WEBVTT - Dry January Beverages, Food Waste Awareness 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:09.160 Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. You're listening to Bloomberg 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:13.760 Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.720 Alcohol products like beer and wine should carry warnings of 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:19.120 their links to cancer, the US Surgeon General said, citing 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:23.040 an increased risk of developing tumors in the breast and 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.079 other parts of the body. Kind of the perfect day 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.880 for us to talk and drink non alcoholic wines. It's 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.360 not just dry January, but this new show via McMurphy 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:34.239 coming out earlier today, exactly. 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:36.519 We've slowly been kind of reaching into this space more 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:39.360 and more aggressively. It is a perfect day to do it. 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:41.120 Tim have a perfect guest to do it. 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:43.839 Grehn Hemingway's co founder and CEO of Libby Wines. It 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.720 makes non alcoholic sparkling rose and sparkling white. Grant joins 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:50.880 us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio. Welcome Grant, 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:51.320 How are you? 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:52.160 Thank you guys? 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:53.680 Happy New Year, Happy new year. 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.320 Really cool origin story here because you founded this, you 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:58.000 have a history in the wine industry. You founded this 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.440 with the former executive chair founder's brewing company back when 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:03.600 I did drink. I did love All Day Ipa because 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:07.399 it had a small amount of alcohol in it. Very 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.759 famous All Day Ipa. How did the be wines come together? 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:14.160 Well, John, my now co founder, and I actually were 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.039 connected through some mutual friends, and yes, a beer guy 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.199 and a winemaker getting together. John did cut his teeth 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.080 in that sessionable category, but I think it was one 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:25.800 of those early indicators for him and for me watching 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:30.720 from Afar, that this moderation wave was was forthcoming, and uh, 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:34.000 we really wanted to lean into my way. 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.800 Did you really see this moderation wave coming on? What 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:38.720 were you seeing specific? 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.680 I mean, the crystal ball that we saw was which 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.279 we couldn't have predicted was going to be this self 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.680 regulating meaning there are a lot of people out there 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:51.920 and there's these buzzword terms zebra striping or bookending. 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:52.480 Which is what that means. 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:54.960 So a session, it's like a drinking session or a 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.960 socializing session in which you have a full fledged cocktail 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:00.440 or a glass of wine and then can you mix 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.720 over to a non alcoholic Okay. So it seems to 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:06.840 me that this is the consumption pattern happening for those 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:11.519 that still are consuming, not the abstainers which seemed to 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:12.680 be growing also by the day. 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:14.920 What can I ask you while you I know you 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.840 have talked about it because you used to drink some alcohol. 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:20.720 Yeah, and even you know, to be fair, I did 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:24.440 have a sip of like a really nice stout that 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:26.480 my wife opened the other night. I get really bad 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:28.680 headaches when I drank. And when I what I found 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.080 was that the less I drank when I did drink, 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:34.840 the worse the headaches got. With less alcohol. Yeah, and 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:36.920 I thought to myself, you know, it's not worth after 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.040 drinking one beer to wake up and have my my 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.079 day the next day completely ruined. So I don't know 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:45.680 if it's like an allergy or something, but it was. Unfortunately, 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:47.600 it was very easy for me to stop drinking because 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:50.480 I wasn't drinking that much anyway. But what I noticed 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:53.440 grant and maybe it's just kind of like a bias 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:54.880 of where I am in life, but a lot of 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:57.960 my friends were having kids, they were getting into their forties. 0:02:58.200 --> 0:02:59.720 They were like, if I, you know, if I need 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.720 to be early, I can't be staying out late. I 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:05.960 need to be prioritizing rest and sleep. And this was 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:06.920 how they were dealing with that. 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:09.360 And that's our exact experience to my wife and I 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:13.600 we have two kids back in California, and really started 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:16.919 to almost like this self awareness or observation that we 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:20.040 were just not drinking wine as much, and it was 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.280 a lifestyle thing. We had young kids and we were 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.680 managing careers and alcohol was kind of getting in the 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.120 way of that. And so it was kind of that 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:31.560 moment that light bulb were kind of set out and 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:36.400 surveyed the competitive set and nothing was really enticing from 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:40.000 a qualitative perspective. But I'd been eighteen years in wine 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:42.400 making and this was a big loss, Like why am 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.200 I not drinking the product that's supporting our career? 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:47.400 Well, what are your friends in the wine industry say, 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:49.200 Because they're getting hit hard right now. 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:53.280 You're getting hammered. It's concerning, I mean the downward and 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:56.320 you just reported on the Surgeon General like there's an 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:58.920 anti alcohol movement, which I don't know that I'm all 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:02.000 for in our business. I would say I'm four, But 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:06.000 generally speaking, this moderation is a cultural movement, and I 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:08.240 think the wine is she's really waking up to it. 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.480 And look no further than the results at the register. 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:14.680 Yeah, and you know it's funny to watch, you know, 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:17.760 kind of old television where people are constantly smoking and 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:19.880 had a cocktail. I even think of like my dad 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.480 coming up from work and had kind of a serious 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:27.080 you know, spirits and cocktail, you know, fairly regularly when 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.480 we were younger, and then eventually all of that stuff 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.640 started to go a way, even with his generation and 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:33.400 easing of it. 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:35.000 Have you heard of California sober? 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:36.360 What is it now? 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.720 What is it? California so Yesforna apparently California sober as 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:42.800 you abstained from alcohol, but you partake in. 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:44.920 TC or everything else. 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:49.080 Every is he flushing? No? 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:51.520 Well no, this is just the bronzing that I get 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.240 from being a California. 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:55.320 All right, So Grant, let's let's talk about because you 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.960 brought us a couple of sparkling. 0:04:58.160 --> 0:04:58.800 You brought us a. 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:02.080 Sparkling white and a sparkling and I'm curious about I'm 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:03.760 going to pour some and you can kind of walk 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.320 us through it. But like, tell us, because Tim and 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:09.840 I have actually tried some non alcoholic beverages. 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.400 And some better than others, we can say, so tell us. 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:14.240 About how what went into making this. 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:16.760 I think that was shared around. Yeah, The biggest white 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:18.839 space for me was was trying to take a wine 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:23.440 maker's perspective with the wine drinking expectation. Please, it's our expert, 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:26.960 and so I really tried to deconstruct the whole wine 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.240 making process. So where the grapes growing, when are we 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:32.720 picking them, how are we fermenting them? Making sure that 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:36.240 the non alcoholic was the end result. And so the 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:37.680 whole process I have. 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:38.920 Oh do you have a glass? Do you already have 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:43.480 or did you ready pastic glass? The sausage the sausage, 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:46.560 and non alcoholic wine is being made, so go ahead, please. 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:51.120 So the whole process for me was trying to appeal 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.920 to a wine drinker's expectations. And so the dealkyalization or 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:59.480 alcohol removal process is very aggressive. It's not as exact 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.240 as we'd like, and hopefully technology keeps improving. But you 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:05.600 remove a lot of the aromatics, the texture, and certainly 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.880 the alcohol, which is a massive component to the integration 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:13.479 of the overall wine experience. So you're limiting, eliminating fourteen 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:15.799 roughly fourteen percent of your product. 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:18.200 That's the thing that really interesting. We spoke to Duncan 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.880 Fry earlier, not yet of Bloomberg Intelligence. He's a consumer 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.760 products analyst, and he talked about this at the top 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:28.760 of our program today that the technology to remove alcohol 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:31.240 has gotten so much better in recent years. He mentioned 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:34.280 caliber when he was a kid being a terrible alternative 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.279 to like it was like the alcohol freak Guinness. He 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.400 called it drain back up. I don't know what it 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.440 can like, it was draino or something, and he's so, 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:44.360 what is the technology and how has it gotten so good? 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:45.359 Like how do you do it? 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:47.800 It's a filter or there are various ways that you're 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.560 doing alcohol removal, but it basically is a molecular weight. 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:51.320 It's pretty nice. 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:52.360 Thank you, This is good. 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:52.920 I appreciate it. 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:54.200 And we're a tough crat. 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.760 The process though. It's very extracted on weight and it's selective, 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:03.280 but it's not perfect. And so the the the imperfections 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:06.560 are the removal of aromatics and then remove all varietal character. 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:08.760 And so that's why some of you know, some of 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:10.680 the early entrants you might have seen, are adding a 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:13.960 lot back to try and replace, but it's not adequate. 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:16.960 And so with this, like it's very bright, it's very refreshing. 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:19.600 I gotta be honest when Grant walked in with it. 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:21.400 I saw it and you opened it up. I was 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:23.400 thinking to myself, Am I going to be drinking Martin 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:24.440 Ellie's right now? 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:24.760 Yeah? 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:26.040 That's what? Right? Yeah? 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:27.280 And I'm not. I mean, this is. 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:28.840 Martin elli is the apple juice right that we get 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:30.640 New Year's Eve? 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:34.280 This is not the sparkling apple juice. This is something different. 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:35.960 It is closer to wine for sure. 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:36.520 So is it. 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:38.640 Essentially And forgive me because I was kind of running 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:40.720 around pouring and stuff, but so is it wine just 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:42.840 with the alcohol pulled out one hundred percent? 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:47.440 It's it's fully fermented grapes from California that we reduce 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.240 or eliminate the alcohol from and then go through the 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:55.640 uh you know, flavor composition or formula, and then carbonated 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.400 up to basically a prosecco level. So it's it's really 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:00.160 meant to replace that sparkle for. 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:00.840 A seco level. 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:01.120 Yep. 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:02.480 Yeah. 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:05.080 What does your consumer research told you about when people 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.400 buy this and they drink it, if they drink more 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.960 than they drink of the counterpart with alcohol in it. 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.280 I mean, my own consumer research is telling me I 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:16.880 drink much more of it because there's not the guilt 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:18.680 or the shame of knowing like oh, I have to 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.640 be tempered or tall like temper my consumption on this 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.960 because of what I have on the horizon. So there's 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.040 I think what you mentioned athletic at the top of 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:31.880 the call. They have done such a phenomenal job on 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:36.839 matching quality that people don't have to compromise anymore on 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:39.600 what they want for a beer occasion. That needs to 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.319 happen in the wine category, and I think there is 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.720 a massive wake up call we talked about the downtick 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:47.400 and wine sales. Please, I'm gonna, I'm gonna. 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.760 I'm gonna start pouring the rose so you can neither 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.840 bottoms up there, buddies, and we can try this. So 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.920 I'm sorry, keep going oh here, okay, yeah, I'm gonna 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:59.880 part me. So what's the different same process for. 0:08:59.880 --> 0:09:02.800 The same exact process, just different grapes produced in a 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.600 kind of in a rose style. You hear that clanking, 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:08.480 that's the swing top we've got on the bottle so 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:09.559 that you can so you. 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:11.480 Can put it, close it, pop it back in the fridge. 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:13.760 Would you like, I'm okay, you're good. Yeah, ok I've 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.679 got a drive very funny, So. 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:18.080 You close it, pop it back in the fridge and 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:18.600 it stays. 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.800 Yes. That was one of our learnings from Like I 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.679 think in terms of trying to be innovative around the 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:26.640 wine category is like, you're never going to see a 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:28.520 champagne bottle with a swing top on it or a 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:32.200 proscco bottle. They're etched intrig this is nice to try this, 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:35.720 and so with the addition of the swing top, we 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:37.920 wanted to really do preservation. 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.000 Can you do can you do softer touch a little bit? 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:41.800 Right? 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:42.080 Yeah? 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:42.480 Nice? 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:43.040 Yeah? 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.040 Are you planning to do any non carbonated versions? 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:50.000 Absolutely? Yeah, R and D. I'll admit sparkling was more 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.439 in my repertoire and our wheelhouse adding easier to do. 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.920 I would say it's easier to replicate or replace a sparkling. 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:00.800 But the still wine category, I think is is very 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.280 It's a huge opportunity for the category if we're to 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.280 nail a Chardonnay or a savingon Blanc or a pen 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.000 and a war a lot of drinkers out there, and 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:14.040 you talked about who is this consumer? It is definitely 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:16.680 the wine consumer that is self moderating. 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:22.160 What I'm also finding is bars, restaurants, parties, social events, 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:27.240 professional events have increasingly non alcoholic options that are not soda. 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:30.959 Huge real estate being being garnered by the mocktails and 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.080 commanding quite a price. But I think it's about, you know, 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:40.079 more options for inclusive occasions, making sure that everyone is 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:45.960 able to participate and not feeling sheepish or needing to 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.679 go with the line in a Seltzer water as the chameleon. 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:51.920 All right, So you introduce this October? 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:53.240 Is that October? All right? 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.480 So I know this, but we're bloomberg. So give us 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.560 any indications of the kind of demand you're anticipating or 0:10:58.559 --> 0:10:59.560 maybe already seeing. 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:02.640 So in eighteen years in wine and this would be 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:06.640 the fifth startup for me, I've never seen something like this. 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.000 And to your point, October, we didn't have a lot 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.360 of data behind us. Yeah, but we have gotten so 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:16.480 many fortunate retail programs in anticipation of dry January, big 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:22.360 moment and timing could not be you know, we're blowing 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.400 away goals and obviously the proof will be in the 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.120 pudding with repeat business and velocity. But the early adoption. 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:32.800 Has been through the roof funding, self funded, raised money. 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:33.520 Have you done it? 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.080 Raised a fair bit of money, went to the outside 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:38.280 for the first time, but John and I actually self 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:42.679 funded the initial Wine is very capital intensive business. You 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:47.400 guys likely know this, but we feel like the category 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.440 is not a fad. This thing is here to stay. 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.440 It's going to keep growing. The retailers are now starting 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:55.680 to get behind it, which is a massive win. 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.199 Well Happy drive January, yes, promised to come back see 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.720 unless going. Grant Hemingway, co founder and chief executive officer 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:03.320 of Libby. 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.080 Wines, Carol, we just talked about sparkling wine. 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:06.440 Check. 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.760 Let's talk about food because we actually waste a lot 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.160 of it here in the US. The USDA estimates that 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.480 between thirty and forty percent of the food supply is 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:16.240 actually wasted. 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:17.000 That kills me. 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:17.520 It kills me. 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.360 How many times have we talked about there's so many 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:22.319 people who are on what do. 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:25.080 They call it, oh, food and secure. 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.280 Food and secure So you've got that going on. And 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:29.600 then at the same time, we have tremendous waste in 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:30.040 this country. 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:32.199 So part of it is us, you know, buying stuff 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:33.520 and not using it, but a big part of it 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.720 also is just poor planning when it comes to grocery companies. 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:38.600 When it comes to food spoilage and the supply chain. 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:40.920 It's a very complicated thing, right. Yeah, it's not good 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.199 for our wallets, it's not good for the cost of food, 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:45.160 and it's not good for the environment. 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:47.959 Right. Ronnie Neff is Associate Professor in the Department of 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.559 Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:54.800 of Public Health, focusing on the connection between food waste 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:57.240 and climate change. We should note, of course, the Johns 0:12:57.240 --> 0:12:59.960 Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is supported by Michael R. Bloomber, 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:04.800 founder Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies NDY joining us from Baltimore. 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:06.880 It is good to have you here with us. It 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:08.679 kind of breaks my heart that we continue to have 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:10.880 these conversations about the amount of food waste that is 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:12.920 going on. But share with us a little bit more 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:16.439 in terms of context of how much is being wasted. 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.280 We mentioned a little percentage, a big percentage at the 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:21.640 kickoff to this and why this continues to happen. 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:26.440 Yeah, thank you and thanks for the chance to be 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:30.280 on the show. So, yeah, it's a staggering percentage of 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:34.360 our food supply, and by one estimate at the national level, 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:37.600 we're talking about throwing out the equivalent of four hundred 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.560 and ninety five billion dollars. And if you put that 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:43.640 you were talking about food and security. If you put 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.600 that in terms of meals, it's one hundred and ninety 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:50.280 five one hundred and over one hundred and ninety billion 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:55.320 meals per year just thrown out. And so you know 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:59.040 that's that's you know, I'm sorry, it's one hundred and 0:13:59.040 --> 0:13:59.520 forty nine. 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.600 Yeah, it's incredibly depressing. 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:06.440 Incredibly depressing. It's so much food and so and then 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.360 if you think within our households, every household on average 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:13.160 is throwing out about fifteen hundred dollars. And there's not 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:15.400 many people that you could go to and say like, hey, 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:17.360 you want to throw out fifteen hundred dollars and they'd 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:20.280 be like, sure, no problem. It's a lot of money 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.160 that that that we didn't need to have been throwing out. 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:25.400 Isn't just wish you could talk to my five year 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.320 old like you know that when you're making food for kids, 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:31.320 it's like you just asked for this, and now you're 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:31.960 not going to eat this. 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:35.080 No, but it's like kids, it's you know, it's interesting. 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:36.880 I was listening to the surveillance team, and I was 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:38.800 thinking about how I grew up and we had two 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.120 fridge you know, refrigerators, we had a freezer. 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:42.240 Well, how many kids did you have? 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:44.040 There was seven kids, It was a big family. But 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:48.080 nonetheless there was always like you know, major shopping, you know, 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:51.760 trips and so much food. And I get it. My daughter, 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:53.440 who spent some time over in Europe, said, you know, 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:55.680 we used to shop every day and we bought a 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:57.520 little bit. We had a small fridge. 0:14:57.960 --> 0:14:58.720 You know in our part. 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.200 It's just a different way if they and is it 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:04.120 the way Americans think? Is that the problem? Like what 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:06.560 is it? Is it that it's we just are an 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:10.240 abundant economy, although not everybody feels that way, certainly in 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:12.040 the US economy, but like, what is it? 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:15.360 Yeah, it's so many different things, and that's part of 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:17.960 what makes it challenging to address it because there are 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:20.880 so many different things going on. But I think that 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:22.920 you've hit on a lot of really important points in 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:25.680 terms of the cultural factors, and that we have this 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.120 idea that we need to have abundance and if we're 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:31.200 not providing abundance, we're not providing well enough for our family. 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:35.160 Another one is this idea that food is only going 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.520 to taste good if it's absolutely the freshest, and if 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:41.400 you think about whether it's frozen vegetables cooked into a 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:43.960 meal or something that's like a little bit older, you 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.920 would never know the difference. And so kind of digging 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.680 into some of those issues as well, there's a lot 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:56.720 of upstream factors going on in terms of like the 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:02.240 package sizes and other things that could be done by 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:06.520 the food industry and elsewhere that could also prevent this. 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:09.080 And then one other cultural factor that's important, I think 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:13.320 is just how unplanned a lot of our lives are 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:17.040 and how you know, we thought we were going to 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:18.720 be home. We bought this food for that, and then 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.680 something happened and so we weren't, and so really needing 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:27.040 to strategize around the reality of our lives. 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.480 I'm wondering about the connection with climate change. I mean, 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:32.960 there's a few issues here. One of them obviously has 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:37.440 to do with the resources that go into actually bringing 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:42.920 food to the table greenhouse gases along the way. Then 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:47.520 there's also the element of raising that food, watering, whatever 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:52.080 you're doing, whatever you're growing, feeding a cow, all the 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:54.800 everything associated with the cow. But then there's also throwing 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:58.880 it away versus composting. What sort of has the biggest 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:00.320 impact when it comes to ourronment. 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.760 So the biggest impact starts with the production, as you 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:10.440 were saying, in a particular meat production, but then throwing 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:14.520 it out in the landfill is also tremendously impactful. And 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.520 so if you think of climate change, we're putting basically 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:22.200 the equivalent of forty two coal fire power plants worth 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.680 of greenhouse gas emissions into the air every year from 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:30.359 food that gets wasted. And there's a group called Project 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.760 draw Down that ranks climate solutions and they do all 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:36.040 this complicated modeling and they come out with, you know, 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:39.879 the potential impact based on feasible changes, and at a 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:44.520 global level, wasted food comes out as the top solution 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.479 that could make an impact on global climate change in 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:50.960 over the next twenty years. It's you know, and again 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:52.920 if you ask people like what what do you think 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.280 are the top five the top ten climate solutions, I 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.280 don't think food waste would be on very many people's lists. 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:01.919 So I think that there's a lot of need to 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:03.480 raise some more awareness about that. 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:05.760 Totally agree run it, you know, and I do wonder 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:07.600 you know, sometimes you raise the cost of things and 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:12.040 people are much more careful right about waste, And I 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:16.720 don't know if ultimately that leads to change that you're 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:19.160 less likely to overbuy because you don't want the waste 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:21.320 because you can't really afford it because it gets so expensive. 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:24.159 If you could change one thing in our system that 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:26.840 would get to this thirty to forty percent of the 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:29.919 food supply being wasted, what one thing might that be? 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.800 And just got about forty seconds. 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:35.640 Because that's so hard because there's so many different things 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:37.439 that we need to do and they all needed to 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:42.320 work together. So I guess, gosh, if there was one thing, 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.960 I think it would be having everybody, whether it's consumers 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:50.800 or businesses or any anywhere, tune in to the amount 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:52.560 of waste that's happening, because I think one of the 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.000 biggest challenges is that we're really not aware of it, 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:56.399