A house, 2021-04-22
In Conversation with Veat
At A house, we are proud to be surrounded by such an impressive variety of future food initiatives. In A sustainable Journal, we are taking the opportunity to get to know them and their thoughts on the future of food. Today we are talking to Björn Olsson from Veat – great plant-based food in vending machine.
Hi there Björn Olsson, Head of Food at Veat, are people all into trying plant-based these days?
I wouldn’t say that, but if you have pricing, taste and convenience in mind when you create your product you might attract those that otherwise wouldn’t go for a plant-based option. This is something that Oatly has managed to do successfully throughout the last couple of years and something we’re getting closer and closer to as our list of locations grow and we sharpen our food team with talents from Swedish Michelin-restaurants.
What will be the next big future protein in your opinion?
There will be many new, exciting future proteins and I think the focus will be on how we produce our food rather than what we produce (although I think we’ll diversify our consumption of plant-based crops).
”the future will bring us solutions such as vertical farming below ground”
We will have to source more of our food locally and responsibly to avoid consequences such as deforestation that has a negative affect on our planet. This means that climate changes will force us to get creative; I believe that the future will bring us solutions such as vertical farming below ground as well as increasing consumption of things like seaweed and kelp grown in the ocean.
How will we produce and consume food in the future?
That goes hand in hand with my earlier answers, the food will be locally produced with our planet in mind throughout the whole process. Consumers are already getting used to contactless shopping and will prefer this in the future. This means that even physical consumption will be a digital experience, such as vending machines and automated retail. Our portion sizes may be smaller to reduce food waste and we will eat less meat from factory farms. Conventionally produced meat as protein will be considered a niche good within 10 years.
If I say “Future Protein”, what is the first food on your mind?
I would say cultivated meat (also known as cell-based or lab-grown meat); I even believe that many butchers will shift to cultivated meat within a certain amount of years. You can already see butchers shifting part of their business to plant-based options in response to new market demands.