Ep. 102: Eat the Change with Seth Goldman and Julie Farkas

Today we are thrilled to be joined by husband and wife duo, Seth Goldman and Julie Farkas. Seth is the co-founder of Honest Tea and Julie has spent her career in the social justice arena. Seth is also involved in Beyond Meat, where he is Chair of the Board. They work with previous Health Gig guest, Chef Spike Mendelsohn, to create delicious, plant based foods. Seth and Julie are also co-founders of PLNT Burger which is a seven-unit fast casual chain based in the Mid-Atlantic. Most recently, Seth and Julie launched Eat the Change and Eat the Change Impact to inspire more health conscious and environmentally sustainable diets.

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Show Notes

[3:14] My main mission I guess, is to do what I can to level the playing field, to create opportunities for others that I was lucky enough to be born into.
[4:26] How do you create access to better health for people, both health care, but going beyond the medical model of, oh I'm sick, I need to go to the doctor, to how do you create health in communities? And so much of people's health does have to do with where they live, whether it's asthma, hypertension, diabetes. You can look at zip code and life expectancy.
[6:45] 15 years ago, we became vegetarian and we were always happy with that decision from a health perspective, from an ethical perspective, the one area where we kind of felt let down was from a taste perspective. You know, veggie burgers just weren't satisfying. We couldn't enjoy meals the way we used to. And so when this idea came, when we started reading about what Beyond Meat was doing, we said this could just be a game changer.
[9:13] Here we are in an environmental crisis, a climate change crisis, and if we can remove all of those environmental inputs or reduce them so dramatically, now we have a way to create a protein that can feed the world, can do it in a way that's more sustainable, and, by the way, can also be delicious.
[10:32] So we talk about global population growth as a real threat to our planet sustainability, but even more so or on top of that is the multiplying of animals and livestock and cows in particular that put so much demands on the planet that we literally don't have enough planet to feed this population the way Americans are fed.
[10:59] If we are going to try to feed the planet in a way that's sustainable, we have to find other, more environmentally efficient forms of protein.
[11:43] If we could be healthy without killing animals, why would we do that?
[12:52] It's a little thing that all of us can do. These are huge problems that are going to take a long time to reverse and a lot of policies and a lot of things that need to happen worldwide. But eat the change is just so simple.
[13:08] It's great when the politicians can talk about it, but we shouldn't wait for the politicians to take action. There's actions people can take three times a day. Every time they eat, they can make more health oriented choices.
[14:20] This isn't just go vegan. This is find a way to meet all your health needs and do it in a way that's more plant friendly and get more connected to the earth.
[15:38] Food waste is a huge environmental issue because every time you grow food and process it, if it's thrown out, it's just a waste of all that energy. And so we're working with the mushroom farmers to take all the oversized and undersize mushrooms, which they can't sell. But for our products, work perfectly fine. Taste great. And so we're both addressing food waste while creating planet friendly foods.
[17:59] We're working on some great kids snacks that are also earth friendly, nutrient dense, low calorie, lower fat. But another way to expand the universe of people eating these earth friendly foods.
[18:50] When you haven't had healthy, affordable food in your neighbor, like you haven't had fresh fruits and vegetables at the corner store, you don't know what to do with them because it's something you've never seen before.
[19:06] When you are funding in a variety of communities, just having the messengers be from those communities, having the work really be organic and bubble up from people in the communities.
[22:56] As I was getting Eat the Change up and running, I realized, like, if I'm going to buy this brand that's earth friendly and has that real mission to it, I've got to make sure it tastes delicious
[24:20] Wellness is also fullness. It's wholesomeness. And so when you can live and act and eat and interact with a planet in a way that's consistent with your beliefs, it's just that much easier to create a healthier life.
Thank you for joining us on Health Gig. We loved having you with us. We hope you'll tune in again next week. In the meantime, be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast, and follow us on healthgigpod.com.

“Wellness is also fullness. It's wholesomeness. And so when you can live and act and eat and interact with a planet in a way that's consistent with your beliefs, it's just that much easier to create a healthier life.” - Seth Goldman
“It's a little thing that all of us can do. These are huge problems that are going to take a long time to reverse and a lot of policies and a lot of things that need to happen worldwide. But eat the change is just so simple.” - Julie Farkas
“Here we are in an environmental crisis, a climate change crisis, and if we can remove all of those environmental inputs or reduce them so dramatically, now we have a way to create a protein that can feed the world, can do it in a way that's more sustainable, and, by the way, can also be delicious.” - Julie Farkas

Keywords

#SethGoldman #JulieFarkas #EatTheChange #EatTheChangeImpact #HonestTea #BeyondMeat #PLNTBurger #Vegetarian #Vegan #Diet #Meat #Sustainability #Environment #ClimateChange #Community #PlantBased #SocialChange #Mindfulness #Health #Wellness #HealthGig #Pandemic #COVID19 #TriciaReillyKoch #DoroBushKoch #MentalHealth #BBRWellness #CoMindfulness #CoMindfulnessProject

PodcastadminOctober 28, 2020