meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Rich Roll Podcast

Reinventing How To Feed The World

The Rich Roll Podcast

Rich Roll

Education, Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 13.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2015

⏱️ 99 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Right now this spinning land mass we call Earth is host to over 7 billion hungry human mouths to feed. Our current set up for handling this relentless, growing need isn't just problematic, it's broken, outdated technology that is making us sick and decimating the planet at an unfathomable rate. If we want to preserve a vibrant planet for future generations, it is imperative we find better, more innovative, more economic, more compassionate, more sustainable ways to sate the population. This is a long way of saying it's high time for a paradigm shift. If you listened to my podcast with Kip Anderson and Keegan Kuhn – the guys behind the highly compelling documentary Cowspiracy (I implore you to check out both the podcast and the film if you haven't already), then you already know that industrialized animal agriculture is our #1 environmental threat — far more deleterious to planetary health than transportation or fracking and the current leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution and habitat destruction. Adopting a plant-based diet is the single most powerful thing we can do as consumers to take a stand against this insanity. But to truly solve this problem we need to first acknowledge that we have a serious protein fixation. Facilitating a mass cultural shift away from our strong preference towards an animal-centric diet requires more than a simple plea to go vegan. To truly break the paradigm we need phenomenal food alternatives with mainstream appeal. Products that aren't just more sustainable and consciously harvested, but inventive products that rival, if not altogether outdo our appetite for beef, chicken, fish and eggs in not just nutritional content, but in flavor, taste and texture as well. The good news is that there are super intelligent, highly motivated people hard at work on just this — innovating brand new ways to improve human health, positively impact climate change, address global resource constraints and improve animal welfare with products, which for lack of a better phrase, simply taste good. Ethan Brown is one such innovator. Conceived in 2009 as a potential solution to problems he saw with the meat industry, Ethan founded Beyond Meat with a singular goal — to produce plant-based food products that would essentially replicate meat in an effort to render some of the downsides of the meat industry obsolete. In the same way last week's podcast guest Joshua Katcher implicitly understands that ethically manufactured garments must outmatch their less sustainable comparisons in fashion flair, Ethan understands that to win mainstream hearts and minds, his food products need more than satisfy the palates of enthusiastic carnivores. Backed by heavy hitters like Bill Gates and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, it's not a stretch to say Ethan is well on his way to achieving this goal. Food impresario Alton Brown called Beyond Meat's Chicken Strips “more like meat than anything...

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

So if you're going to get a trouble of rebuilding meat from plants, why not just make it so much better that it's desirable?

0:09.0

That guy who or gal who could care less about all the external reasons to do it does it because it's something that's desirous.

0:16.0

That's Ethan Brown and yes, this is the Rich Roll Podcast.

0:31.0

Hey guys, my name is Rich Roll. I am your host and this is the show where together we learn how to live and be better.

0:42.0

So to do this, each week I engage the best and the brightest, the most forward thinking paradigm, busting minds across all categories of life, health and excellence to help you discover, uncover, unlock and unleash your best, most authentic self.

0:58.0

Thanks so much for everybody who has subscribed to this show on iTunes. Thanks for spreading the word to your friends, your family members, your co-workers, your colleagues.

1:07.0

Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter and thank you so much for clicking through the Amazon banner at at richroll.com for all your Amazon purchases.

1:17.0

Alright you guys, listen up. We have over seven billion people on the planet that we got a feed.

1:25.0

And what are we currently doing about it? We got problems. We got problems with this industrialized animal agriculture is outdated tech you guys.

1:35.0

So if we want to stick around on this spinning rock and do it in a healthy sustainable way, we're going to have to find better, more innovative, more economic, more compassionate, more sustainable ways to neutrify the population.

1:52.0

So this week I got Ethan Brown on the show and today we're going to talk about it. He's the guy behind Beyond Meat where they're doing some pretty cool stuff in the plant-based food universe.

2:03.0

This is a good talk. It's a discussion about how we can take an innovative Silicon Valley approach to reimagining food in our food system. And so that's coming up in a couple minutes.

2:19.0

We're brought to you today by Athletic Greens maker of AG one a nutritional powerhouse packed with vitamins minerals, prebiotics, probiotics, phytonutrients.

2:30.0

Everything you need in one simple scoop added to a smoothie or just in water. One serving has everything you need to fill those nutrient gaps.

2:39.0

I first gave AG want to try many many years ago, I quickly made its way into my daily routine and I've never looked back. I love the convenience of it. I love the travel packs. I take them wherever I go.

2:51.0

And I like that it's formulated to support everything from gut health to focus and energy. It's got rodeola, magnesium, B vitamins. Everything you need to sustain high energy throughout the day without the caffeine crash you get from coffee.

3:07.0

Tricking AG one really is one of the most important and consistent habits that I have committed to. It's easy, it's convenient, it tastes great, and keeps all my bases nutritionally covered.

3:19.0

So if you want to take ownership of your health, now is pretty much the best time to start because Athletic Greens is giving you a free one year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase.

3:30.0

This offers valid now through September 2023 go to athletic greens dot com slash rich roll. That's athletic greens dot com slash rich roll. Check it out.

3:44.0

All right you guys. Seven billion people on this planet. How are we going to feed everybody? If you listen to my podcast with Kippen Keegan, those are the guys behind the documentary cow conspiracy. That was episode 91 if you missed it.

3:58.0

If you missed it, I implore you to check it out. Please check it out. But if you did listen to that, then you already know that industrialized animal agriculture has got big problems.

4:09.0

It's the number one contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. It is the number one contributor to species extinction ocean pollution, water waste, rainforest destruction. I can go on and I can go on.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Rich Roll, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Rich Roll and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.