Companies on my To Blog About list
Posted: August 31, 2012 Filed under: Ethical Food, Media Watch Leave a comment »Going to keep a note of interesting and relevant companies/organisations/posts I come across here and pull from it for future posts. Suggestions very welcome in the comments.
Date Added & website
29/9/12 –
http://www.granovita.co.uk/
29/9/12 –
http://shop.redwoodfoods.eu/
29/9/12 –
http://www.divinechocolate.com/default.aspx
17/9/12 – www.amyskitchen.com
9/9/12 –
https://www.goodeggs.com/
2/9/12 –
http://www.meltbutteryspread.com/
2/9/12 –
http://www.veggiegrill.com/
1/9/12 –
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VegNewsVeggieAwards2012
31/8/12 –
http://www.rapunzel.de/uk/unternehmen.html
31/8/12 –
http://www.triodos.com/en/about-triodos-bank/know-where-your-money-goes/results/?fs=2&cs=1
31/8/12 –
http://www.newmediacaucus.org/html/journal/issues.php?f=papers&time=2009_winter&page=howard
31/8/12 –
http://www.good.is/post/the-ethical-burrito-chipotle-makes-fast-food-nation-sustainable/
31/8/12 –
http://www.farmplate.com/about-us
31/8/12 –
http://www.foodethicscouncil.org/
/ Keith
Door To Door Organics @dtdOrganics
Posted: August 31, 2012 Filed under: Ethical Food Leave a comment »What they do
They connect organic farmers and good food producers with consumers in large cities and urban areas.
Where they do it
They started in 1997, they are US based and they service 5 areas right now:
Who are they
Good question. Their CEO is Chad Arnold (shown under) but while they appear to have a great reputation online I cannot find a mention anywhere of the founder(s) names. A shy bunch.
The ethical bit?
Their copy “As your advocate, we strive to buy directly from the farmer or producer. We also work to find food that is verified by third parties to provide an added level of assurance.”
On the same page they list 30 standards which they use to filter their producers.
My thoughts
I love these schemes. In 1990 we were the first Wolverhampton hub for Organic Roundabout, a Community Supported Agriculture business out of Birmingham. In 1995 in Waterford we received a weekly box from a local organic farmer and when we moved to Kilkenny in 1997 we sourced another local organic box delivering farmer and we have been with him since.
As with many other alternatives to the traditional distribution system this is not the full solution but it is a strong part of it. Giving you a chance to talk directly to farmer producers, to appreciate the work and challenges, to share their passions and to eat seasonal, organic produced food.
This post was prompted by a US$2M investment into the business by a Colorado based VC who focus on sustainable and healthy lifestyle opportunities.
Links to more
UPDATE 31/8/12 – April 2012 article from the Guardian UK on similar schemes in France
/ Keith
Vegtoons @cartoonsaloon
Posted: August 26, 2012 Filed under: Ethical Food, Startups Leave a comment »This one is a small bit personal. It steps outside of the world of food producers and distribution and revisits the vegetarian ethos and how that is communicated into a wider audience.
A good friend of mine in Kilkenny – Tomm Moore of Cartoon Saloon (known best for his Oscar nominated Story of Kells) is working with Paul Young and Greg Singer (Dreamworks) to KickStart a new animated series promoting plant based diets – Vegtoons.
You can see more underneath and join in here.
UPDATE 31/8/12 – Initial $16k target reached with 1 day to go 
/ Keith
Slowpack #terramadre
Posted: August 26, 2012 Filed under: Ethical Food, Packaging Leave a comment »One of my “must attend” events at the 2012 Terra Madre is Slowpack – being held for the first time in October.
This tackles one of the many challenges around packaged foods – the waste involved in packaging individual items. The aim of the awards is to foster greater use of ecological and sustainable packaging options and there are 4 categories:
1) Traditional techniques and materials: This award will recognize a form of packaging that consists of materials that recover a traditional way of packaging and conservation.
2) Innovative techniques and materials: this award will recognize a form of packaging that is both eco-friendly and eco-sustainable, made with innovative, reusable, recyclable and biodegradable materials that are derived from efficient production processes from an energy point of view, with low levels of harmful emissions.
3) Communication of the product’s quality: this award will recognize a label with highly effective communication that helps that consumer understand the product’s characteristics that distinguish it from the competition by describing, for example, the traceability of its ingredients, the history of the product or its uniqueness and indicating the correct way to reuse or dispose of the packaging
4) Chain of primary, secondary and tertiary packaging: this award will recognize a label whose choice of all levels of packaging fully respects the environment.
More information here (closing date for entries 31st Aug)
/ Keith
@BeyondMeat
Posted: August 25, 2012 Filed under: Ethical Food, Startups Leave a comment »What they do
Set up to develop plant based proteins and directly substitute them for meat proteins. The photo below shows their “chicken” strip in a product from Whole Foods.
Where they do it
US based (currently opening new manufacturing facility in Columbia) and currently US focused in their distribution and business development. As they are a relatively new business even that focus is limited to the West Coast with a small present on the East – see their map here.
Who are they
The business was started by Ethan Brown in 2009 (he has a background in clean energy and avoids social media as far as I can make out) and in June 2012 hit the headlines with a investment round which included Biz Stone and Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers. Biz is better known for Twitter but a has been a vegan the past 10 years.
On the Kleiner side this one is in their Greentech portfolio – I find that very interesting indeed.
The ethical bit?
Combines a move away from slaughtered protein with a very strong pro-environment message.
My thoughts
Like this one a lot. The last 10 years have seen enormous strides in vegetarian/vegan foodstuffs and this startup could accelerate the sector nicely.
Captured nicely in this quote from Biz Stone “These guys are coming at the meat analogue industry not as a novelty kind of thing or hippy dippy. They were coming at it from this big science, super practical, scalable angle. They were saying, ‘We want to get into the multi-billion-dollar meat industry with a plant-based meat,” says Stone.
This is where significant change happens – where a business can scale and create impact without sacrificing core principles. Would love to work with these guys and girls
Links to more
https://www.facebook.com/beyondmeat
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120805/entlife/708059945/
/ Keith
Alter Eco Foods
Posted: August 19, 2012 Filed under: Ethical Food, Great brands and producers Leave a comment »What they do
They have created a food brand which starts from the point that food is fundamental to life – and whole, healthy, delicious food can make life better for people all over the world.
Where they do it
They started in France and in 2010 expanded into the US with a separate entity and a funding round there.
Who are they
Tristan Lecomte in France, Mathieu Senard and Edouard Rollet in the United States and Ilse Keijzer in Australia.
The ethical bit?
They work directly with the producers who grow and process their products. Fairtrade, carbon neutral and organic. Check out this product information page which gives a great view of how they communicate comprehensive information on each product.
http://www.alterecofoods.com/products/chocolate/dark-coconut-toffee
Couple of great images from their site give an overview of their ethos
My thoughts
It is so difficult to do what they have done and are doing – running a business is a compromised activity at the best of times without the apparent constraints imposed by deliberately not following the standard commercial arrangements.
Having been a consumer of organic and fairly traded products for over 25 years it is a joy to see high quality products which hold their own in terms of taste and presentation – a million miles away from the badly presented and barely edible products of years ago
I have never seen these products on my travels but will keep my eyes open for them from now on.
Links to more
https://twitter.com/alterecosf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alter_Eco
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/mathieu-senard-and-edouard-rollet
/ Keith
Ethical Food Businesses – some information sources I will be keeping an eye on
Posted: August 18, 2012 Filed under: Ethical Food, Media Watch, Startups 1 Comment »I already subscribe to a couple of these blogs and follow their founders on twitter and I will be adding to the list as I find more.
Worth saying here that a food startup in itself is of no interest to me personally – it must have a ethical core to it. The perpetuation of cheap food for the mainstream is irrelevant here as are reviews of normal restaurant chains and mass produced dishes. So while these sources cover a lot of great businesses not many of those will be mentioned in posts here. Just so we are clear 
2/9/12 –
http://www.springwise.com/?s=food
31/8/12 –
http://www.good.is/tag/food/
31/8/12 –
http://ethicalfoods.com/
Food and Technology Connect – Danielle Gould
Edible Startups – Michelle Paratore
If you have ones to add to the above please let me know in the comments
Keith
