to the other Danish funds?

5:30 What is green by Vækstfonden’s definition?

7:40 Why does green matter?

How will this affect me? How will this affect my children?

10:00 When we think of the future of agriculture in Denmark and being able to feed the future, what do you think the industry will look like? And what will it take for us to maintain a competitive advantage?

13:15 What will the future of dairy and meat by in Denmark?

14:40 What tension do you see between old and new? What’s the role of subsidies?

18:30 What is necessary to enable shift?

We need political action to drive change.

19:50 What would be your ideal portfolio in 10 years?

23:00 What is your due diligence process? What do you look for when choosing to make an investment?

26:20 What do startups need to have in place to be considered green or sustainable?

30:50 How do you work with other funds internationally?

34:00 How did you end up working in this space?

37:30 What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

39:40 Why do values matter when looking for an investor?

42:00 What is your vision for the future of food in 10-15 years?

43:30 What are we missing to get there?

47:30 What collaborations are you looking for?

48:40 What’s the best way for someone to get in touch?

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Nordic FoodTech VC's Lauri Reuter on the Nordic's first food focused venture capital fund

Analisa Winther — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 01:48:00 +0000

Lauri Reuter is a scientist-turned-investor and a founder and partner of the Nordic Foodtech VC, which invests explicitly in Nordic and Baltic early-stage tech companies that are renewing the global food system. Lauri holds a Ph.D. in biotechnology and worked previously as a Researcher and Senior Specialist of Disruptive Technologies at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. He is a part-time urban beekeeper and passionate about building a radically sustainable food system for this planet – and the next one.

1:50 Fund backstory and investment thesis
11:30 Commercializing research-based technology
21:10 The ideal food portfolio 10 years from now
30:00 Funding gaps and opportunities for Nordic food startups
41:30 Lauri’s vision for the future food system

Connect with the show’s Host Analisa Winther on LinkedIn. For more conversations, join our community on Instagram or check out other episodes on www.nordicfoodtech.io.

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Industrial Hemp in the Nordics – A Startup Story

Analisa Winther — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 14:17:00 +0000

Hemp is considered nature’s miracle plant. With over 25,000 known applications hemp can be used to make everything from paper to textiles, fuel, building materials, plastics, food, livestock feeds, medicine, paint, and oil. Hemp is a rising star for its immense utility, ability to replace big pollutants, and because it can grow in almost any climate, multiple times a year with little water, fertilizers, and pesticides. It also can drawdown CO2 and regenerate the soil making it a sustainability wonder. At the same time, hemp is nothing new. In the Nordics, hemp seeds have been found dating back to the 5th century, but as in so much of the world, it has been misunderstood and heavily regulated. It’s just now that we are starting to see it make a comeback. My guest today is Signe Anker, one of the co-founders of Bornholmerhampen. Listen in to their unique startup story of how they started growing hemp and producing products on the little Danish island of Bornholm. We also discuss hemp’s history in the Nordics, what makes this plant so special, the challenges and regulations of working with it, and what’s needed to help the industry grow.

7:30 Hemp vs. marijuana
14:00 What makes hemp sustainable and its many uses
16:30 Harvesting and regulations around growing hemp
20:30 History of hemp in the Nordics
25:00 Challenges of growing this industry

For more conversations, join our community on Instagram or check out other episodes on www.nordicfoodtech.io.

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Relæ's Restaurant Manager on COVID, 10 years of service, and the end of an era

Analisa Winther — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 23:47:00 +0000

This year has been wild for everyone in the restaurant industry, but 2020 has proven to be especially memorable for Relæ. Not only did they celebrate their 10 year anniversary in August, they also announced that they will be closing their and Manfreds’ doors by the end of the year. Join me in conversation with Relæ’s restaurant manager Luca Donninelli as we recount the restaurant’s journey to a Michelin star and the world’s 50 best list. We also discuss the Relæ community and its partners Rudo, BÆST, Mirabelle, and the Farm of Ideas, its impact on the global food scene, COVID-19, and what its like to create so many memorable dining experiences.

This episode was recorded live on @nordicfoodtech‘s Instagram. If you’d like to watch the conversation, follow the link to the video here.

5:00 The story of Relæ
12:00 The Relæ community and how it works
17:50 Sustainability at Relæ
20:20 How service changed during COVID-19
25:00 The future of the restaurant scene

PS: I coach entrepreneurs and business professionals on creating the change they want to see in the world. If you’re curious, sign up for a free chemistry call with me here to learn more.

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Daniel S. Ruben on moving from eradicating hunger to sustainably nourishing people

Analisa Winther — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 12:58:00 +0000

Daniel is a consultant to The Rockefeller Foundation Food Initiative. He previously supported the Foundation’s food and agriculture strategy refresh. Now he supports the Foundation’s work to advance a more nourishing and sustainable food system. Daniel is also the author behind the FoodTech Weekly newsletter as well as a mentor to several FoodTech accelerators and an advisor to a number of startups in the food and ag space. In every episode of this show, we ask guests what their vision for the future of the food system is as well as what’s missing to make that vision a reality. Since 2019, The Rockefeller Foundation has run a Food System Vision Prize, distributing prize money to organizations across the globe that develop and share their vision for the future food system that they aspire to create by the year 2050. Join us as we discuss the vision that Daniel sees developing in the Nordics compared to what he sees happening in other parts of the globe. We also talk about what it takes to turn these visions into realities. To join the Nordic FoodTech fall coaching program, sign up for a discovery call here. For live interviews, check out our Instagram here.

8:00 The Food System Vision Prize
19:00 How visions for our food system have changed over history
22:30 The Nordic food system vision vs other parts of the world
36:30 How COVID-19 is impacting the food system

5:30 What does the Rockefeller Foundation do?

It’s about nourishing people in an environmentally sustainable way.

8:00 What is the Food System Vision Prize? What are the different kinds of visions you saw come from different corners of the globe?

Without a positive vision for the future, we can’t unleash the innovation and entrepreneurship we need to get there.

12:00 What’s the common vision for what our future food system will be?

16:30 How do you empower people to make these visions a reality?

Step 1 is to envision the future you want. Step 2 is to build it.

19:00 How has the vision for our food system changed over history?

22:30 How does the Nordic food system and their vision compare to other parts of the world?

The Nordics have great tech ecosystems.

25:00 What are the Nordics missing for developing our food ecosystem?

It starts with the people.

32:30 What is your vision for the future food system in 10-15 years?

34:00 What are we missing to get there?

36:30 How has COVID-19 impacted our future food system?

This whole crisis probably started with a food choice.

41:30 What collaborations are you looking for and how can someone get in touch?

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Kinga Eysturland on Faroese Food

Analisa Winther — Fri, 14 Aug 2020 21:59:00 +0000

Isolated in the North Atlantic, for many years the Faroese largely relied on eating what was found in the environment around them. They learned to use every bit of animal and how to store and preserve as much as possible for as long as possible resulting in a fascinating and unique food culture that I discuss with Kinga Eysturland who runs a bed & breakfast in the Faroes and is an author of “Faroe Islands: A Tourist & Cultural Guidebook.

This episode was recorded live on @nordicfoodtech's Instagram. If you'd like to see the foods Kinga shows and tells about, follow the link to the video here.

4:30 How the Faroe Island’s history and geography has influenced its food traditions
12:30 Faroese fermentation or ræst and why it’s a revelation
17:30 The Faroe Island’s alcohol prohibition and the upcoming beverage scene
24:00 The influence of Koks and eating-out culture in the Faroes
30:30 The dishes Kinga serves for a Faroese dinner

And my fall coaching program is now open! If you are an entrepreneur or changemaker looking to make a business or leadership breakthrough, sign up for a chemistry call here to work 1-on-1 with me.

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The Fabric Source's Mie Tingsager Nielsen on farming fabrics

Analisa Winther — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 13:40:00 +0000

My guest today is Mie Tingsager Nielsen whose relationship to design and sustainability is expansive. She is a sustainable business advisor at Closed Loop and the manager of The Fabric Source, a sustainable textile library with more than 2,000 sustainable fabrics from more than 200 suppliers around the world that is focused on showcasing the latest and most innovative materials that can be applied across the fashion and textile industry. Join us as we discuss the world of farming fabrics and how textiles made from crops like cotton and hemp are not so different from the agricultural commodities we grow, harvest, and eat.

5:40 Overview of The Fabric Source
7:38 What you need to know about textiles
11:42 New technologies shifting the space
15:33 Brands leading the way
23:08 Mie’s vision for the future

1:45 Mie’s career journey

3:40 What brought Mie into the world of sustainability

When I had my own brand I realized how little control I had over the supply chain of how fabrics are made.

5:40 The Fabric Source

It’s a sustainable material show room.

7:05 Why the word ‘sustainable’ doesn’t serve us anymore

Sustainable just isn’t the right word anymore. It’s never going to be sustainable for us to produce clothes.

7:38 80% of a product’s environmental impact is decided in the design phase. Why is this true?

The fabric has a huge impact. For example, only about 30% of the cotton plant is used.

9:44 What other crops have a big impact?

Around 65% of all textiles are petroleum based.

11:42 What’s the conversation moving towards?

There are new technologies discovering new ways to shift the industry and production like Spinnova in Finland.

14:00 The low down on hemp

It grows much fast than cotton. It doesn’t need pesticides or nearly as much water, but it’s difficult to break down into fibers.

15:33 The brands leading in this space

Eileens Fischer and Patagonia are two great examples.

21:12 How to design a product’s ending

23:08 What will the future food system look like in 10-15 years?

24:22 What are we missing to achieve that vision?

Time and knowledge. We need more people that can be open about this, transparent, and share the knowledge.

25:49 What collaborations are you looking for

New suppliers and experts to work with in this space! We also want to know about what new technologies are out there.

The post The Fabric Source's Mie Tingsager Nielsen on farming fabrics appeared first on Analisa Winther.

Juno the Bakery's Noah Erhun on the resurgence of heritage grains

VA FLIX — Sun, 10 May 2020 16:05:00 +0000

Noah Erhun has 8 years of experience working in artisanal bakeries in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and today in Denmark where he leads production at Juno The Bakery in Copenhagen. His expertise is in naturally leavened breads and heritage grains. In this episode, Noah takes us on a ride through time and around the world as we explore how heritage grains are making a comeback with the surprising help of Instagram.

1:20 How Noah became a baker
6:30 The resurgence of small craft bakeries
9:00 How industrialization changed the game
14:30 Instagram and the alternative grain economy
21:40 What you should know about Scandinavia’s heritage grains

For more conversation, join our community on Instagram and hear more episodes at www.nordicfoodtech.io.

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Juno the Bakery’s Noah Erhun on the resurgence of heritage grains

Analisa Winther — Sun, 10 May 2020 16:05:00 +0000

1:20 How Noah became a baker
6:30 The resurgence of small craft bakeries
9:00 How industrialization changed the game
14:30 Instagram and the alternative grain economy
21:40 What you should know about Scandinavia’s heritage grains

For more conversation, join our community on Instagram and hear more episodes at www.nordicfoodtech.io

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Dyrehøj Vingaard's Betina Newberry on why Scandinavia wine production is good business

VA FLIX — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 03:29:00 +0000

Climate change is warming the Nordics making it increasingly possible to produce wine commercially. Recently, the New York Times published a front page article exploring the budding scene of wine makers who see the Nordics as the next frontier. My guest is Betina Newberry who was featured in the article and owns Denmark’s largest vineyard, Dyrehøj Vingaard, along with her brother. This episode is full of insights on what it takes to produce wine in the Nordics and how the industry is developing as Betina shares her entrepreneurial journey.

1:40 How the vineyard started
5:00 Lessons learned in starting a Danish vineyard
14:50 How climate change is changing the wine scene
18:30 The taste of Nordic wine
24:50 The future of wine making

For more conversation, join our community on Instagram and hear more episodes at www.nordicfoodtech.io.

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Dyrehøj Vingaard’s Betina Newberry on why Scandinavia wine production is good business

Analisa Winther — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 03:29:00 +0000

1:40 How the vineyard started
5:00 Lessons learned in starting a Danish vineyard
14:50 How climate change is changing the wine scene
18:30 The taste of Nordic wine
24:50 The future of wine making

For more conversation, join our community on Instagram and hear more episodes at www.nordicfoodtech.io.

The Nordic FoodTech Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To keep the show going, consider becoming a paid subscriber for $5 a month / $49 a year. You’ll get access to the show’s transcript, bonus content, and invites for special events. See the full transcript here.

1:40 How did Dyrehøj Vingaard get started?

We bought the farm not thinking it would become a vineyard. Then one day our neighbor said, “Do you realize this is the best possible place to grow grapes in Denmark?”

3:20 When you started growing wine in 2008, were there any other vineyards in Denmark?

We’re the second generation. The first was focused on testing varieties in their gardens and smaller fields to see what was even possible. Now we know how to plant to get grapes delivered every year, every season.

5:05 What have you learned that works and doesn’t work when it comes to growing wine in the Nordics?

We need plants that can manage cold temperatures, fungi, and humidity.

6:50 What varieties are you able to grow?

Our main grape is Solaris.

8:30 What can you tell us about your operations

About 50,000 bottles and 35,000 plants. We also run our own distillery to make use of all the leftovers.

12:00 What makes your place the best place in Denmark to grow wine?

On this peninsula, we have a mix of soils from an ice age landscape – very chalky and very sandy. We also get very little rain so the land gets about 100 hours more of sunlight than the rest of the country.

13:45 Why do you think more and more people are trying to produce wine in the Nordics?

The scientists have developed plants that makes it possible for us to run a business.

14:50 In 50 years, Scandinavia’s climate will look more like France. How do you account for that?

Farmers have always adapted to nature. One has to be entrepreneurial to survive.

18:30 What is the taste profile of Nordic wines?

Crisp fresh fruits with an abundance of acidity.

19:30 How do organic or natural wines fit into your practices?

The rules are very strict in Denmark.

23:40 What is your wish list from policymakers?

24:50 How likely do you think it is that the Nordics will be a major producer of wine in the future?

Red wine production will be in one country. White in another.

28:40 What is your vision for the food system in 10-15 years?

I hope that people get closer to the source and that we don’t have to transport everything. We also need to focus on biodiversity.

31:00 How do you introduce new vines to the climate?

You can find grapes going back to the Vikings.

31:45 What are we missing to create that future?

We have to change the way we make food and teach our kids differently. We need to consume less.

33:40 How have the New Nordic restaurants received the wine?

34:35 What partnerships have you developed?

36:40 What advice would you give to someone who wants to start making wine in the Nordics?

Making wine in the Nordics is crazy, but we’re doing it.

37:30 What’s a mistake you’ve made that we can learn from?

38:00 What collaborations are you looking for?

Investors who could see themselves be part of a Danish wine fairytale.

40:00 Will Denmark be a tourist destination for wine enthusiasts in the future?

We have 4 wine growers within 15 km of us.

40:40 What’s the best way for someone to get in touch?

41:20 What kind of investment do you currently have?

Who would have thought would make good wine in the Nordics.

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Hey Planet's Malena Sigurgeirsdóttir on why a vegetarian eats insects

Analisa Winther — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 02:17:00 +0000

Malena Sigurgeirsdóttir is the co-founder of Wholi Foods, which was one of the first European companies to produce products with insect protein. Their portfolio includes snack bites, crisp bread, protein bars, and an insect-based meat alternative, which premiered at Roskilde Festival.

In this episode, you’ll hear how insects are tiny, but mighty, able to fight poverty, boost nutrition, reduce pollution, and combat climate change. Malena gives us the inside scoop on how they solved her own health issues and why soon they may not feel like such a novel food.

4:30 The avocado of insects
5:15 How Wholi Foods was started
12:40 Insects vs beef in taste, sustainability, and nutrition
18:50 Vegans, vegetarians, and flexitarians take on insects
29:10 Why the western world needs insects in their diet

For more conversation, join our community on Instagram and hear more episodes at www.nordicfoodtech.io.

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Wholi Foods’ Malena Sigurgeirsdóttir on why a vegetarian eats insects

Analisa Winther — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 02:17:00 +0000

4:30 The avocado of insects
5:15 How Wholi Foods was started
12:40 Insects vs beef in taste, sustainability, and nutrition
18:50 Vegans, vegetarians, and flexitarians take on insects
29:10 Why the western world needs insects in their diet

For more conversation, join our community on Instagram and hear more episodes at www.nordicfoodtech.io.

1:40 How did you discover insects?

Either I eat this or I go to bed starving.

3:30 What makes insects so nutritious?

4:30 What is the avocado of insects?

There are 2,000 registered edible insects around the world. My absolute favorite is the Mexican grasshopper.

5:15 How did you end up co-founding Wholi from this experience in Tanzania?

6:00 What’s the environmental impact of producing insects vs beef?

Producing 1 kilo of beef needs 12x as much feed, 2,000x as much water, and emits 100x more CO2 compared to 1 kilo of insects.

6:30 How did you bring insects to Denmark?

11:40 What products do you have on the market today?

We’re selling small snack bites, protein bars, crisp bread, and a meat alternative.

12:40 What did people have to say about the insect meat alternative?

We took it to Roskilde Festival. The majority thought it tasted like pork, but we’re still not clear on where we fit into the climate friendly diet.

14:00 What is the response of vegans and vegetarians?

The fastest growing group of eaters is Flexitarians. They are probably most likely to adopt our product.

16:00 How healthy is an insect meat alternative compared to Beyond Meat and other choices we’ve seen popularized?

Many of these alternatives have processed ingredients to help it resemble meat. Ours is a very natural food with about 4 ingredients. The umami is naturally there without the trans fat.

18:50 Why are insects so hard to market?

We feel like we cracked the code with nutrition & taste. The only hold back is the perception of insects.

19:20 How are insects grown?

The Netherlands have already been growing insects for 30 years. Currently, there are 4 kids of insects allowed for commercial use in Europe.

23:00 What are the regulations around insects in Europe?

The European food authority still considers insects a novel food so we haven’t been able to fully access the market.

24:25 What markets are you in?

Even though we have demand in a wide variety of markets, we’re not allowed to supply until the food authority has approved it.

26:00 What’s the shelf life for your products?

29:10 Why is it important for the Western world to eat insects?

There is so much we can do around malnourishment.

31:40 What do you see as the future of the food system in 10-15?

I see consumers changing their behavior and being willing to try something new that’s better for them and the planet. I can see a world where all kinds of alternative protein sources are embraced.

33:10 What’s missing to make this vision happen?

There are not a lot of players in the market. We need more to help raise awareness! And, many who are in the market don’t know enough about the structure of insects to make a delicious tasting product.

34:50 What kind of collaborations are you looking for?

We’re trying to get big companies to do a co-lab with us to get this vision out there.

36:10 Is there anything else I haven’t asked you about that you’d like to mention?

Like my mother said, try everything once.

36:50 What’s the best way for someone to get in touch?

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Alexandra Genis on designing food for a post-agriculture age

VA FLIX — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 01:54:00 +0000

Alexandra Genis is an artist and the principal designer at TAS2R, a Food Design Studio in Berlin propagating Gastro-Intestinal Science-Fiction. She uses food as a biochemical and visual tool to transmit challenging ideas about ecology, innovation and science. Her projects seek to reframe human perception around what an edible substance is as well as challenge our consumption behaviors. In this episode, we look at the power of art and design to realize new possibilities.

1:50 The Atoma project, turning individual molecules into spices
2:48 The complexity of flavor and the limits of what we can taste
10:45 The importance of artificial foods in a post-agricultural age
22:00 Other projects Alexandra’s worked on
24:00 Vision for the future food system

Video of 3D Printed Flavor Molecules

Related Links

Coffee Collective on the complex, delicious taste of coffee

Europe’s black market for wild foods

Climate change and producing wine in the Nordics

Eating insects is an ancient tradition, but it’s a novel food in the EU

Nick’s using high tech to make guilt-free treats

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This podcast was recorded live at the Future of Food Hackathon in Riga, Latvia and is supported by the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture. For more conversation, join our community on Instagram and hear more episodes at www.nordicfoodtech.io.

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Tas2r's Alexandra Genis on designing food for a post-agriculture age

Analisa Winther — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 01:54:00 +0000

1:20 The Atoma project (see visual), turning individual molecules into spices
5:20 The complexity of flavor and the limits of what we can taste
12:40 The importance of artificial foods in a post-agricultural age
25:30 Other design / art projects Alexandra’s worked on
28:30 Vision for the future food system

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Baltic Studies Centre Dr. Mikelis Grivins on foraging across Europe, the Latvian food system, and alternative food networks

Analisa Winther — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 15:11:00 +0000

Dr. Mikelis Grivins is a senior researcher at the Baltic Studies Centre, a research institute focused on studying sustainable rural and regional development, agro-food systems, farming and innovations. We dive in Dr Grivins work on alternative food networks, foraging, and wild foods across Europe. We also discuss similarities and differences between the Nordic and Baltic food systems. There’s lots of food for thought in this episode as we explore history, philosophy, regulation, black markets, and new perspectives.

2:30 Overview of The Baltic Food System and how it has evolved
8:30 Why alternative food systems are important
20:00 4 types of foragers across Europe
30:50 Exploitation, transparency & regulation in the wild food market
50:40 The Nordic-Baltic food system and why collaboration is important

This podcast was recorded live at the Future of Food Hackathon in Riga, Latvia and is supported by the Nordic Council of Minister’s Office in Latvia. For more conversation, join our community on Instagram and hear more episodes on www.nordicfoodtech.io.

1:35 How did you end up studying the Latvian food system?

2:30 How would you characterize the food system of Latvia?

The low density of people is different from Western Europe, but similar to the Nordic countries. The price of food is cities is lower than in the countryside. Many rural residents are self-sustaining having their own farms and foraging.

4:55 What’s the importance of the Baltic sea to the Nordic-Baltic food system?

6:00 How has the occupation of the Soviet Union impacted the food system?

Food shortages during the Soviet Union forced people to develop their own strategies for finding and cultivating food. Whereas in much of Europe food traditions have been vanishing, many of our traditions have remained in tact because of systematic system failures.

8:30 What is an alternative food system?

10:00 Why is the alternative food system in Latvia and other Baltic states valuable to the European Union?

The EU is looking for new sustainable solutions. Our food system has that, but we don’t see it as a strength and therefore are conforming to business-as-usual practices instead of seeing what we have as a solution.

12:00 You have a research paper under review looking at how Latvia is contributing to new ideas in the food system as well as how are they localizing ideas coming from the EU and other Western nations, what did you find?

While we are part of the conversation, we’re not contributing new ideas. Many of these concepts exist in our society, but we look at them from an angle of culture rather than sustainability or ecology.

16:20 How is foraging related to Latvian identity?

Around 75% claim to have foraged at least once in the last year.

20:00 What are the 4 kinds of foragers you’ve identified across Europe?

Cultural foragers love being in the nature. The yield isn’t very important to them compared to the relation to nature. We see this in Latvia and Estonia

Lifestyle foragers are discovering foraging in nations like the U.K. and the Netherlands. They are traveling long distances to forage, but have a particular perspective of what wilderness is and afraid of wild nature choosing parks over unmanaged forests.

Subsistent foragers are looking to get a yield for the winter months. They have a limited territory and this tends to be a community practice.

Commercial foragers can do the most damage and are very diverse in what they look like and how they work. This is where the most tensions are emerging.

23:40 How are people exploiting the wild food market?

This is a problem in many countries. Transparency is almost impossible.

29:00 What is wild washing?

People are perceiving something as wild to be healthier. Marketeers have also caught on to this.

30:50 What’s the volatility of wild markets and what kind of policies do we need around them?

Typically, access to forests in northern Europe is less restricted. Since 50% of it is owned by the state, you can’t prohibit people to interact with nature. You also can’t track people’s whereabouts once they’re in the forest.

35:20 What do policymakers need to keep in mind as they approach the wild industry?

We have to be OK with the fact that we don’t be able to regulate everything. When countries do try to do that, they fail. And while we can’t engage through policy, we can engage through communities who take responsibilities for these natural resources.

38:00 Where have local communities had a strong influence in regulating the wild food industry?

It’s not just about nature, it’s about social support.

41:20 What role does transparency play?

Transparency might not even be the right word. Local enterprises aren’t adopting sustainability plans.

44:00 What will be the future of the food system in 10-15 years?

Within centralized food systems, we will also see adaption to local peculiarities. Everything related to digital will have a massive effect because we can control the food system in real time. Everything related to finance will also have a massive impact. If states come with new financing methods, then we will see new practices. Otherwise, private investors will step in. We will have huge mega brands, but more diversified than they are today.

46:50 What will the future of the food system be for Latvia in 10-15 years?

For me, we are in a hot spot between many different discussions. We will probably see even more diversity since we have influences coming in from Europe, Russia, and beyond. We also probably won’t have as many small farms and our connection to nature will be even more polarized.

48:30 What are we missing to make this vision a reality?

Access to funds. If we want to facilitate change at any level, we have to make sure that actors who are willing to make a change have access to money in order to do so. If you are in the food system right now, it is highly likely that you are locked into a pathway.

50:00 How do you want to collaborate with others?

The future of science is to provide answers for the world.

50:40 What about in terms of Nordic-Baltic collaborations?

They will happen naturally, but they have to be harvested.

51:30 What can the Baltics learn from the Nordics and the Nordics from the Baltics?

The future requires quick responses, trust, and some sort of ability to react. That means that we won’t have a blueprint for how to resolve all the issues. We have to rely on people to solve issues in the moment, which means we have to lose control and empower local actors more.

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Parsons New School Asst. Professor Raz Godelnik on designing for the climate crisis

Analisa Winther — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 18:26:00 +0000

My guest is Raz Godelnik Assistant Professor of Strategic Design and Management at the Parsons School of Design New School where he is exploring new business models and design solutions. In this episode, we discuss the DEFT framework, which provides a model for designing and implementing climate solutions.

Raz is also the co-founder of two green startups – Hemper Jeans and Eco-Libris. He is involved with sandbox Zero where he develops sustainable business models, climate action, and sustainability-as-unusual tools and frameworks. He holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Communication and Economics from the Hebrew University.

1:10 Overview of the DEFT Framework
5:12 How to shift values, beliefs, and attitudes
9:50 The importance of affordability, delight, and meaning
17:10 Translating solutions into stories
19:15 Vision for the future food system

Join our community on Instagram and find more episodes at www.nordicfoodtech.io. Raz is also looking to collaborate on climate experiments. Contact info and details at the end of the episode!

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University of Greenland's Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann on how the world's diet revolution is challenging Greenland

VA FLIX — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 02:17:00 +0000

For a millennia, the Inuit people have managed to survive off the land of Greenland, an extreme Arctic environment. Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann has been conducting research on the Greenlandic Diet Revolution, which looks at the microbiomes of traditional Greenlandic foods, an almost exclusively animal-based diet.

Aviaja’s work encompasses culture, climate change, nutrition, microbiology, biotech, big industry, and politics. Full of fascinating insights, this conversation will get you thinking about what health really means for humans and the planet and how the two can and can’t be connected. It’s also an important conversation to consider how vulnerable communities fit in o our global climate solutions.

5:20 Overview of diet, traditions, and culture
10:20 Why a plant-based diet is causing problems in Greenland
26:00 Vision for the future food system
30:30 How Arctic micro-organisms create big business opportunities beyond oil & gas
38:00 Wisdom collected from nature and the Inuits

Episode transcript

Links

How foraging is creating an alternative food system in the Baltics

Why Chr. Hansen is building a microbial platform

The Michelin chef preserving Iceland’s food traditions

What is the Faroese kitchen?

Landmarks (one of my fav books) on the power of language to shape our sense of place and connection to nature

The EAT-Lancet report, which greatly influenced global dietary recommendations

Join our community on Instagram and find more episodes at www.nordicfoodtech.io.

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University of Greenland’s Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann on how the world’s diet revolution is challenging Greenland

Analisa Winther — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 02:17:00 +0000

For a millennia, the Inuit people have managed to survive off the land of Greenland, an extreme Arctic environment. Assistant Professor Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann has been conducting a two-year postdoc on the Greenlandic Diet Revolution, which looks at the microbiomes of traditional Greenlandic foods, an almost exclusively animal-based diet.

5:20 Overview of diet, traditions, and culture
10:20 Why a plant-based diet is causing problems in Greenland
26:00 Vision for the future food system
30:30 How Arctic micro-organisms create big business opportunities beyond oil & gas
38:00 Wisdom collected from nature and the Inuits

Join our community on Instagram and find more episodes at www.nordicfoodtech.io.

Read the Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech 1:37

You were working on the cryosphere or the frozen environment, and you ended up switching to native foods and the study of native foods and native cultures. So why?

Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann 2:07

So, my background is in microbiology. I did a Ph.D. focusing on microbial genomes in the cryosphere or as you said, frozen environments. But when I finished my Ph.D., I started thinking that if I could make my own project using the skills that I had acquired throughout my education, what would I be focusing on? And I thought, “I really want to focus on something that’s close to people in some ways.” And for me, coming from Greenland and asking that question, there was really just one answer. What’s closest to people here? It’s our food. Our food is a major part and a cornerstone, I would say, of our culture. So, I thought if I can work with our native food in Greenland with my microbiological angle that would be a dream thing to do.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech 3:08

Yeah and before we dive more into the cultural aspect, for people who are not totally versed in what microbes are, can you give us the quick lowdown or a broad overview?

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TotalCtrl's Charlotte Aschim on the digital fight against food waste

VA FLIX — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 16:00:00 +0000

Charlotte Aschim is CEO and Co-Founder of the Norwegian startup TotalCtrl, which makes food waste prevention software for grocery stores, hotels, and restaurants. Charlotte has been named one of Europe’s most inspiring food waste change makers, one of the top 80 Norwegian leaders under 35, and is a European Green Capital Ambassador. TotalCtrl is looking to integrate with other software companies food management solutions so if you’re in that space, get in touch! in this episode, we also cover:

1:40 How TotalCtrl works
6:00 Players and difference in the food loss and food waste space
14:50 The impact of regulation
16:00 The Norwegian food scene
21:25 Vision for the future and desired collaborations

Join our community on Instagram and find more episodes at www.nordicfoodtech.io

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TotalCtrl’s Charlotte Aschim on the digital fight against food waste

Analisa Winther — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 16:00:00 +0000

1:40 How Total Ctrl works
6:00 Players and difference in the food loss and food waste space
14:50 The impact of regulation
16:00 The Norwegian food scene
21:25 Vision for the future and desired collaborations

Want more startup interviews?

We curated a list of the top downloaded episodes. Learn more about how companies like Oatly, Vivino, Too Good To Go, and more were built here.

Top 10 Startup Interviews

Key Minutes & Show Notes

1:40 What is Total Ctrl?

Our vision is to eliminate and prevent food waste.

2:20 How does Total Ctrl work?

Expiration dates are one of the biggest pain points.

4:20 Who are your clients?

5:10 What numbers on your impact can you share?

We can reduce food waste by 85% and save time spent on food waste management by 90%. Doing so also reduces overall costs.

6:00 Who do you admire that’s working in the food loss / food waste space?

7:10 What other problems still need to be solved in this space?

The inventory systems that the industry uses are not being utilized in the best way possible. A lot of data that could drive efficiencies is being wasted.

9:25 What is the difference between food loss and food waste companies?

10:20 Why did you start Total Ctrl?

I’ve worked since I was 12. One of my jobs was in a supermarket where I could see the food wasted firsthand.

11:40 What are the challenges of expanding a startup to the United States?

The issues around food waste management are the same. It’s not digital. The structure of the organizations is also the same.

14:50 How are regulations around food loss and food waste affecting the space?

A lot of our customers aren’t prepared for these new laws to be implemented. We want to make sure a law isn’t being put into place without thinking of the repercussions.

16:00 What’s happening in the Norwegian food scene?

There is a community specifically around food waste.

21:25 What is your vision for the food system in 10-15 years?

That it becomes sustainable. We’re far from that right now. We should have more traceability and use the data better.

22:00 What are we missing to get there?

A lot! A big challenge is the power balance in the food industry. There’s a lot of paperwork. The consumer is getting more aware of what’s happening, but there’s still a gap of knowledge around just how unsustainable the food system is. That’s an easy fix. It’s just about gaining more knowledge.

23:35 What kind of collaborations are you looking for?

We’d love to get in touch with other software companies who have synergies with ours. We’d like to integrate to make sure we’re working together. Everyone is using different software that’s not really connected so there is a lot of potential there.

25:25 Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you want to mention?

The timing is really good right now to start a company in the food space! Everybody needs to eat.

27:50 What’s the story behind the company name?

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K Group's Heidi Jungar on sustainability in grocery retail

VA FLIX — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 03:21:00 +0000

K Group is the 2nd biggest grocery retailer in the Finnish market. They've been celebrated for being the most sustainable trading sector company in the world by World Economic Forum and are the only Finnish company to have made it on the list every year since 2005.

Despite this achievement, K Group has struggled to communicate the responsibility they’ve taken around their business practices to consumers. In this conversation, we speak with Customer Insight Director Heidi Jungar to explore how Kesko has approached this challenge including what sustainability in retail means to them, how they are taking responsibility, and what grocery shopping will look like in the future.

11:00 K Group's sustainability and conservation programs

14:25 Insights around what drives consumer buying decisions towards sustainability

19:10 How K Group gives customers their data back

21:10 K Group's vision for the future grocery store

36:00 Vision for future food system

How to successfully launch new plant-based products

Dumpster diving to shed light on supermarket food waste

Delås Farm on REKO Rings: the Nordic movement to buy directly from farms

Coop Crowdfunding on enabling their customers to invest in food startups

ICA Vaxa on developing products to shift the Swedish food system

Liked this episode? Subscribe to the show for a few dollars a month to support the creation of more content like this! You’re also invited to join our community on Instagram

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K Group’s Heidi Jungar on sustainability in grocery retail

Analisa Winther — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 03:21:00 +0000

K Group is the 2nd biggest grocery retailer in the Finnish market. They’ve been celebrated for being the most sustainable trading sector company in the world by World Economic Forum and are the only Finnish company to have made it on the list every year since 2005. Despite this achievement, K Group has struggled to communicate the responsibility they’ve taken around their business practices to consumers. In this conversation, we speak with Customer Insight Director Heidi Jungar to explore how Kesko has approached this challenge including what sustainability in retail means to them, how they are taking responsibility, and what grocery shopping will look like in the future.

11:00 K Group’s sustainability and conservation programs
14:25 Insights around what drives consumer buying decisions towards sustainability
19:10 How K Group gives customers their data back
21:10 K Group’s vision for the future grocery store
36:00 Vision for future food system

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 1:45

Can you start by talking about what K Group is and where it lies within the Finnish landscape of retailers?

Heidi Jungar, K Group 1:51

Yes. K Group is actually the biggest retailer in Finland and the third biggest in Northern Europe, with sales over 13 billion. We work within the grocery trade, car trade, and building and technical trade and have over 42,000 employees. Within grocery retail, we work only in Finland, but with the building and technical trade, we are in eight countries. And in Finland, we have three different food chains varying from hypermarkets to corner stores.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 2:26

And what’s the market share that you guys have?

Heidi Jungar, K Group 2:29

It’s approximately 37%. And we’ll be glad to say that it’s growing. So, we are on the rise.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 2:37

And your stores, you only do the retailing in Finland, but you have operations in eight other countries?

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Södertälje Municipality's Sara Jervfors on the school lunch diet for a green planet

Analisa Winther — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 19:28:00 +0000

Since 2010, Södertälje Municipality in Sweden has served public school lunches that are healthy for students and the planet. The initiative is known as Diet for a Green Planet.

Our guest today is Sara Jervfors who is the Head of the Diet Unit in Södertälje Municipality and an architect of the system. We talk about what a diet for a green planet is, how more municipalities could transform their lunches to meet these parameters, what incentives are missing to encourage such a diet, and how parents and kids have responded.

4:30 Details of the program
11:50 How kids vs parents respond to new food initiatives
15:40 The ripple effect on the community
18:30 What’s missing to revive local food ecosystems
23:50 The role of politicians

This episode is part of Taste the Transition, a series of lunch conversations during the COP25 climate negotiations highlighting individuals taking climate action through food. Tell us your vision for the food system on www.nordicfoodtech.io/answer or by using the hashtag #NordicClimateAction

2:50 What are you speaking about at Nordic COP25?

3:20 You started this work 20 years ago, what is the history behind the initiative?

No one knew the different between organic and conventional.

4:30 What is the Diet for a Green Planet program about?

It’s encouraging a healthy sustainable diet for us and for the planet. There are a bunch of guidelines for how that can be met.

5:40 What kind of success have you had so far?

70% of the food purchased is organic and we’ve done that with the same budget. We also used to offer 12,000 students only one menu option. Now there are more diverse menu choices.

7:10 What learnings would you want to pass on to other municipalities?

All children have to eat lunch. This meal is a great educational tool and strengthens the local business and agricultural industry. It bolsters self-sufficiency.

9:00 How receptive are kids to new diet options?

They love it. The chefs are in constant dialogue with the kids.

11:50 How are the parents responding to the changes?

The majority of parents are positive, but some of them can be defensive about what they think a healthy diet is, especially around meat and nutrition.

14:25 How do you convince parents that a more plant based diet is beneficial for children?

It’s the national recommendations and we need to follow the guidelines.

15:40 What kind of ripple effects are you seeing in the community from changing the school lunches?

We are very important to local businesses. If we did not purchase from them, they would not survive.

17:00 What is your vision for the food system in 10-15 years?

There should be a number of producers making different kinds of food in our region. The infrastructure for local food is very poor right now. We only have one mill, for example. Otherwise our community becomes very vulnerable.

18:30 What is missing to revive the local food ecosystem?

The municipality has to provide more infrastructure.

19:11 What is your wish list for change from policymakers?

There should be a strategy for how to regionally provide food for systems in the short term and long term.

19:50 What kind of incentives would encourage other municipalities to follow suit?

There should be a food and diet policy in each municipality?

20:45 Who is currently following this program in Sweden?

Lots have programs, but not many source local foods grown in the region. That’s because it’s not in our culture to eat these local ingredients anymore.

22:50 How do you change that culture or mindset?

If there is a policy to use ingredients that we can grow in our climate zone, it creates a natural limit. Then the chefs need to step in and create delicious menus.

23:50 What forums exist for the municipalities to collaborate?

It’s really up the local politicians. Even though we have these national guidelines, it doesn’t mean the politicians follow them.

24:35 What is the role of the citizen in the municipality to demand/ask for this kind of change?

25:05 What collaborations are you looking for?

Public procurement is focused on sourcing the cheapest product, but with food there are a lot of other aspects to take into account. I think the legislation around public procurement for food should be formed in another way, not just in Sweden but throughout the EU.

27:10 What are some of the other cities in Europe you are collaborating with?

28:23 What is the best way to get in touch?

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Stockholm Resilience Centre's Amanda Wood on the science-backed diet that can transform the world

VA FLIX — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 13:27:00 +0000

In this episode, we address what we know from science when it comes to adopting diets that support a healthy, sustainable food system. My guest is Amanda Wood who is a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Launched in 2007, the Centre’s vision is to advance a world where social-ecological systems are understood, governed and managed to not only enhance human well-being, but also enable the sustainable co-evolution of human civilizations with the biosphere. Amanda was a co-author of the influential EAT Lancet report and subsequently wrote an analysis on how the Nordic food system would have to be transformed in order to meet the report’s recommendations.

7:30 Five actions areas that will transform the food system
19:00 Vision for the future food system
26:50 Wishlist for change from policy makers
31:00 Research areas we’re still missing to move forward
35:30 Signs that the food system is changing for the better

Gustaf Brandberg started investing in food after visiting the Stockholm Resilience Center

C40 Cities as procurement centers and levers of change

Ellen MacArthur Foundation on regenerative food cities

Daniel S Ruben on visions for a future food system

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Stockholm Resilience Centre’s Amanda Wood on the science-backed diet that can transform the world

Analisa Winther — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 13:27:00 +0000

Amanda’s work intersects science, policy and practice to inform food systems transformations for sustainability and health. This includes working with and informing decision-makers, organizations and networks who can influence change. Amanda was a co-author of the influential EAT Lancet report and subsequently wrote an analysis on how the Nordic food system would have to be transformed in order to meet the report’s recommendations.

7:30 Five actions areas that will transform the food system
19:00 Vision for the future food system
26:50 Wishlist for change from policy makers
31:00 Research areas we’re still missing to move forward
35:30 Signs that the food system is changing for the better

Episode Transcript

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech 3:15

A big welcome to you Amanda. I’m very excited to have you on the show. I’ve been following the Stockholm Resilience Center for quite some time. This is one of those interviews that when you’re preparing, there’s just so much one could talk about and so much that we could look at within your research that it’s very exciting. So, I think a good way of getting started is for you to explain what the Stockholm Resilience Center is and why it was started.

Amanda Wood, Stockholm Resilience Center 3:44

So, the Stockholm Resilience Center is a transdisciplinary center for sustainability science. If those are a lot of just big words, what it really means is that we are transdisciplinary and that researchers there work beyond the academic borders. We collaborate with policymakers, businesses, and civil society to help produce research that is societally relevant. By focusing on sustainability science, we get to solve some of these major challenges faced by the world today. So, we do work across a range of topics and disciplines from healthy and sustainable food, where I focus, to things like the greening of cities or financial markets. So, we’re pretty diverse, but we always focus on how we can improve our sustainability and resilience.

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ReGeneration 2030's Emil Vincentz on the youth's vision for our future food system

Analisa Winther — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 15:08:00 +0000

Emil Vincentz started his climate activism as a 12 year old. Today he is in his 20s and a member of Regeneration 2030, a movement led by teenagers and young adults in the Nordic and Baltic Sea Regions focused on making the United Nation’s sustainable development goals a reality. He is also the founder of Symplistic, a company helping private and public organizations implement concrete solutions on environmental sustainability.

At the Nordic COP25 in Stockholm, ReGeneration 2030 will be presenting their views on the future of the food system. Join us as Emil and I discuss what actions ReGeneration 2030 is calling for from policy makers, what it’s like to be a young person advocating for the future today, and ways to champion the next generation.

6:00 An inside look into youth climate activism
18:30 Key issues talked about in Emil’s circle (it might surprise you)
20:50 Actions for policymakers and vision for the future
32:30 How you should engage youth in your community
38:25 The role of parents and what it means to be a good ancestor

3:15 At what age and how did you become involved in sustainability issues?

When I think of activism, I think of people on the streets. For me it’s been a lot more about reading and maturing and realizing that the solution you are building today can very easily be the problem of tomorrow.

6:00 What is means to be a youth climate activist?

7:45 What is Regeneration 2030?

It’s a balance between feeling an urge to do something concrete and thinking about the long-term.

12:50 How are you taking climate action through food? Have you made any changes in your day to day?

14:36 What do you see happening amongst your peers? What kind of conversations or changes do you see your larger social circle making?

A big focus on being a responsible consumer, but it is also feels like a minefield to know what making the right choice is.

16:30 What is the dilemma around making the right choice?

There are so many parameter to measure a choice against.

18:30 What are the main issues that are important to you?

19:00 How does social justice factor in?

We need to remember the complexity, but not let it paralyze us.

20:50 What is your wish list for change from policymakers?

Subsidize healthy and sustainable food and raise taxes on food production that has a high environmental impact.

23:15 What is your vision for the food system in 10-15 years?

My vision is a food system that enables people to receive fresh produce and that is created from regenerative sources. We also focus on vitality, ethical and moral conduct in the food system.

28:00 What are we missing to achieve that vision?

We need to detach ourselves from the phrase “This is how we’ve always done it” and increase education around what a healthy food system is including its sources and origins. We also need lower prices on fruit, vegetables, and nuts.

31:10 How pricing of food products affects climate change

It’s a really interesting conversation to discuss who has the responsibility to enact change in the system.

32:30 What is the best way to engage the youth and make sure their voice is heard?

Take them seriously!

36:00 How are we not taking them seriously or need to be taking them more seriously?

It’s hard to know how much our voices are getting through to the decision makers.

37:30 How do we define the youth movement? Who falls into that category?

38:25 What is the role of parents in giving voice to the next generation?

Often kids are educating their parents.

42:40 What is the best way for someone to get in touch and are there any collaborations you are looking for?

I would love to talk to anyone working on similar issues or others working on SDG17.

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Nordic Food Policy Lab's Marie Persson on taking climate action through food

VA FLIX — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 16:55:00 +0000

The Nordic Food Policy Lab was launched by the 5 prime ministers of the Nordic countries in 2017 to curate and share examples of Nordic food policy for health and sustainability. They do this through global partnerships and dialogues. Their goal is meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals through food policy. They also help other countries in achieving the goals.

In this episode, Marie Persson provides an overview of what is happening within food policy across the Nordics. We also take a look at the COP25 UN climate negotiations from a Nordic angle and what a sustainable, healthy diet looks like.

7:30 Overview of the Nordics strengths and weaknesses when it comes to food & food policy
9:40 Why food is such a tricky political conversation
16:30 Examples of individuals taking climate action through food
20:20 What is needed for policy to encourage sustainable production and consumption
25:35 Why more chefs and behavioral psychologists are needed in politics

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Nordic Food Policy Lab’s Marie Persson on taking climate action through food

Analisa Winther — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 16:55:00 +0000

7:30 Overview of the Nordics strengths and weaknesses when it comes to food & food policy
9:40 Why food is such a tricky political conversation
16:30 Examples of individuals taking climate action through food
20:20 What is needed for policy to encourage sustainable production and consumption
25:35 Why more chefs and behavioral psychologists are needed in politics

This episode is part of Taste the Transition, a series of lunch conversations during the COP25 climate negotiations highlighting individuals taking climate action through food.

Key Moments & Show Notes

2:40 What is the Nordic Food Policy Lab? Why was it started?

It’s about how food policy can deliver on the sustainable development goals. There are some questions in the food system that are not so easy for actors to discuss and agree on. That’s what we’re addressing with our food policy labs.

3:45 How does it work? What kind of projects are you working on?

4:50 What is going to happen at COP25?

The idea was to create a Nordic platform for citizens to hear what’s happening at this global meet up while adding a Nordic perspective to the conversation.

6:12 What is the Nordic agenda at COP25?

We’ve all agreed we want to be carbon neutral as well as the most sustainable region in the world.

7:30 What’s the state of the conversation? What obstacles have we overcome? What obstacles are standing in our way?

We’re leaders for most of the SDGs, but it’s tricky for us to deliver on sustainable production and consumption. Our consumption is very resource intensive. We consume as if we had four planets, not one. This is especially true for agriculture and it’s a very tricky political conversation.

9:40 Why is this so tricky politically?

It deals with freedom of choice. We live in one of the richest parts of the world and are used to consuming whatever we want without constraint. There is a gap between what we know and what we actually do. It’s a knowledge-action gap.

11:07 What are the key similarities and differences between the Nordic nations and their position on food policy?

We have a lot of common ground when it comes to nutrition and communicating to consumers. We agree on the basic evidence, which creates a foundation to spark food policy cooperation. We different on the agricultural production side. Each country has different geographies and different priorities.

12:35 What policies are being talked about now with it comes to meeting the 2030 goals?

It’s being tackled a bit differently in each country, but overall there is a lot of work on food waste. It’s a low hanging fruit. I think we’re headed towards more conversations on what a healthy, sustainable diet is and plant-forward diets are emerging as key.

14:50 Why is it important for us to consider how we can take climate action through food?

In its essence food is very positive. It makes us human. Also, food systems are contributing 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions.

16:30 What are you hoping that we will communicate to listeners from this conversation?

That it is possible to use food to change and deliver on the climate targets! It’s too often forgotten because it’s a tricky issue with lots of dos and don’ts. We need to lift the voices of people driving change.

18:00 What voices and stories will we be highlighting over the next couple of episodes?

20:20 What is your wish list when it comes to asking for change from policymakers?

It’s important that consumers feel that a sustainable diet enables them to live a better life. We have to do more research into trade off areas.

24:30 What is your vision for the food system in 10-15 years?

We have a focus on deliciousness and the most sustainable products are also the most desirable.

25:35 What are we missing to get there?

We need to involve more people around the table who haven’t necessarily always been heard and encourage cross-sector dialogues that loop in chefs, entrepreneurs, psychology, nudging, and consumer behavior.

28:40 How do we include their voices?

We need to make sure that they’re included much earlier in designing campaigns and policies to make sure new skills and capacities influence policy makers and bureaucrats.

29:46 What platforms do you know exist for coming together and having these dialogues?

We are trying to provide that kind of platform by being a neutral broker, but we need it a lot more also at the different national levels.

31:45 How can someone join the conversation?

We need to keep asking these important questions like what is it that we desire from our future food system? How do we give that vision political force?

33:10 What kind of collaborations are you looking for?

To get in touch with people monitoring change in consumption patterns and understand how to create a shift that people want to a part of.

34:55 What is a question or something you want to talk about that I haven’t asked you?

37:30 Where can people go after the summit to hear what’s going on and where this goes?

Carbon Brief. We will also do some write ups. You can also see what’s happening with the hashtag #NordicClimateAction

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Too Good To Go's Mikkel Fog Holm-Nielsen on fighting food waste through business, households, politics, and education

VA FLIX — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 12:22:00 +0000

Too Good To Go enables consumers to buy food that would otherwise be thrown out at the end of the day. The idea started in Denmark and has quickly spread across Europe with everyone from mom and pop bakeries to big grocery retailers getting on board. Today they’ve saved some 25.5 million meals and opened up a new customer segment for many food businesses.

In this episode, we speak with Mikkel Fog Holm-Nielsen who runs special projects for Too Good To Go’s management team. Join us as we discuss their ambitious strategy to fight food waste across multiple fronts. By 2020, they aim to work with 75,000 businesses, inspire 50 million people to reduce their household food waste, impact regulation in 5 countries, and have a food waste curriculum in 500 schools.

2:00 How Too Good To Go got started
5:40 Creating a business around food waste
14:10 Vision for the future food system and what’s missing to get there
17:20 How they are fighting food waste via business, politics, education, and household behavior
27:30 Company culture and why much of the team from Endomondo, which sold to Under Armour for $85 million, joined Too Good To Go

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Too Good To Go’s Mikkel Fog Holm-Nielsen on fighting food waste

Analisa Winther — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 12:22:00 +0000

2:00 How Too Good To Go got started
5:40 Creating a business around food waste
14:10 Vision for the future food system and what’s missing to get there
17:20 How they are fighting food waste via business, politics, education, and household behavior
27:30 Company culture and why much of the team from Endomondo, which sold to Under Armour for $85 million, joined Too Good To Go

Want more startup interviews?

We curated a list of the top downloaded episodes. Learn more about how companies like Oatly, Vivino, Too Good To Go, and more were built here.

Top 10 Startup Interviews

Key Minutes & Show Notes

2:00 How did Too Good To Go get started?

All the restaurants the founders talked to were interested.

3:30 What stage is the company at today?

The number of customers we have makes us an important player because policy makers will listen to that volume of customers.

4:40 What is your role in the company?

5:10 How do you measure impact?

Our north star is how many meals we save on a daily and yearly basis.

5:40 How do you work with different stores from canteens to bakeries or restaurants?

6:55 How hard is it to get a store to sign on?

It’s a pretty hard business case to say no to.

7:30 How can you know what’s going to be available in advance?

8:50 Do you provide stores with additional analytics or data on this new customer segment?

We’ll help do price setting.

10:00 What are the economics for making a business like this work?

For the stores, everything that is not a minus is a good thing.

11:20 How do consumers differ across countries when it comes to fighting food waste?

We see some global segments across the countries, however, the food waste conversation and awareness differs on different national levels based on politics and marketing messaging.

13:40 What is your hiring strategy across the different markets?

We can’t do this if we’re not super local.

14:10 What is your vision for the food system in 10-15 years?

We need way more cooperation across the value chain.

15:10 What are we missing to get there?

An understanding that my gain is not your loss or the other way around. That mindset change is key.

17:20 You state 4 pillars for starting a movement around saving food, which are business, education, policy, and household. What do the strategies looks like under each pillar?

We are realizing more and more that we have to work with policy makers with a long term perspective.

22:00 How have food safety policies dramatically increased food waste?

We need to decrease food waste while making sure that the food in the market is still safe to eat.

24:00 How does Too Good To Go ensure food safety?

24:50 What kind of collaborations are you looking for?

We’d love to know more about what kind of inventory retailers have. If we could know further in advance what is available to help make more sales in advance that would be really helpful.

27:00 What is the business model?

No cure no pay.

27:34 Mette Lykke was founder and CEO of Endomondo, which sold to Under Armor. A lot of that original team has also joined Too Good To Go. What kind of culture do you have now?

31:20 What’s the best way for someone to contact you?

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Arla Digital's Tomi Sirén on using tech to drive FMCG's sustainability agenda forward

VA FLIX — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 09:05:00 +0000

Arla is the 5th largest dairy company in the world. Owned by 12,500 farmers across seven countries, they have an ambition to become the most transparent value chain in dairy.

In today’s episode, we discuss this ambition with Tomi Sirén who is the head of Digital and Technological Innovations at Arla. Based in Finalnd, he’s spearheading a variety of projects focused on moving their sustainability agenda forward with emerging technologies including the Arla Milkchain. Listen in as we talk about:

5:30 Arla’s digital transformation
9:00 Arla Milkchain – how they are using blockchain to trace their products and animal welfare (see video)
21:00 Collaborations Arla is looking for and what obstacles they are facing to scale
26:00 Other sustainability projects at Arla
28:40 Vision for the future and what we’re missing to get there

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Arla Digital’s Tomi Sirén on using tech to drive FMCG’s sustainability agenda forward

Analisa Winther — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 09:05:00 +0000

Arla is the 5th largest dairy company in the world. Owned by 12,500 farmers across seven countries, they have an ambition to become the most transparent value chain in dairy.

5:30 Arla’s digital transformation
9:00 Arla Milkchain – how they are using blockchain to trace their products and animal welfare (see video)
21:00 Collaborations Arla is looking for and what obstacles they are facing to scale
26:00 Other sustainability projects at Arla
28:40 Vision for the future and what we’re missing to get there

Want more corporate interviews?

Check out more Nordic FoodTech Podcast interviews on how big corporations like Chr. Hansen, Arla, Maersk, Paulig, K Group and more are innovating and collaborating to create the future of food here.

Top 10 Corporate Interviews

Key Minutes and Show Notes

3:40 What is Arla?

4:15 What is your role?

I look at how we can use technology to solve business problems.

4:40 What is happening in Arla digital.

There is a transformation happening in the fast moving consumer goods space.

5:30 What was Arla like before you kicked off the digital transformation work?

When I came 4 years ago, technological innovation was not a part of the strategic conversation in driving sustainability.

7:00 Where are you piloting your digital projects?

Finland has positioned itself as a pilot market for new innovations. It’s small and progressive.

8:20 What is Arla digital’s vision?

To be the most transparent supply chain in retail.

9:00 What data are you tracking for the Arla Milkchain?

We started by auditing the value chain from a structural data perspective. When we shared it with consumers, they wanted to know more points about animal welfare.

12:00 What data points surprised you?

13:30 There is a lot of skepticism around Blockchain, how are you using the technology?

The idea is for us to build the foundation so that in the future we can do something much more disruptive. Right now, we’re working with Ethereum.

16:00 How are you making the data accessible to the consumer?

No QR codes. We wanted to keep it as simple as possible so it looks at the packaging data of the project.

16:40 What is the future of blockchain in retail?

Value chain transparency is going to be the new normal. Companies will need to provide data from their value chain like they do with nutritional information.

17:45 How is your Milkchain project different from other food blockchain projects?

There are a lot of enterprise solutions popping up. We are working with some startups.

19:15 What approach do other blockchain solutions in the market take?

There is not one plug and play solution. I would love to see the food industry come together and form a consortium.

20:15 How far along is blockchain technology today in terms of really creating value in the market?

21:00 What obstacles are standing in your way now?

For us there are a lot of challenges to scale without serious infrastructure investment.

22:30 What would make your life easier? What collaborations are you looking for?

I would love for us to come together as an industry. We need to work together. Our challenges are great.

23:50 What are we missing to reach that vision?

We need to share more data with each other. Co-opetition is new.

23:40 Who are you competitors in this space?

I try not to benchmark the food industry because disruption can come from anywhere. People benchmark experiences. Which industry you come from irrelevant.

26:00 What other sustainability project does Arla have going?

27:20 What kind of technology do you think is coming that we haven’t seen in the market yet?

28:40 What is your vision for the food ecosystem in 10-15 years?

In 10 years, we will eat food that is based on our DNA, gut health, and is heavily personalized for us. It’s also sustainable.

29:25 What are we missing to get there?

You could do it today already.

29:50 Is there anything else that is important to mention that I haven’t asked you?

I think it’s time for Scandinavia to come together and form a larger ecosystem to solve the big problems we are facing in this world.

30:20 What do we have to talk about or how should we gather people to really move forward?

We’re trying to take the lead in Finland on transparency and traceability. It starts by setting the long-term vision that others can join and vote for. It’s about stating progressive visions and actively gathering partners to your ecosystem. The future of food will be built together.

31:25 How do you work with politicians?

I think politics will always be behind my work. I think we need to showcase as an industry what is possible for the future of food in order to see legislation passed.

32:15 What’s the best way for someone to get in touch?

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Almi Invest's Karin Ebbinghaus on investing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

VA FLIX — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 11:02:00 +0000

Almi Invest is Sweden’s most active startup investor. With 3 billion SEK under management, they make about 50 new investments each year and have invested in 660 companies overall, some of which have been acquired by Google, Microsoft, and Apple or IPOed at a billion kroner level on the stock market.

Join us as we speak with investment manager Karin Ebbinghaus about Almi’s GreenTech fund, which only invests in companies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The fund has about 650 million SEK under management or 60 million euro. Listen in as we talk about:

3:50 Almi’s investment thesis
15:10 What a GreenTech model looks
17:35 How to measure a GreenTech model’s impact
21:20 How Almi’s GreenTech fund fits into Swedens’ national strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
30:10 Almi’s vision for FoodTech ecosystem in 10-15 years

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Almi Invest’s Karin Ebbinghaus on investing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Analisa Winther — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 11:02:00 +0000

Join us as we speak with investment manager Karin Ebbinghaus about Almi’s GreenTech fund, which only invests in companies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The fund has about 650 million SEK under management or 60 million euro.

Key Minutes & Show Notes

We serve as a bridge to private equity and contribute to a functioning VC market. We’ve co-invested with about 1,000 other investors.

3:50 When you say GreenTech, what are the areas you are specifically looking at investing in and how many cases in that domain have you processed so far?

Products and services that have a CO2 reducing effect. That could be renewable energy, recycling systems, storage, energy reduction, waste reduction, and FoodTech. The world’s food production is about 22% of global greenhouse gases emissions.

5:00 What investment areas are you focusing on within food?

We see a lot of digital platforms for reducing food waste and new plant-based functional foods to replace dairy and meat.

6:10 What are the metrics you are evaluating companies on for investment? What’s the number that apply vs that get approved?

The GreenTech Fund is more of a scale-up investor. We invest in approximately 7% of all companies that come through our deal flow.

8:20 How do you define FoodTech?

9:15 Can a company apply to Almi Invest and then get funding from the GreenTech fund?

Absolutely, we’ll follow companies for a few years.

10:20 How does one apply to the GreenTech fund?

Sweden is not that large. No one is more than 2-3 connections away to get an introduction. The overall attitude of investing is really cooperative.

12:20 Do you work with other Nordic nations and can a company not from Sweden apply?

We can only invest in Swedish limited liability companies, but we can invest with foreign investors. We want to invest in the top company in a holding situation. It’s not possible for us to invest in local subsidiaries. A company would have to move their HQ to Sweden.

15:10 What does a GreenTech business model look like?

The DNA of the company is contributing to the betterment of the climate with their products and services.

16:30 How do you measure impact and what metrics do you look at?

We’re analyzing all of our portfolio companies’ projections to reduce greenhouse gases by 2030. If they proceed as planned, it could contribute to cutting half of the current emissions.

17:35 How are you calculating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions?

There are some platforms like the Climate Solver Tool. There are also frameworks being developed to make sure we speak the same language.

19:05 How can companies best pitch to you?

For us, it would be extremely helpful if startups linked their sales and revenue to greenhouse gases in their pitch deck. Increased revenue should mean a reduction in CO2.

21:20 How much is your investment strategy linked to Sweden’s national strategy to decrease greenhouse gases by 2050?

22:30 Do you do anything to influence policy on behalf of GreenTech entrepreneurs?

The best way we can contribute is help the ecosystem build successful companies in this space that can act as role models for change. We can’t just create digital climate solutions. We need hardware and infrastructure too.

30:10 What is your vision for the Food Tech ecosystem in 10-15 years?

I think one barrier is that it’s quite fragmented. There’s a lot of initiatives in each region. We need to talk more and cooperate more with each other.

31:30 What is your commitment to making the transition happen?

We enabled the technology to help the transition.

33:50 What’s the best way for someone to contact Almi Invest’s GreenTech division?

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Ellen MacArthur Foundation's Emma Chow on the power of cities to transform the food system

Analisa Winther — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 22:45:00 +0000

By 2050, an estimated 80% of all food will be destined for our global cities. To understand how we can make the food systems of our cities sustainable, resilient, and diverse our guest today is Emma Chow – the Project Lead for the Food Initiative at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation was launched in 2010 to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. In 2019, they launched a food initiative focused on convening food brands, producers, retailers, governments, innovators, and waste managers to redesign the food system serving cities to:

Source food regeneratively and locally when appropriate
Design and market healthier food products
Make the most of food by upcycling waste streams.

London, São Paulo and NYC have signed on as flagship cities to show what is possible. Join us in a wide-ranging conversation as we discuss the role of cities as power nodes in the food system as well as a circular vision for the future and the practical next steps for getting there. Whether you are a citizen, entrepreneur, policymaker, or researcher, there are clear actions for you!

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Amass's Kim Wejendorp on how they've made fine dining sustainable

VA FLIX — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 12:08:00 +0000

Amass has been recognized multiple times not only as one of the best restaurants in the world, but also as one of the most sustainable. For them, a zero waste kitchen has been an incredible creative constraint inspiring major changes to how this fine dining institution cooks, recycles, sources, and operates in their local environment. Today the restaurant’s food and ingredients are 90% organic. Food waste has been reduced by 75% since they started in 2013 and their annual water consumption is down by 5,200 liters. The restaurant’s facilities also include a garden with 80 varieties of plants and an aquaponic farming system.

A Native New Zealander, Kim Wejendorp was the Sous Chef at Amass Restaurant in Copenhagen before becoming their head of R&D. In this conversation, we talk about how they undertook the sustainable transition, the creative process that produces a zero waste kitchen, and what kind of partners and innovations they are looking to partner with.

Episode Transcript

Amass’s Kim Wejendorp on how they’ve made fine dining sustainable

Analisa Winther — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 12:08:00 +0000

Today the restaurant’s food and ingredients are 90% organic. Food waste has been reduced by 75% since they started in 2013 and their annual water consumption is down by 5,200 liters. The restaurant’s facilities also include a garden with 80 varieties of plants and an aquaponic farming system.

A Native New Zealander, Kim Wejendorp was the Sous Chef at Amass Restaurant in Copenhagen before becoming their head of R&D. In this conversation, we talk about how they undertook the transition to sustainability, the creative process that produces a zero waste kitchen, and what kind of partners and innovations they are looking to partner with.

Related Links

More interviews with Nordic restaurants

More episodes on fighting food waste

Matt Homewood on dumpster diving to stop supermarket food waste

Electrolux on designing appliances for a plant-forward kitchen

Restaurants as a center for applied science and R&D

Liked this episode? Subscribe to the show for a few dollars a month to support the creation of more content like this. We also invite you to join our community on Instagram

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AgFo's Frida Jonson on the role of journalism from farm to fork

VA FLIX — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 12:46:00 +0000

Not long ago, Frida Jonson and her co-founder Lovisa Madås realized that the FoodTech and AgTech worlds were unfolding in parallel. No journalism outlet was covering all sides of the story from farm to fork. So, they started AgFo, a digital media outlet covering the intersection of agriculture and food in Sweden.

AgFo’s journalists travel all over the country reporting on different trends, perspectives, and innovations in the food system. Today, Frida gives us a front row seat to the conversations being had, the emerging trends, and collaborations to look out for. We also discuss why journalism is important for ecosystem development and connecting diverse communities.

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AgFo’s Frida Jonson on the role of journalism from farm to fork

Analisa Winther — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 12:46:00 +0000

Key Minutes & Show Notes

How and what we eat affects global markets and stability.

2:40 What is AgFo and the journalistic focus?

No one was reporting on the whole food chain from farm to fork.

4:10 What methodology do you use to make sure you cover all perspectives of the food chain?

Today, sustainability is not at the core of every company. I hope that will be the truth.

5:30 How is AgFo connected to LRF Media?

6:20 Why do we need this bridge between AgTech and FoodTech?

We need to talk in order to be able to meet the challenges in front of us. There hasn’t really been a good platform for everyone to speak with each other before.

7:35 What does the platform you’ve built look like?

AgTech 2030 is a really interesting collaboration with a focus on IoT, AI, and sensors.

13:10 How do you get the different stakeholders to talk to each other?

We need to have a holistic view and a good knowledge about how one innovation or product effects others in the system.

15:00 How does one judge the impact of their innovation on the rest of the community?

We are always lifting up the scientific community. No one knows where you are, what conditions you have, and the impact on your community. You know best.

22:30 What will the FoodTech ecosystem look like in 10-15 years?

We need more research, closer cooperation, and a Nordic platform.

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Hatch's Carsten Krome on why aquaculture is the fastest growing sector in animal farming

VA FLIX — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 23:07:00 +0000

Aquaculture is the farming of fish. As the fastest growing sector in animal food production, the industry has started to attract the interest of Silicon Valley. This might also be because aquaculture is some 20 years behind traditional agriculture in terms of development leaving it ripe for innovation.

Carsten has his own entrepreneurial experience through his start-up as a prawn farmer in Malaysia and he holds a Ph.D. in feed science from the University of Stirling as well as a Masters in Marine Biology from the University of Kiel in Germany.

If you liked this episode, check out this podcast with Ocean Harvest from Denmark on regenerative ocean farming as a solution to climate change. For more conversations, join our community on Instagram or check out other episodes on www.nordicfoodtech.io.

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Hatch’s Carsten Krome on why aquaculture is the fastest growing sector in animal farming

Analisa Winther — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 23:07:00 +0000

We speak with Carsten Krome who is the Managing Partner of Hatch, the first global aquaculture accelerator program operating across Norway, Hawaii and Singapore and an investor into aquaculture with the fund Alimentos Ventures. He provides an excellent introduction to the aquaculture world and what we can look forward to in this space. Carsten has his own entrepreneurial experience through his start-up as a prawn farmer in Malaysia and he holds a Ph.D. in feed science from the University of Stirling as well as a Masters in Marine Biology from the University of Kiel in Germany.

https://nordicfoodtechpodcast.substack.com/embed

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Creandum's Carl Fritjofsson on how the tech VC behind Spotify, Vivino, and Kahoot is getting into food

Analisa Winther — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 01:54:00 +0000

Creandum has been an early investor in many of the most well known and successful Nordic companies including Spotify, Vivino, Klarna, and Kahoot just to name a few.

In today’s episode, we are speaking with Carl Fritjofsson who runs the San Francisco office serving as a bridge to Creandum’s European founders as their companies expand into the US. Join us as we discuss how this tech VC is investing into the future of food and how European startups should be considering internationalization.

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KBH Madhus' Pernille Nielsen on how the public sector is going 90% organic

VA FLIX — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 20:18:00 +0000

KBH Madhus has a mission is to change society through better meals and they’ve been doing this by helping the kitchens of hospitals, schools, and other public institutions go 90% organic, often on the same budget. So many meals are made in the public sector, that this kind of institutional change has massive impact. In this episode, we talk about the process KBH Madhus uses as well as how any kitchen – big or small, private or public – can do the same.

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KBH Madhus’ Pernille Nielsen on how the public sector is going 90% organic

Analisa Winther — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 20:18:00 +0000

Our guest today is Pernille Nielsen from KBH Madhus or the Copenhagen House of Food. KBH Madhus has a mission is to change society through better meals and they’ve been doing this by helping the kitchens of hospitals, schools, and other public institutions go 90% organic, often on the same budget. So many meals are made in the public sector, that this kind of institutional change has massive impact. In this episode, we talk about the process KBH Madhus uses as well as how any kitchen – big or small, private or public – can do the same.

Food systems are the holy grail of interconnectedness.

3:35 What is KBH Madhus

We need to reteach and remind people in the kitchens how to do things from scratch. So much wisdom has been lost.

7:20 What definition do you use for organic

Denmark was one of the first nations to do a law on organic production.

8:10 How do you have help kitchen go 90% organic on the same budget?’

10:35 The role that convenience plays in a primarily organic kitchens

11:55 How do you work with change management in terms of changing kitchen staff’s image of their role?

If we had all the money in the world, we would have every kitchen staff go out to meet the producers providing them with the ingredients. It has a profound and beautiful impact.

15:20 Advice for any kitchen to transition to being organic on the same budget (or cheaper)

Don’t just replace all the items on your shelf with organic items!

17:03 The work that KBH Madhus is doing with kids and the creation of the EAT program

18:00 What is your vision for the Nordic FoodTech ecosystem in 10-15 years?

We need better, more transparent data around how ingredients are made in order to make the sustainable choice.

19:20 What can we do as a community to support this transition

Create projects and prototypes to test our interconnectedness!

20:00 How to get in touch with Pernille and KBH’s Madhus

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Cecilia Tilli on lessons learned from food bankruptcy

Analisa Winther — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 15:02:00 +0000

Cecilia Tilli founded Ultuna Mejeri, one of the first vegan cheese startups to hit the Swedish market back in 2014. The company grew to be sold in 50 stores and had a devoted fan base. Still, Cecilia and her team had to take the decision to close the company and declare bankruptcy. In this episode, Cecilia shares her personal story of starting the company and gives us a look into the realities of having your startup journey end in bankruptcy.

4:00 Where did the idea come from to start Ultuna Mejeri?

6:10 What does Ultuna Mejeri the company do?

When you launch a new product, many people will buy it the first week because they’re excited. But you need to figure out what the normal consumption is. How many people will actually buy your product every week? Every month? You can’t run a company on how many people will buy it to try it.

7:18 How has the food startup ecosystem changed since 2014?

9:20 What were you learnings and reflections from going through bankruptcy?

Bankruptcy is amazing. You hand over the responsibility and don’t have to do anything.

16:45 More details on how to properly build and scale logistics

It’s not a race to profitability. It’s more important that you do it right.

19:10 Building a startup with family members and maintaining relationships even in tough times

21:10 How did you deal with investors?

22:40 Lessons learned regarding shelf life.

Have patience – your startup is an experiment.

24:40 Marketing is one thing you really succeeded with. What went well?

We tapped into our community so we never had to pay for marketing. Our customers were actively lobbying for their stores to carry our products.

28:00 None of you had a background in food when you started this company. How did you manage to figure everything out?

29:18 When did you know it was the right time to call it quits and declare bankruptcy?

33:00 Realities of needing to take care of yourself and your health as a founder.

If you’re stressed out, you can’t be creative or smart. It’s not going to be good for you or the company.

34:45 Do you have any regrets?

I valued money more than my own health. We could bring in more resources, but we couldn’t replace me.

36:00 How does one plan for bankruptcy?

38:10 What is your vision for what the food ecosystem should look like in 10-15 years?

41:20 How to get in touch with Cecilia

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Jävligt Gott's Gustav Johansson on how comfort food is the secret to a sustainable diet

VA FLIX — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 06:35:00 +0000

Gustav Johansson is behind Swedens largest vegan food blog. He’s also the author of two vegan cookbooks – one covers Swedish comfort food and the other is for athletes in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund and the Swedish Olympic Committee.

Gustav’s work is fascinating. His work centers on using his platform to make it easier for people to chose a planet friendly diet. He does so by developing a trove of recipes that don’t require consumers to sacrifice the tastes they love or dishes they grew up with in order to eat more sustainably. He also works with supermarket chains and food entrepreneurs to ensure that the vegan products people want make it to market. He also develops recipes for new products to make sure there are resources available online for how to use them.

Besides Gustav’s story and approach, we also cover how new products are released in Sweden – it only happens three times a year – and why Swedes seem to be leading the charge when it comes to embracing a vegan diet.

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Jävligt Gott’s Gustav Johansson on how comfort food is the secret to a sustainable diet

Analisa Winther — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 06:35:00 +0000

Gustav Johansson is behind Swedens largest vegan food blog – Jävligt Gott. He’s also the author of two vegan cookbooks – one covers Swedish comfort food and the other is for athletes in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund and the Swedish Olympic Committee.

There were a couple hiccups in audio in this episode! Please excuse them!

Key Minutes & Show Notes

If we’re going to help people transition to a more sustainable diet, we have to look at the foods they love.

When did you first realize or was there a moment when you realized you wanted to work with food?

Almost everything I learned and loved to eat beforehand was off the table.

2:55 How did the blog get started?

I needed to find a way to eat good and do good.

7:50 How are you using comfort food to help people transition to a more sustainable diet?

Just because you consume something, doesn’t mean you know anything about it.

12:30 How do you make sure that new vegan products or alternative proteins succeed when they come to market?

I can help to ease the meeting between the producer and the consumer.

14:40 How are you using data from you blog to measure a product’s popularity?

It also enables me to search the market and different forums to see how people are using the product to find the best ideas rising up in small community-based groups, like a vegan Facebook group. It allows me to facilitate bringing those ideas out to a larger audience.”

16:20 How are new products launched in Sweden? What is the process?

In Sweden, there’s just three windows each year when new products are allowed to be released in the supermarket.

19:40 What recommendations do you have for conducting a successful product launch?

The most successful launches I’ve seen were able to create some kind of hype beforehand.

20:25 What are the weeks in Sweden when new products are launched?

20:40 How would you describe the climate for alternative proteins in Sweden? What’s popular? Where is the market going?

Most people don’t realize that the average consumer shops for the same 100 products and that 100 includes household items like soap, paper, coffee filters.

23:45 Sweden seems to be leading the charge towards veganism in the Nordics, thoughts on why?

There are three main reasons why people go vegetarians, climate, health, or animal reasons. In Sweden, the move towards veganism has mainly been driven by climate and health.

30:55 What is your vision for what the Nordic FoodTech ecosystem should look like in 10-15 years?

We need to create an ecosystem where farmers are involved and see themselves as part of the shift. Right now, all parties are not meeting in the middle.

36:24 How can our community help you with what you’re working on now?

Help me to create better products for the community that are more likely to be adopted!

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Fostering AgTech innovation in rural Denmark

VA FLIX — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 08:22:00 +0000

Lolland-Falster is fascinating not only because it has some of the richest soil in the country, but also because its considered “udkantsdanmark” or outer Denmark – a rural region, which has been struggling to attract growth in competition with big cities.

Despite this, Growth Train’s 7-week accelerator program has succeeded in attracting startups to the region. Their program focuses on connecting the big agricultural operators with startups, giving them a playground to test new technologies. The goal is to work with corporations to soure solutions to their innovation challenges. I speak with Christiane Paaske-Sørensen on the ins and outs of the program.