Mike, thanks for writing this, laying it out so clearly. I am not sure I would call this a radical idea. There are many people working on this right now. Many of the regenerative efforts. The work at Edacious. Lustig's Gut Liver Brain work. And many others. Just about every company in our portfolio, and the portfolio of many peers.
Companies are starting to realize this is possible. The drop in valuations in Food and Health Insurance should wake up both industries that the market does not like what they are doing.
Agreed. So happy to hear your take on the issue. Your work with Ellen always gets me riled up in the best of ways!
Localizing food sources is seeming more and more like the way to bridge the gap in the meantime. From back and front yards to vacant corner lots, we need community-based food sourcing to make a dent.
I have little faith in such a corporate shift anytime soon. But deep faith that communities can rally together to make it happen.
Thank you for bringing such wisdom to this conversation and backing it up with receipts!
This article gives words to what my heart has longed to say for a very long time. Thank you Mike, you’ve got a way with words and a reader for the long haul. 💜
If it turns out that our own thermodynamic regulation is inseparably connected to the system we live in, then metabolic disease takes on a societal dimension that neither the individual nor the medical system can manage alone.
At that point, we are no longer talking only about personal lifestyle choices or isolated diagnoses, but about the biological consequences of supply chains, food structures, stress architectures, environmental conditions, and economic incentives.
It would also mean that health is not solely an individual achievement — but partly an emergent property of the system human beings are embedded in.
Milton Friedman was not God. We need to get over that.
Very important conversation and I'd love to do a roundtable to discuss this and more.
But I do think a moral argument , not just a financial incentive, needs to be core in food, because healthy and affordable food is a basic human right. Not the doublespeak of "impact" investors or the industry (think B corps), but an actual moral foundation for the food industry as a whole, from producers to retailers and everyone in between, not to mention educators (hello, food scientists! "Let's just call Ingredion, they'll have a solution!" Hmmm. Total lack of creativity).
Call me naive, an idealist, whatever. But a whole reset in thinking needs to happen from the bottom up. And if Big Food and scale continue to drive the system, the doublespeak will continue no matter how much regenerative, etc. make sense financially. We need a reset on the expectation of returns for investors and companies. We need to get over Milton Friedman.
Another great piece, Mike, and something I think about all of the time. Consumers for the most part aren't buying something because it was regeneratively farmed / grown, they're purchasing what tastes good (and in the case of more commodified items such as eggs, what is cheapest). So how do we incentivize change in the food system? I totally agree that creating great products that taste delicious which are sourced sustainably will be the key to seeing a transition in the food system (even if consumers don't realize that they're buying something regeneratively farmed). Once big food and big ag see that consumer dollars are shifting towards those products, then the incentive for corporations to shift their sourcing will be immense. The question is how we get to that stage.
Mike, thanks for writing this, laying it out so clearly. I am not sure I would call this a radical idea. There are many people working on this right now. Many of the regenerative efforts. The work at Edacious. Lustig's Gut Liver Brain work. And many others. Just about every company in our portfolio, and the portfolio of many peers.
Companies are starting to realize this is possible. The drop in valuations in Food and Health Insurance should wake up both industries that the market does not like what they are doing.
Lots of work to do.
Agreed. So happy to hear your take on the issue. Your work with Ellen always gets me riled up in the best of ways!
Localizing food sources is seeming more and more like the way to bridge the gap in the meantime. From back and front yards to vacant corner lots, we need community-based food sourcing to make a dent.
I have little faith in such a corporate shift anytime soon. But deep faith that communities can rally together to make it happen.
Thank you for bringing such wisdom to this conversation and backing it up with receipts!
credit the marvellous images please?
This article gives words to what my heart has longed to say for a very long time. Thank you Mike, you’ve got a way with words and a reader for the long haul. 💜
If it turns out that our own thermodynamic regulation is inseparably connected to the system we live in, then metabolic disease takes on a societal dimension that neither the individual nor the medical system can manage alone.
At that point, we are no longer talking only about personal lifestyle choices or isolated diagnoses, but about the biological consequences of supply chains, food structures, stress architectures, environmental conditions, and economic incentives.
It would also mean that health is not solely an individual achievement — but partly an emergent property of the system human beings are embedded in.
Milton Friedman was not God. We need to get over that.
Very important conversation and I'd love to do a roundtable to discuss this and more.
But I do think a moral argument , not just a financial incentive, needs to be core in food, because healthy and affordable food is a basic human right. Not the doublespeak of "impact" investors or the industry (think B corps), but an actual moral foundation for the food industry as a whole, from producers to retailers and everyone in between, not to mention educators (hello, food scientists! "Let's just call Ingredion, they'll have a solution!" Hmmm. Total lack of creativity).
Call me naive, an idealist, whatever. But a whole reset in thinking needs to happen from the bottom up. And if Big Food and scale continue to drive the system, the doublespeak will continue no matter how much regenerative, etc. make sense financially. We need a reset on the expectation of returns for investors and companies. We need to get over Milton Friedman.
Really enjoyed your piece! I've been sitting with it (or writing with it, which is essentially the same thing) all day. I hope you don't mind my reaction from an evaluator's perspective: https://anthralytic.substack.com/p/what-is-food-for?r=5rdomh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true.
Thanks for the Kernza Grain heads up. I'm checking into it for my Dad's Michigan farm. Perennial wheat, how cool is that?
Wonderfully hopeful. Thank you for mulling and imagining a positive future for food.
This is excellent, Mike...I have also been mulling on profit and completely agree with your line here.
Another great piece, Mike, and something I think about all of the time. Consumers for the most part aren't buying something because it was regeneratively farmed / grown, they're purchasing what tastes good (and in the case of more commodified items such as eggs, what is cheapest). So how do we incentivize change in the food system? I totally agree that creating great products that taste delicious which are sourced sustainably will be the key to seeing a transition in the food system (even if consumers don't realize that they're buying something regeneratively farmed). Once big food and big ag see that consumer dollars are shifting towards those products, then the incentive for corporations to shift their sourcing will be immense. The question is how we get to that stage.