Species, unite, unite. One percent of the U.S. is vegan, about 5 percent is vegetarian and so if I'm thinking

about where can I make the most money, it's not going after the vegans.

And if I'm thinking about what can I make the greatest impact, getting a plant-based person,

an entirely plant-based person to switch from one plant-based burger to another, does zip.

And so our focus is how can we help people move the needle with those who aren't on board yet. Hi, I'm Elizabeth Novigrats. this is Species Unite.

We have a favor to ask.

If you like today's episode and you have a spare minute, could you please rate and review

Species Unite on Apple Podcast,

or wherever you listen to podcasts.

It really helps people to find the show. This conversation is with David Benzakin.

David is one of the world's leading experts

in the plant-based food industry.

He's the founder of Mission Plant, a holding company advancing the plant-based sector

with strategic investments and consulting services.

He has been part of the plant-based food scene since it really started to take off and a few months ago

he launched an entirely vegan online grocery store called Plant Belli with all of his favorite plant-based foods. Hi David, thank you so much for being here in person. It's awesome. I want to work our way up to Mission Plant because I know you started an advocacy really young and I want to hear how you transition from advocacy to food.

When I went to college, my first day at the school, which was kind of orientation week I went to the

student clubs fair and there were all these different organizations tabling and I

went to all the advocacy groups to find out what they would do. So if I joined the

feminist group, what would we do in there? If I joined the vegan club, I went to every one of

them and I found that a lot of them didn't really have actionable things that I could see having great results.

And so there was an anti-death penalty club, which I certainly supported the mission of.

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