Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about something different. Right now, we
Speaker 2: have a really cool guest.
Speaker 3: Or the same, depending on your pet.
Speaker 2: That's true. He has bicycled more than thirty four hundred
Speaker 2: miles from Montreal to the Pacific Ocean. Classically trained French chef,
Speaker 2: he's founded a couple of food companies. He has sold them.
Speaker 2: He has spent more than three decades thinking about the
Speaker 2: vegetarian food world, creating everything from a veggie hot dog
Speaker 2: and more. Matt, so he knows the space, all.
Speaker 3: Right, I'm interested. I'm very interested to hear about this
Speaker 3: because I would love to be a vegetarian if I could.
Speaker 3: The way we treat, especially factory farm, which is almost
Speaker 3: all of our animals from cows to chickens, is disgusting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, processes.
Speaker 3: On the other hand, meat is so yummy and it's
Speaker 3: packed with protein.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Also yummy is seafood, and he's now got a new
Speaker 2: venture involving vegan seafood. It's known as Conscious Foods. So
Speaker 2: with us is is chef Eve Potvinn. He's president and
Speaker 2: founder of garden. I believe I'm saying it, I hopefully
Speaker 2: correctly and Conscious Foods with us on Zoom from Vancouver,
Speaker 2: British Columbia. And forgive me if I've mispronounced. I studied
Speaker 2: a lot of Spanish, not a lot of French.
Speaker 3: Now, but it's a famous name here in New York, pot.
Speaker 2: Dan, you know, yes, it is, it is. That is true. Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit about yourself, because you have
Speaker 2: done some really interesting stuff and you've really spent a
Speaker 2: lot of time on you know, the vegetarian world and
Speaker 2: the plant based food world.
Speaker 1: How come well, Matt, I'm like you, I'm a flexitarian,
Speaker 1: so you know, I believe there's you should always try
Speaker 1: to make a contribution for a bit of world. And
Speaker 1: so I was, like you said, trained chef, and somehow
Speaker 1: I humble into the plant based business. And for the
Speaker 1: last over thirty years I've been developing different brand and
Speaker 1: very excited to present Conscious Conscious with the Cave today.
Speaker 1: So we're a new innovative brand and we're on a
Speaker 1: mission to change the way that people eat by providing
Speaker 1: a line of frozen sushi or nigiri and poke bol
Speaker 1: that this is close to my heart that it tastes
Speaker 1: good first, and it's good for the people, good for
Speaker 1: the planet. And we're so excited to launch our nationwide
Speaker 1: with folk food this week.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's I think an issue that's close to
Speaker 3: our hearts as well. Carol and I are both scuba divers,
Speaker 3: and we've all seen the problems. All of us that
Speaker 3: have been underwater have seen the problems that giant fishing
Speaker 3: expeditions create. And then for a while I thought, Okay, well,
Speaker 3: factory farm salmon, that must be a better alternative. Turns
Speaker 3: out it really isn't, because they don't do a good
Speaker 3: job of raising those fish either. But the taste has
Speaker 3: been a problem for me. I've only try artificial you know,
Speaker 3: plant based beef burgers like Impossible Burger or what's the
Speaker 3: other one beyond beyond meat. I couldn't really stomach either
Speaker 3: one of them. So how do you overcome that problem?
Speaker 1: And that's why I'm so excited to be here in
Speaker 1: talking to you, Matt and Caroll, because evidently you are conscious,
Speaker 1: you are aware of your environment and the way the
Speaker 1: younger population today they vote with them out and they say, well,
Speaker 1: I want a better future, So it has to be
Speaker 1: something that tastes good, it's good for the environment. And
Speaker 1: another thing that we're excited about conscious is that we
Speaker 1: have price parity. So a lot of the company that
Speaker 1: you mentioned before, I think there's something like twenty percent
Speaker 1: of the population that would like to incorporate plant based
Speaker 1: protein in our diet, but they say it's too expensive.
Speaker 1: Well with the person I think of this new generation
Speaker 1: innovative brand that it's price parity. It's not more expensive
Speaker 1: and nutuitional traditional protein. So but because of my chef background,
Speaker 1: it has to taste good and consumer now they're looking
Speaker 1: for sustainable choice that are affordable, and so you can
Speaker 1: go to Whole Food and buy a California role a
Speaker 1: Japanese courier in the gary or salmon poke bowl and
Speaker 1: it's going to cost you seven ninety nine or eight
Speaker 1: ninety nine. You don't have to break the bank to
Speaker 1: eat consciously. Now.
Speaker 2: I guess the one thing too I will go back
Speaker 2: to is things like impossible and beyond me. What I
Speaker 2: had had a problem with Eve is that there's a
Speaker 2: lot of sodium in and to me, that wasn't I
Speaker 2: think of planet based proteins and I think healthier and
Speaker 2: less impact on the environment, like it has to take
Speaker 2: off a bunch of boxes for me in order and
Speaker 2: it has to taste good. So tell us about the
Speaker 2: nutritional value or some of the metrics so that if
Speaker 2: I turn over the box, what am I going to
Speaker 2: see when it comes to sodium or.
Speaker 3: By the way, that's a lot of boxes. It has
Speaker 3: to tick better for the environment, yep, it has to
Speaker 3: cost the same or around the same. Right, it's got
Speaker 3: to taste good and it's got to be good for
Speaker 3: you because obviously Eve, you know, uh, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of protein and meat and it's not packed with salt.
Speaker 1: As Carol says, yeah, totally right. And so we are
Speaker 1: looking at and Matt, you're you're totally right. You know,
Speaker 1: in our lifetime, we know that somewhere in the next
Speaker 1: twenty thirty years we're going to drive elect a car
Speaker 1: or any other form of a car that is not
Speaker 1: fueled by petroleum. But it's the same thing in our life.
Speaker 1: We know most of the farm, most of the fish
Speaker 1: we're going to EAT's going to be farm farm raised,
Speaker 1: and you know, a lot of salmon in the market
Speaker 1: right now. It's artificial color, artificial flavor, et cetera. So
Speaker 1: we're on a mission to change the way we eat.
Speaker 1: I said earlier, is because we have a third of
Speaker 1: the sodium of traditional sushi that you eat in the supermarket.
Speaker 1: We have less fat, and we have ingredient that are
Speaker 1: easily recognizable. So our tuna as first ingredients is organic tomato.
Speaker 1: The second one is conjact. Conjact is a rude vegetable
Speaker 1: that has tremendous dietary fiber and it's good for you.
Speaker 1: So yes, there's many books that the customer is looking.
Speaker 1: First of all is the price, Well, we take care
Speaker 1: of that one. Nutritional we have about half of the
Speaker 1: protein right now that salmon or tuna has. But it's okay.
Speaker 1: Most people don't buy just because of the protein, they
Speaker 1: buy because of the whole package. But we are working
Speaker 1: very closely to trying to increase the level of protein.
Speaker 1: No artificial ingredient, non GMO, organic ingredients, etc. So I
Speaker 1: think we've done a good job putting your package. But
Speaker 1: most important, it's convenient. My wife likes to say frozen
Speaker 1: to yummy in five minutes, and people ask me that
Speaker 1: why do you need frozen sushi? Well, there's twenty thousand
Speaker 1: sushi restaurant in North America. There's a need for it
Speaker 1: to have it in your freeze.
Speaker 2: But you know something like salmon, right, I go for
Speaker 2: it because of the Omega three fatty acids. Right, that's
Speaker 2: good for me, and I would rather, you know, kind
Speaker 2: of grew up with a family. You know, everything in
Speaker 2: moderation and better to eat as true to how it
Speaker 2: is grown or cultivated, hopefully and do less of it.
Speaker 2: So do I get that benefit?
Speaker 1: You do? We have ome got three comes from different sorts.
Speaker 1: One of them is the fish oil, but it's also
Speaker 1: vegetable oil that we incorporate in our product that has
Speaker 1: the same level as ome got three that you have
Speaker 1: in traditional fish.
Speaker 2: Interesting, really interesting.
Speaker 1: I'm convinced.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what. I'm convinced enough. We have a
Speaker 3: whole foods right down here. Try on third and fifty seventh.
Speaker 3: I'll walk down there and get some for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm try.
Speaker 1: Just follow the instruction, very tree easy way to prepare
Speaker 1: it microwave one minute. If you don't like microwave, you
Speaker 1: can put the patent pending packaging in hot water for
Speaker 1: eight minutes, or you could leave it at room temperature
Speaker 1: and it's ready. Polyunch.
Speaker 2: We're talking with Eve Puffin, president and founder of Conscious Foods,
Speaker 2: on Zoom from Vancouver, British Columbia. Hey, Eve, one thing
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask you. I mean, Matt and I
Speaker 2: talk a lot about food and just the way we
Speaker 2: produce things and trying to feed this world, and a
Speaker 2: lot of the ways that we do it are not
Speaker 2: great for the environment. There's also a lot of food waste.
Speaker 2: And there's an interesting Bloomberg opinion columnist that talks about
Speaker 2: big food should be esg's next target, basically just going
Speaker 2: after the alter processed food makers.
Speaker 3: Should be esg's first target. Should have been esg's first target,
Speaker 3: because if you want to stop carbon emissions, right, you
Speaker 3: got to go after the beef industry, even before you
Speaker 3: go after the internal combustion engine.
Speaker 2: So how do you think about all of this? You know,
Speaker 2: you've been working in the food industry for a long time.
Speaker 2: How do you think about it and what is a
Speaker 2: better way forward?
Speaker 1: Well, it's about diversity. You know, last year August, we
Speaker 1: reached the milestone of eight billion in population. We know that,
Speaker 1: and that's what's one of the reasons. You know, I
Speaker 1: have a younger daughter when she was born not that
Speaker 1: long ago. Twenty five years ago, the population was three
Speaker 1: point seven billion. Now we're at eight and we're going
Speaker 1: to be at ten billion. So and that was my idea,
Speaker 1: And I said, Lissonse, we know and think in Vancouver's
Speaker 1: salmon reach the price of thirty dollars a pound this summer,
Speaker 1: so traditional protein is going to go higher and higher
Speaker 1: in price. So why not diversify the protein and use
Speaker 1: the plant base, you know. And the question is having
Speaker 1: manufactured and processor like the innovator that takes those protein,
Speaker 1: the pea protein, all the different sources of protein put
Speaker 1: it in a way and a forming in the shape
Speaker 1: that people are accustomed to. Because people won't start feeding
Speaker 1: themselves lentil and chickpea and a thing like this is
Speaker 1: too complicated. So and that's what we do. We use
Speaker 1: traditional sushi and we make our own snow crab, our
Speaker 1: own to our own salmon. And I'm really excited for you, Matt,
Speaker 1: to go try it, because you're going to say, wow,
Speaker 1: this tastes great. And I feel very proud about what
Speaker 1: we accomplish. And I think the world is changing. The
Speaker 1: younger population is voting with them out and I think
Speaker 1: the question of using all our source of protein. That
Speaker 1: is what we're going to find a solution, not just beef,
Speaker 1: not just seafood, but using the protein from a variety
Speaker 1: of sorts. Seaweed is fantastic source of proutein all right.
Speaker 3: So, and the sushi, it's packed full of protein. What's
Speaker 3: the protein and the calorie value of that of that
Speaker 3: sushi those California roles.
Speaker 1: Calorie is about three hundred and fifty calorie for eight
Speaker 1: coin and it's about you know, traditional sushi is about
Speaker 1: eight percent protein. This is about four percent. So, but
Speaker 1: most people don't go to the sushi and say I'm
Speaker 1: eating there because of protein. Most people have too much
Speaker 1: protein and their dye. That's that's that's the reality. So
Speaker 1: I think it's more about nutrition. What you bring nutrition,
Speaker 1: and I think our product is pack of neutral. We
Speaker 1: have all dividing in d A, b et cetera that
Speaker 1: your body needs so and it. But most important is
Speaker 1: what we're offering is convenience. You can have sushi, unigary,
Speaker 1: poke bol at lunch, dinner, snack, have a party with
Speaker 1: your friend. So having the product available in your freezer
Speaker 1: and ready in five minutes, and it's about giving a
Speaker 1: choice to the consumer that whenever you want, you can
Speaker 1: have a product that you like. Like I said earlier
Speaker 1: twenty thousand sushi, five thousand poke bowl wrestlant, there's a market.
Speaker 2: For so Eve as demand. Let's assume that this takes
Speaker 2: off and as demand picks up, can you keep it
Speaker 2: at the cost level that you have now or will?
Speaker 2: Just like with kind of regular food, it just feels like,
Speaker 2: as you said, the growing population, like demand just has
Speaker 2: gotten out of control. And as the developed world has
Speaker 2: a much more or the developing world has more of
Speaker 2: a developed diet, like right, there's more demand of that
Speaker 2: traditional food thing. So the cost, I'm just curious about
Speaker 2: the process and the cost as demand ramps up.
Speaker 3: The main one of the main inputs peas.
Speaker 1: Well. The rice comes from California. All our vegetables are
Speaker 1: from British Columbia, so we're trying to buy local as possible.
Speaker 1: But we have a thirty four thousand square feet facility
Speaker 1: in Vancouver. Over here we can produce four thousand row
Speaker 1: an hour, so that's that's a fair amount of volume.
Speaker 1: But our plan is to open a factory or a
Speaker 1: processing facility in the US. One in Asia and one
Speaker 1: in Europe. So your question, Carol, is more about ingredient.
Speaker 1: Has you increased the demand? Well, the beauty with root
Speaker 1: vegetable is you can grow more, you know from I'm
Speaker 1: not anti beef, I'm not anti fish, but it's just
Speaker 1: it's not a logical way to grow your protein. It
Speaker 1: takes eighteen months to raise the cattle and half of
Speaker 1: the you know take you fit it more than what
Speaker 1: you get at the end, so versus the plant based protein.
Speaker 1: That's why it makes so much sense.
Speaker 2: Even with climate change, even with climate change making it
Speaker 2: sometimes more problematic or difficult.
Speaker 1: And depending what you're growing, Carol, you see if you're
Speaker 1: growing more corn or more wheat or more soy. But
Speaker 1: you know there's a lot of place in Asia, for example,
Speaker 1: that's where the root vegetable conscious. It's all over Asia.
Speaker 1: But rice, there's lots of room to grow rice and
Speaker 1: so and you need you need to eat something. You know,
Speaker 1: at one point people asking me why in my previous business,
Speaker 1: why are you using wheat or soy excecaid. I don't
Speaker 1: use nilk, I don't use dairy, I don't use egg.
Speaker 1: You need to eat food something you can't just live
Speaker 1: with with water and air, and I think the food
Speaker 1: we grow, the food we use that conscious is very good.
Speaker 1: And yes, it's just pay them interesting, all.
Speaker 2: Right, We're going to leave it on that note. Really
Speaker 2: really fascinating. And I do feel like more and more
Speaker 2: we continue to see the food space slowly being disrupted, if.
Speaker 3: You will, Yeah, well, And I'm also the deeper I
Speaker 3: look into it, the more problems I have with the
Speaker 3: way our food is produced or farmed or caught. And
Speaker 3: as I said, you know, salmon is one of the
Speaker 3: biggest conundrums because I don't want to support industrial fishing
Speaker 3: and I don't want to support the factory farming of salmon,
Speaker 3: but I love salmon.
Speaker 2: There was just a story, did you see the New
Speaker 2: York Times about the fate of Alaska's king salmon and
Speaker 2: starving orcas at orcas like don't have enough food, and
Speaker 2: so they're trying to figure out what to do, and
Speaker 2: they're thinking about maybe that we have to stop fishing them.
Speaker 2: But then you've got, you know, folks that rely on
Speaker 2: it for.
Speaker 3: Are and we can't and you can't, they won't stop.
Speaker 2: I don't know, It's just tricky. Eve. Thank you so much,
Speaker 2: really appreciate it, Eve Pop and hopefully you'll come back
Speaker 2: soon and get us an update on the business. President
Speaker 2: and founder of Conscious Foods, showing us on Zoom from Vancouver,
Speaker 2: British Columbia,