Host:Β Tom Raftery
Guest: Jacob von Manteuffel | Co-Founder | Bettaf!sh
Category: π Sustainable Food | Plant-Based Tuna
Podcastβs Essential Bites:
[2:06] βAs a company, we started with a fascination for seaweed, so for plants that can be cultivated in saltwater in the oceans. [β¦] They are plants that you can cultivate without any soil, without any freshwater, without the input of fertilizers, just in the ocean, and 71% of this planet [is] covered by oceans.β
[3:18] βAlmost 800 million people worldwide [β¦] indirectly or directly depend on fishing. And they have the know-how and the infrastructure to switch from fishing, or salmon farming [β¦] to seaweed cultivation. [β¦] We were seeing that there's really the opportunity to realize a win win win situation for the environment, for people, and in the end, also for new economies that are regenerative. Basically, we then set our goal to help build this new regenerative maritim team industry.β
[4:57] βBettaf!sh is [β¦] mimicking seafood with these plants from the oceans. [β¦] You need plants from the oceans to recreate these animals from the oceans, because these plants are so rich in nutrients that you would only get from seafood and they also bring flavors and textures and a lot of opportunities to, for example, build vegan salmon or a vegan tuna. And tuna is our first animal that we successfully managed to create with seaweed.β
[6:25] βCoastal communities in Europe have always had some or the other use for seaweed. And that's good, because this way [itβs] not novel food, which in the terms of food regulation, itβs very hard to introduce something that nobody has ever eaten before.β
[9:51] βIf seaweed is cultivated in the oceans, the biodiversity increases in these areas. That's one of many regenerative impacts. If you cultivate seaweed, it's almost like reforestation. So you have a temporary, kind of a floating ecosystem there, where small fish schools and other organisms can can hide. And obviously fishing cannot happen in the seaweed farm. So it's giving a break to the ecosystem in that sense.β
[13:15] βIn Europe, right now, we can cultivate only four seaweed species. [β¦] If you would put that into perspective with land crops, itβs like we are living in the stone age. [β¦] And yet, such a large part of our planet's covered by oceans. So there's really a huge opportunity here when it comes to the future of food.β
[19:41] βWe're not making tuna for vegans. That's very important. We're making tuna for people who love tuna. And our sandwich should satisfy anyone who's just looking for a delicious lunch. And that sets the framework for our product development. But it also makes it more difficult, when it comes to colors, for example.β
Rating: πππ
ποΈ Full Episode:Β AppleΒ |Β Spotify | Google
π°οΈ 31 min | ποΈ 06/07/2022
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