Trung Ho // JAN 2015

The Silicon Valley Food Movement

P E R F E C T F O O D

PERFECTFOOD

INTRODUCTION

OVERALL TREND DRIVERS

START-UP FOOD ANALYSIS

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BIG BRANDS

APPENDIX: TRENDS TO CONSIDER

CONTACT

The Silicon Valley Food Movement

January 2015

Consumers have increasingly become more cognisant of their food: what’s in it, where it comes from, and how it’s made. In adapting to this new food trend, we saw large food companies such as McDonald’s launch a new platform tackling food quality perception with ‘Our Foods, Your Questions.’ We saw Chipotle take a stance against factory farming through award-winning short animated films. We even saw Ecoeggs in Australia install ‘ChookCam,’ a user controllable online camera streaming live to its Ecoeggs free range egg farms. These are just some of the examples of big brands adjusting to consumer demands relating to health and sustainability issues, but will these improvements be enough beyond 2015? Is there a much greater need and opportunity in the food industry that has taken precedence?

According to the UN`s “World Population Prospects: the 2012 Revision” report, the world population is expected to increase by over 1 billion over the next twelve years, and by 2050, it would have reached 9.6 billion. Correspondingly, meat production, which currently accounts for approximately 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions (higher than greenhouse gas emitted by global transportation sources), is projected to double by 2050.

This is where the tech start-up industry is setting its sights on, and with the food movement hitting Silicon Valley, the goal is nothing short of creating change and disruption to solve the world’s food systemic problems affecting sustainability, ethics, health implications, and environmental impact. And while big food brands dominate the market, it is investors and major venture capital firms who are betting their millions on Silicon Valley ($350 million was invested in food technology in 2013) to tackle some of our biggest food and environmen-tal challenges that lie ahead, and by asking one simple question: what would the food system look like if we just started over? In this report, the Silicon Valley food movement and its corresponding trends have been compiled for analysis, as well as its implications for big food brands. This report also takes a look at related food trends and its manifestations that are occurring outside of Silicon Valley.

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INTRODUCTION

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BIG PROBLEMS THAT NEED SOLUTIONS: Silicon Valley is known to solve problems through inno-vation and disruption. With major investors such as Bill Gates and Li-Ka Shing investing hundreds of millions in some of the biggest food startups, Silicon Valley isn’t simply looking to introduce a new food product, or even interested in food necessarily, but rather, it is focused on chang-ing the entire food system and tackle worldwide problems such as global resource scarcity, land and water use, a growing global population, and environmental impact.

FOOD SECURITY AT RISK: The world population is projected to increase over 2 billion to reach 9.6

billion by 2050, and scientists, environmentalists, and now Silicon Valley is ask-ing: how sustainable is our food production system? This topic was given full cov-erage in April 2014 when National Geographic launched “The Future of Food,” a platform dedicated to exploring the growing implications and challenges the world will face in food and climate as our global population continues to grow.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: There is a growing consensus among scientists and environmentalists that it’s not too late to take steps towards fighting climate change, as long as action is taken now. Relating to food, meat production ac-counts for approximately 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions (a figure that’s higher than gas emissions from global transport), and by 2050, the global demand for meat will have doubled. Some scientists and researchers believe that to have the best positive impact on the environment, consumers need to globally reduce their animal consumption by 25 percent.

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OVERALL DRIVING FACTORS

Image credits: National Geographic, Reinventors Network

If you were designing Ameri-ca’s food and ag system from scratch, you’d never end up

with what we have today.

- Ali Partovi, Angel Investor and Startup Advisor, “Silicon Valley’s Next Big Goal: Fixing Our Broken Food System,” Fast Company, January 28, 2014

When we think about threats to the environment, we tend to picture cars and smokestacks,

not dinner. But the truth is, our need for food poses one of the biggest dan-gers to the planet.

- Jon Foley, Director, Institute on the Environ-ment, “A Five-Step Plan to Feed the World,” National Geographic, April 15, 2014

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OVERALL DRIVING FACTORS (cont’d)

GROWING EXPOSURE OF UNETHICAL ‘BIG AG’: Recent food advocate movements have gained national attention, pushing for awareness and action relating to extreme unethical big agricultur-al practices. Mercy for Animals, a national non-profit animal ad-vocacy organization, recently launched a campaign with celebrity spokesman Joaquin Phoenix to call on Walmart to take a stand against animal cruelty relating to the practice of gestation crates from the corporation’s pork suppliers. Most recently, Craig Watts, a farmer under contract with food processing giant Perdue Farms, garnered national headlines when he opened his farm and broiler barn to the filming crew from the Compassion in World Farming animal welfare group. The video, published in early December

2014, showcased the inhumane practices that farmers contracted by Perdue must carry out. In examining a deeper issue relating to big agriculture, inhumane practices against both animals on factory farms and employees of big food processing companies are investigated in Ted Genoways’s 2014 book, “The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food.”

INCREASING COMMUNITY ACTIVITY AND PARTICIPATION: Communities of diverse professions and consumers are increasingly becoming engaged in the conversa-tion surrounding the state of food. Most recently, the New York Times organized its first annual “Food For Tomorrow” conference in November 2014 to explore the food challenges of the 21st century. Branchfood, a Boston-based food community organization, held its “Hack Urban Food” hack-a-thon geared towards entrepre-neurs, developers, food system experts, designers, chefs, farmers, and general food enthusiasts, meanwhile Seedstock held its third annual “Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Conference” in Los Angeles focussing on reintegrating urban agriculture into cities. In March 2015, TEDxManhattan will be hosting its fifth independently organized TED conference surrounding the theme, “Changing the Way We Eat.”

Image credits: The Chain, Mercy for Animals, Compassion in World Farming, TEDxManhattan

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DEMAND FOR REAL, SIMPLE INGREDIENTS: Consumers are demanding more natural food with simpler and less ingredi-ents, which is now often being directly associated with a healthy lifestyle. Although additives are considered safe by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), consumer anxiety about the growing

number of unknown food substances, and a growing desire to know what’s in their food, have led to a shift in the landscape of the food industry. Chobani, an American brand of Greek yogurt that uses 100% natural ingredients, is now one of the leading food brands that has become most known for its natural and nutritious values. As the “How Matters” campaign outlines, Chobani’s mission is to make delicious and widely accessible food with only natural ingredients.

Meanwhile, Whole Foods Market, an American natural and organic food supermarket chain, most recently launched a campaign to re-establish its positioning within this rising trend. A voiceover in Whole Foods’ lat-est commercial, “We are hungrier for better than we ever realized... The time is right to champion the way food is grown, and raised, and caught. So it’s good for us, and for the greater good, too.”

HEALTHY CONVENIENCE FOOD: Convenience is becoming increasingly recognized as a primary motivator for consumers, compared to other factors such as nutrition education or even income levels. Farmer’s Fridge, a Chicago-based startup, is betting on convenience and healthy food by selling salads through vending machines currently in various locations throughout Chicago. The founder of Farmer’s Fridge hopes to eventually expand to other cities and also install its vending machines in low-income neighbourhoods to make healthy eating more affordable.

OVERALL DRIVING FACTORS (cont’d)

6Image credits: Chobani, Whole Foods Market, The Atlantic

Much of the new growth in the segment is coming from younger consumers who seek foods that fit an overall lifestyle, be

it for health reasons or personal ethics.

- Andrew Loucks, President, Kellogg Frozen Food Division, “Fake Meats, Finally, Taste Like Chicken,” The New York Times, April 2, 2014

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P E R F E C T F O O D8 M A J O R F O O D S T A R T U P S

MEDIA COVERAGE: Josh Tetric, founder of Hampton Creek, and Hampton Creek prod-ucts has been featured on numerous talk shows and news segments, such as Bloomberg Television, Today Show, Wall Street Journal Live, Fox Business, Mad Money with Jim Cramer, and the Katie Couric Talk Show.

BIG-NAME INVESTORS: Hampton Creek is gaining immense popularity not only for its products but for the investors who have gotten behind the company. The list of prominent investors include Li Ka-Shing, Bill Gates, Tom Steyer, and Jerry Yang.

Hampton Creek is a food-technology company that produces egg-based products, such as mayonnaise, but without eggs by utilizing plant protein in its food. The San Francisco-based company is most notable for its Just Mayo product, a direct competitor to big brands such as Hellmann’s, and are sold across the United States in over 20,000 Safeway, Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods, Sprouts Farmers Market, Kroger, and Parknshop loca-tions.

Hampton Creek also produces a popular Cookie Dough product, and is planning to ex-pand to pancake mixes, salad dressing, and sour cream over the next year.

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Part of the reason you’re seeing all these V.C.’s get interested in this is the food industry is not only is it massive, but like the energy industry, it is terribly broken in terms of its im-

pact on the environment, health, animals.- Josh Tetric, Founder, Hampton Creek Foods, “Venture Capitalists Are Making Bigger Bets on Food Start-Ups,” New York Times, April 28, 2013

HAMPTON CREEK

Image credits: Just Mayo, CNBC, Hampton Creek

MARKETING AND TRACTION

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THE BIG MAYO WARS: In November 2014, Hampton Creek gained significant national attention and positive publicity resulting from a lawsuit filed against the eggless-based company by Unilever, who owns Hellmann’s. The complaint accused Hampton Creek for falsely advertising its Just Mayo product as “mayonnaise” when it in fact does not contain egg products, which by FDA regulations is part of what constitutes mayon-naise. The story spurred a strong public reaction including a 112,000+ signed petition addressed to Unilever, over 100,000 messages on social media, and a reported three-times increase in Just Mayo sales in the ensuing days. The story was even made light of during a David Lettermen segment, ridiculing the idea of a legal battle over mayon-naise.

GROW UP WITH SOMETHING BETTER: Changing the world and how we view food as a means to solve rising health issues and environmental stress has been one of Hampton Creek’s most prominent values. As such, a large portion of their marketing position is about starting with children and their ability to help the world start over.

SOCIAL MEDIA: One of Hampton Creek’s largest sources of support and engagement comes from social media, where consumers actively participate in supporting the Just Mayo product for both its quality in food and its cause. Hampton Creek has over 170,000 ‘Likes’ on Facebook and over 55,000 followers on Twitter.

MARKETING AND TRACTION (CONT’D)

9Image credits: Just Mayo, David Letterman, Just Mayo

Just Mayo will continue to steal market share from Hell-mann’s, not because consum-

ers think it has egg in it, but because they know it doesn’t. It’s a game-changer, and Unilever knows it.

- Rowan Jacobsen, Author, A Geography of Oys-ters, “Big Mayo Wants You to Know There’s Only One Way to Make Mayo, Dammit,” Mother Jones, November 14, 2014

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CORRESPONDING AND RELATED TREND DRIVERS

HUMANELY RAISED FOOD HITS MAINSTREAM: Big food brands such as Burger King and McDonald’s have pledged to use only eggs from cage-free chickens as well as phasing out gestation stalls for pregnant pigs, and Unilever has similarly introduced only cage-free eggs in its Hellman’s mayonnaise product. A part of this push is a result of continuing efforts from animal welfare organizations such as The Humane Society and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but is also enforced by new political legislations such as bans on gesta-tion stalls and battery cages for chickens in Europe by the European Union. Most recently, California voters and lawmakers have decided to implement regulations beginning in 2015 that will require eggs that are sold in the state to come from egg-laying hens that have enough room to move. In 2013, Californians consumed an estimated 9 billion eggs.

GETTING BEHIND A CAUSE: Cause marketing has long been a success with food brands that have cross-promoted with charities, but Hampton Creek provides a more direct opportunity for millennials to drive its values. Evident through the outpour of support for Hampton Creek in the David vs. Goliath-type lawsuit case with Unilever, Just Mayo’s mission to positively impact the world has created a space for health, animal, and environmental advocates to get behind and actively show their support and belief that every bottle of Just Mayo has a direct impact on a more sustainable future.

10Image credits: Whole Foods, @nieliswonderful, @happyvegangal

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Innovation in food was making a Dorito crunch a bit better in the mouth. It hasn’t been about how the [explicit] do we feed x billion people by 2050 in a way that enables their bodies? We think it’s an urgent need.

- Josh Tetric, Founder, Hampton Creek Foods, “Food 2.0: the future of what we eat,” FT Magazine, October 31, 2014

Beyond Meat is a food company that focuses on becoming the market leader in the development and introduction of meat foods based on plant protein products found in peas and soy, instead of animal protein products.

Beyond Meat launched its first two staple products in late 2012, the “chicken” strips and “beef” crumble, and is now available across nearly 6,000 stores in the United States including Target, Publix, Safeway, and Whole Foods. Beyond Meat’s much an-ticipated “Beast Burger” is expected to launch in 2015.

Voted as one of the 50 most innovative companies in 2014 by Fast Company and voted in 2013 as PETA’s (People of Ethical Treatment of Animals) Company of the Year, Beyond Meat has received funding from prominent investors includ-

ing Biz Stone and Evan Williams of Twitter and Bill Gates of Microsoft.

TARGETING MEAT LOVERS, NOT VEGANS: One of the significant differentia-tors with Beyond Meat is that the food company targets meat-eaters, not vegans or vegetarians, and that products are not “like” meat, it is meat. To this extent, Beyond Meat’s mission is to develop a meat product so good that it can sit next to animal meat in supermarkets over the next ten years.

THE ATHLETE APPROVAL: In a move to help convince meat-loving consum-ers to try the plant-based Beast Burger, New York Mets star third basemen David Wright has signed an endorsement deal with Beyond Meat. The com-pany is also approaching other professional sports organizations such as the Golden State Warriors, Seattle Seahawks, L.A. Clippers, New York Giants, New York Yankees, and the New England Patriots.

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BEYOND MEAT

Image credits: Beyond Meat, Steve Bullock, Wall Street Journal

MARKETING AND TRACTION

The problem is, Americans eat 96 pounds of chicken per person per year. At that scale, it’s hard

to be environmentally responsible.

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- Alton Brown, Chef, Best-Selling Author, Host on the Food Network, “Tastes Like Chicken,” Wired, September 2013

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MEDIA COVERAGE: In the past year, Beyond Meat and its founder, Ethan Brown, have been featured on numerous talk shows, such as This Morning and the Today Show, and news shows such as ABC, Bloomberg, and CNBC.

TASTE TESTS: One of Beyond Meat’s main strategies is to have people just try Beyond Meat and give it one chance. Food trucks, grocery store sample kiosks, conventions, and public pop-up sampling tents - such as the one held outside the New York Mets’ Citi Field in June 2014, are just some of the ways Beyond Meat is spreading the word, one taste test at a time.

CUTTING BACK ON MEAT: According to a 2013 Red Meat study from Mintel, 39% of Americans are cutting back on beef and other red meat primarily for health-related reasons and rising costs. Organizations such as Sir Paul McCartney’s “Meat Free Mondays” is one of the many growing global campaigns that encourages a consumer movement to help contribute to a more healthy and sus-tainable world by eating less meat.

MEAT ON THE SIDE: Restaurants such as Alden & Har-low (Cambridge, MA) and Sarma (Somerville, MA) are moving away from anchoring their plates with meat and are increasingly finding new creative ways to push produce. To help restaurant owners and chefs adjust to the growing trend of transitioning to healthier and more sustainable food menus, the Culinary Institute of America launched Menus of Change, an annual conference providing education and resources relating to business-minded solutions to tackling social and environmental problems.

12Image credits: Today Show, Wall Street Journal, Meat Free Mondays

MARKETING AND ADVERTISING (CONT’D)

CORRESPONDING AND RELATED TREND DRIVERS

In short, an haute res-taurant meal no longer has to deliver 8 ounces

(or more) of meat plus a vege-table side. Increasingly, it is the opposite.

- Jane Black, Food Writer, “Meat on the Side: Modern Menus Shift the Focus to Vegetables,” Wall Street Journal, October 31, 2014

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RISING INTEREST IN PLANT-BASED DIETS: According to a Mintel report, sales of meat alternatives (i.e. “fake” meat products) grew 8 percent from 2010 to 2012, reach-ing $553 million in sales. Meanwhile, 12% of global food and drink products launched in 2013 carried a vegetarian claim, an increase from 6% in 2009. Much of the inter-est in vegetarian and vegan diets can be attributed to the rising interest of consumers who aim to explore trans-forming their lives and bodies through healthy eating, with inspiration and support from companies such as the widely popular 22 Days Nutrition program and Thrive, a plant-based performance and lifestyle magazine. The rise of the non-meat diet can also be attributed in-part

to its popularity in pop culture, where celebrities such as Mike Tyson, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Bill Clinton, and Michelle Pfeiffer have all taken up vegan diet challenges in one form or another and have endorsed the lifestyle. In a recent Saturday Night Live sketch, Justin Timberlake performed in a tofu costume singing about the ethics and fun of eating vegan, and at one point proclaiming, “If you knew how meat was raised, you wouldn’t eat it!”

ETHICS EXPOSURE: According to the 2014 ASPCA U.S. national survey, more than 80% of the survey’s respondents feel it’s important that the chickens they eat are humanely raised, while 75% of respondents wished there were more humanely-raised chicken options available at their local grocery stores. An ever-increasing demand for animal-based food over the decades has resulted in extreme unethical practices, many of which are increasingly making its way into consumer consciousness through the subject of books, documentaries, and magazine editorial features. Rolling Stone recently published a controver-sial editorial feature titled “In the Belly of the Beast,” exposing the realities of the Ameri-can meat processing industry.

CORRESPONDING TRENDS AND DRIVERS (CONT’D)

13Image credits: Thrive, NBC, 22 Days Nutrition, The Verge

There are basically three things that can happen going forward. One is we will all become vegetarian... the

second is we ignore the issues... and the third option is we do something new.

- Sergey Brin, Co-Founder, Google, “Cultured Beef (culturedbeef.net),” Cultured Beef, July 29, 2013

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ORGANIC GROWTH: Soylent’s growth is largely contributed to its online community. With Soylent co-founder Rob Rhinehart’s experimental blog post, “How I Stopped Eating Food” rising to the top of Hacker News in February 2013, Soylent’s initial funding was eventually backed through a crowd-funding campaign in which over $100,000 was raised within two hours. The Los Angeles-based company has since been funded by venture capital firms and investors such as Y Combinator, the blue-chip investment firm Andreeson Horowitz, and Alex Ohanian, the founder of Reddit.

DO-IT-YOURSELF SOYLENT HOBBYISTS: There are countless groups of people who enthu-siastically tinker and share their own recipes of Soylent on Reddit and the Soylent D.I.Y. website, diy.soylent.me (encouraged but not owned by Soylent). This community has grown to over 26,000 users worldwide with nearly 4,000 recipes.

Soylent is a food company that produces drinkable meals that serve as a healthy alternative to everyday food. The food-drink is dedicated to providing consumers with the option of replacing food completely by fulfilling our body’s required nutritional components of food, but not the food itself (for example, we require amino acids and lipids that are provided in milk, but we don’t necessarily need milk).

During Soylent’s launch in May 2014, over 20,000 pre-orders were already accumulated, adding up to more than $2 million sales.

14Image credits: Soylent

MARKETING AND TRACTION

SOYLENT3

Most of people’s meals are forgotten. [In the future] we’ll see a separation between our meals for utility and function, and our meals for experience and socialization.

- Rob Rhinehart, Co-founder, Soylent, “The End of Food,” The New Yorker, May 12, 2014

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EVOLUTION OF CONVENIENCE FOOD AND SAVING TIME: The evolution of convenience food has continuously found new ways to save consumers time and energy. From baked beans, to frozen food, to TV dinners, since the 1950’s, convenience food has profoundly cut back on the amount of time spent in households on preparing meals. Soylent’s co-founder, Rob Rhinehart, suggested in an interview with Aeon Magazine that the nutri-tious drink is the next step of this evolution, by giving consumers an extra 90 minutes a day, which, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, is how much time on average Americans spend a day on food-related activities, such as grocery shopping, food prepa-ration, consumption, and cleaning.

CONSUMERS ARE SNACKING MORE: Consumers are finding themselves snacking more than they are sitting down for a meal. According to Kruse Consulting, over 35% of meals consumed by millennials aren’t meals at all, but snacks. Snacks offer the convenience and value for consumers who have busy schedules and are increasingly evolving be-yond chips and cookies to healthier beverages and mini-meals. The shift in behaviour behind growing snacking trends aligns directly with the benefits of a Soylent diet.

ALTERNATIVES FOR ALL TO BIG FOOD BRANDS: While the growing trend of farm-to-table dining has been embraced by large groups of consumers, it has left the working class with minimal options, which as a result resort to the low-cost food industry, induc-ing obesity, diabetes, and malnutrition. It is also widely accepted that the way most con-sumers will experience climate change is through the rising prices of their food. Soylent offers an option to counter these anticipated trends.

CORRESPONDING AND RELATED TREND DRIVERS

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A lot of people would think: I really love movies, I really love to see live music, but

it would get old three times a day every day. And that’s honestly how I feel about food.

- Zach Alexander, Web Developer and For-mer Chef, “Is this sci-fi beverage the future of food?,” The Globe and Mail, November 9, 2014

MARKETING AND TRACTION (CONT’D)

THE END OF FOOD: Although liquid food, such as Ensure and Milk Muscle, have been available in the market for decades, Soylent is the first to market its product as a food drink that humans can live on alone. This position has spawned off hype and debates around the future of food, gauging the interest of writers, reporters, and bloggers who have since conducted experiments published and shared across the Internet.

Image credits: Gawker, YouTube

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CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS: Unreal is largely driven by celebrity endorsements, including Tom Brady, Matt Damon, John Legend, Gisele Bündchen, Bill Gates, and Jack Dorsey.

APOLOGY TOUR: In 2013, Unreal launched the “Eas-ter Bunny Apology Tour” to promote Unreal leading up to the Easter holidays. The campaign idea was to show what would happen when the Easter Bunny realized it had been handing out junk its entire life.

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Unreal exists to prove that the junk that’s in our junk food doesn’t need to be there. We want to inspire change. It’s about inspiring other companies to bring more of those products to the mass market. - Michael Bronner, Founder, Unreal, “Venture Capitalists Are Making Bigger Bets

on Food Start-Ups,” New York Times, April 28, 2013

Image credits: Unreal

Unreal is a healthy, natural, non-GMO, and sustainably-sourced confectionary alternative, with its main offerings serving as direct substitutes to large candy brands such as Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, Snickers, Milky Way, and M&M’s.

Unreal’s continuing growth in popularity is evident through its celebrity en-dorsements and the amount of venture capital it has received, which is more than $18 Million to date. Unreal products are also available in over 18,000 stores across the United States including Kroger stores, Ralphs, Dillons, Fred Meyer, and Smith’s locations, and Unreal plans to expand its product offering into the snacks, soda, and breakfast cereal categories as well.

MARKETING AND TRACTION

UNREAL4

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- Robyn O’Brien, Author of The Unhealthy Truth

PUSHING OUT SUGAR: According to Dr. Mark Hy-man, author of The Blood Sugar Solution, in the past 15 years alone the percentage of new cases of type 2 diabetes in children rose from 3% to almost 50%, all while the $30 billion candy industry is continuing to grow. Health epidemics among chil-dren have transpired to popular initiatives such as Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, which

aims to end childhood obesity in the United States through nutritional education for children, promotion of physical activity, and ensuring access to healthy and affordable food.

DEMAND FOR NON-GMO: The demand for food prod-ucts that do not contain genetically modified organisms has been on a sharp rise. The Non-GMO Project, the main facilitator of non-GMO verified certification labels, recently confirmed that the industry has reached over $8.5 billion in annual sales of non-GMO labeled products.

TOM BRADY: Tom Brady has been one of Unreal’s biggest endorsers, starring in numerous Unreal commercials and marketing events, which has helped Unreal gain attention in the sporting world.

ADVERTISING INTIATIVES: In 2012, shortly after the launch of Unreal, Brooklyn-based ad-vertising agency Big Spaceship was signed on to create the “Unreal Halloween” campaign, which featured a website that autoscrolled through Instagram pictures tagged with “#unre-alhalloween.”

17Image credits: Unreal, John Ramspott, Little, Brown and Company, Harmony

MARKETING AND TRACTION (CONT’D)

CORRESPONDING AND RELATED TREND DRIVERS

“Junk” – the ingredients in junk food that pro-mote obesity and diabetes – is cheaper to use than real, whole food ingredients. If we keep

eating it, the food industry will keep supplying it. But, if motivated to, they could unjunk their junk food.

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Bitty Foods is a San Francisco-based startup that produces high-protein baked goods utilizing cricket flour. Propelled by 2013 FAO report on edible insects, Bitty Foods’ vision is to eventually replace the wheat flour for foods such as pasta, bread, and cake. Both the flour and cookies baked with the flour are sold online.

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BITTY FOODS

Image credits: Bitty, Impossible Foods, Nu-Tek Salt, Kite Hill

NU-TEK SALT

Nu-Tek Salt is a company that offers naturally sourced salt re-placement products that contain 75% less sodium than tradi-tional salt. One of the prominent products using Nu-Tek Salt is Salt for Life, which 10 of the top 13 food producers in the world use according to Nu-Tek Salt’s COO Don Mower. Salt for Life is also available on Amazon.

Impossible Foods is a food com-pany that aims to develop a new generation of meat and cheese that is produced from plants. Founded in 2011, Impossible Foods has raised over $75 mil-lion in venture capital, including investments from Bill Gates and Google Ventures.

IMPOSSIBLE FOODS KITE HILL

Kite Hill offers artisanal non-dairy cheese products that is nut milk-based (instead of cows). Kite Hill currently has four different varieties that are sold across the United States in select Whole Foods stores. Kite Hill is sold in the cheese section among other non-vegan cheese and is widely accepted as equivalent to “real” cheese.

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I M P L I C A T I O N SW H A T P E R F E C T F O O D M E A N S

WHAT DOES PERFECT FOOD MEAN FOR FOOD BRANDS?

20Image credits: Eva Kolenko

Big food brands are already feeling the impact of shifting consumer demands for more healthy, sustainable, and fresh food. In the U.S., McDonald’s same-store sales have declined by an alarming 4.6 percent in the past year, and 2.2 percent globally, as quality perception campaigns and touchscreen burger customization systems are being rolled out nationally in an effort to re-build its millennial audience. Similarly, other major food brands such as Burger King have made moves to eliminate gestation crates from its pork supply chain and Panera has removed its use of artificial additives, meanwhile Chipotle Mexican Grill (17 percent same-store sales growth) continues to successfully trumpet its healthy and sustain-ability ethos.

Although the impact felt by big traditional food brands have come largely at the hands of its rising fast-casual and premium fast-casual rivals - such as Chipotle, Five Guys, In-and-Out Burger, and Shake Shack - what the Silicon Valley food movement offers is not just a ref-ormation of product offerings, but rather, it presents a collective force to revolutionize and introduce an entirely new way of producing and consuming food. It’s a movement that’s cre-ating space for consumers to get behind and create an urgency for change. One of the most notable triumphs in the infancy of this food movement include the outpour of support shown from Just Mayo consumers arising from the “Mayo Wars” which led to Unilever’s original lawsuit against Hampton Creek lasting only one month before it was subsequently dropped.

The reality is that recreating food - or “perfecting food,” aren’t the only pieces of this move-ment that’s carving out a new dimension in the food industry. Freight Farms continues to build innovative infrastructure within shipping containers to allow urban farming year-round, while GroveLabs allows consumers to grow their own organic products within their homes with the Grove ecosystem tower. Farmer’s Fridge is making healthy food more con-venient by selling salad meals through vending machines, and Belcampo, a sustainable-meat company, is taking an artisanal approach to raising and processing meat with the hope that meat consumers will steer away from industrial food. Investors, food producers, chefs, and most importantly, consumers, are collectively circling around the idea and growing reality that food can be healthy, can taste good, all while eliminating the ugly side of producing it that’s increasingly becoming harder to ignore.

What would the food system - and food industry - look like if we started over? Most people aren’t waiting to find out, the transformation is already underway.

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Twelve years after the publication of “Fast Food Nation”

and nearly as long since Morgan Spurlock almost ate himself to death, our rela-tionship with fast food has changed. We’ve gone from the whistle-blowing stage to the higher-expectations stage, and some of those ex-pectations are being met.

- Mark Bittman, Food Journalist, “Yes, Healthful Fast Food Is Possible. But Ed-ible?” New York Times, April 3, 2013

A P P E N D I X

Appendix 1.0: Recent Big Food Brands Manifestations

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Chipotle released its second award-winning animated short in 2013 called “The Scarecrow” contrasting big agricultural food processing to sustainable practices. “The Scarecrow,” accompanied by Fiona Apple’s ren-dition of “Pure Imagination” from Willa Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, was created after the success of Chipotle’s first animated short surrounding sustain-able farming in 2011 called “Back to the Start.”

Coca Cola Life is a new line of soda targeting more health conscious consumers seeking balance. Launched in the U.S. in November 2014, Coca Cola Life consists of 60 calories per 8-oz. glass bottle and is sweetened with cane sugar and stevia leaf extract. Coca Cola Life is currently also available in Argentina, Chile, Great Britain, and Mexico.

McDonald’s Canada launched the “Our Food, Your Questions” campaign in 2011 to tackle negative consumer perceptions of food quality and to improve transparency surrounding its food, answering ques-tions such as, “what’s really in a Chicken McNugget?” and “is McDonald’s real beef?” The campaign has also launched in Australia and the U.S.

Ecoeggs in Australia launched “ChookCam” to allow consumers to watch online at anytime the free-ranging hens on its farm. “ChookCam” is part of the transparency food trend that sees increasing demands from consumers who want more facts about their food and how it’s made.

Lays launched Lays Machine in point-of-sales loca-tions across select retailers in Argentina to show that Lays chips are made with 100% real potatoes and natural ingredients. Customers activate the machine by inserting a real potato instead of coins; the ma-chine then shows the entire process of creating Lays chips, from the raw potato to the final sealed bag.

Walmart made a major announcement in October 2014 that stated its commitment to a sustainable food system by focusing on improving the affordability of food for customers, increasing accessibility to food, making healthier eating easier, and improving the safety and transparency of its food products.

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Appendix 1.1: Existing Natural Food Products Companies

Zevia is a Los Angeles-based natural products com-pany launched in 2007 that sells zero calorie sodas with no artificial sweeteners. Zevia is available in 15 different flavours and is sold in over 16,000 locations across the United States as well as in Canada, Austra-lia, Europe, and Latin America.

MorningStar Farms is a Kellogg Company that offers vegetarian brand products, such as veggie dogs, a line of ground meat substitute called Crumbles and burg-ers made from things like black beans and chickpeas.

Gardein is a product line of plant-based meat-like food made by Garden Protein International in Brit-ish Columbia, Canada founded in 2003. It offers 21 products under the chick’n, beefless, fishless, and gluten-free categories, and are sold in over 20,000 supermarkets. According to founder Yves Potvin, Gardein is responsible for 75 percent of the category growth year over year.

Boca Foods is a convenience food subsidiary of Kraft that sells vegan and vegetarian products such as burg-ers, nuggets, patties, and crumbles. BOCA is currently available only in the U.S.

Lightlife is a food company owned by ConAgra Foods that offers vegetarian and vegan meat substitutes, with products such as burgers, chicken nuggets, ham, and hot dogs.

Quorn is the leading meat substitute in the U.K. and Ireland, utilizing its proprietary Mycoprotein form of protein to recreate the taste and texture of real meat. Quorn has over 100 products and is currently sold in Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Republic of Ireland, United States, Aus-tralia and the UK.

Turtle Island Foods is the vegan and vegetarian food company that produces the famous Tofurky as well as other products such as pies, pizza, and sausages. Turtle Island Foods products are sold in Australia, Canada, Belgium, Germany, Singapore, and the U.K.

Match is a U.S.-based company that offers a line of premium vegan meat alternatives with products such as ground pork, Italian sausage, ground chicken, and ground beef. Match Meats is available in online stores such as Pangea, Vegan Essentials and Costco.

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Farmer’s Fridge is dedicated to distributing healthy food with ease and convenience by selling salads from vending machines. Founder Luke Saunders distribut-ing healthy food was a high upfront cost and conve-nience. Farmer’s Fridge has kiosks located in

BrightFarms works with big store brands to grow and sell fresh produce. The large hydroponic green-houses are typically built and operated near or on the rooftops of grocery stores, and are fully owned and operated by BrightFarms. There are currently seven BrightFarms farms across the United States.

Appendix 1.2: Food Startups

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Grove Labs aims to make healthy, local, and sustain-able food more accessible by providing consumers with the equipment and digital tools to grow their own organic fruits and vegetables in their home.

Modern Meadow grows leather and meat in labs. Through the use of tissue engineering, Modern Meadow grows leather from skin cells in trays and develops meat products from muscle cells.

Farmigo is an online farmer’s market that connects farmers to consumers, allowing consumers to directly order local food and meat with deliveries to pickup areas in their neighbourhoods.

Good Eggs is an organic food delivery service de-scribed as “farm-to-fridge” with the goal of making local food even more convenient for consumers than grocery shopping.

Freight Farms provides urban farming infrastructure in the form hydroponic growing systems within ship-ping containers. These systems grow “hyper-local” food year-round and can be monitored and controlled from a smartphone.

Cultured Beef is a food-technology company funded by Sergey Brin that scientifically manufactures beef from harvesting muscle cells from a living cow. Al-though not yet available to consumers, the synthetic beef was introduced to the world through a media taste-testing event held in London, England on Au-gust 5th, 2013.

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Perfect Food: The Silicon Valley Food MovementJanuary 2015 // Copyright 2015 Trung Ho

Written/researched/designed by:

Trung HoCultural Trends Researcher and Writer

w: trung-ho.tumblr.come: trungho32@gmail.comt: @trungho