Fast Company revealed its Most Innovative Food Companies for 2016, and I couldn’t help but feel disheartened when I read the first three companies on the list: Taco Bell, Domino’s, and McDonald’s. Really? That’s the best we can do?
The great irony of food innovation is that food, and I mean real food (not edible food-like substances, as Michael Pollan would say), needs no innovation. The innovations that do matter in 2016 with seven billion people on our planet to feed and rapid climate change is how do we grow more of the good food. Good food being defined as that which is grown with integrity, without chemicals, sustainable for our planet, and tastes delicious. How do we serve/sell/transport that good food in a way that fits into the budgets of all people and is still good for the environment? How do we ensure we don’t waste any of that good food we grow?
So to replace the big three, Kristen Hawley (Chefs + Tech) and I put our heads together with some good food folks in the know to see who they would have put on the list instead and why. Here are the 7 companies (in no particular order) that deserve to replace those three on Fast Company’s list.
Loco’l by Daniel Patterson and Roy Choi: These two powerhouse chefs believe that the giant corporations that feed most of America have degraded our communities by maximizing profits over decades (ahem, see companies noted above). It’s time for a new approach. Two chef leaders from their respective communities have created sustainable and healthy fast food for neglected and impoverished areas. The first restaurant opened in Los Angeles a month ago with more scheduled to open very soon, including Oakland and San Francisco. Both chefs dedicated much time and thought developing recipes, sourcing ingredients, and thinking about every element from nutrition to branding to helping the community. This is heartwarming and literally world-changing work.
2. The Perennial in SF: Anthony Myint, Karen Leibowitz, & Chris Kiyuna
This restaurant is brand new, but its commitment to sustainability is remarkable. The Perennial has raised the bar for holistic, sustainable restaurant design. We often think about the food on our plates, but what about the materials used to build the restaurant, the lighting fixtures, the building process? When it comes to the food, they are stretching to new boundaries including an aquaponic greenhouse in Oakland and partnerships with progressive farmers and ranchers, ensuring ingredients go beyond organic. Alongside its own efforts to redesign and rethink the modern sustainable restaurant, they’re committed to ZeroFoodprint, a non-profit organization created by Myint, Chris Ying of Lucky Peach, and climate change expert Peter Freed that helps inspire every restaurant do the same to reverse climate change.
3. Eatsa by Tim Young and Scott Drummond
Eat food, mostly plants. It’s a mantra Michael Pollan started and is proving to be essential to feeding our growing population. But not everyone has a convenient, delicious, and affordable way to do so. San Francisco-based Eatsa is using technology to change that by fully automating the restaurant and serving up quinoa bowls. They’ve created a new retail concept that requires minimal staff, which helps keep good food prices low. I’m excited to see where Eatsa goes.
4. Blue Hill at Stone Barns by Dan Barber and David Barber
Dan Barber changed the conversation (again) around food, getting us all to focus on what we’ve been wasting, and start eating it: “ugly” fruits and vegetables; unloved vegetables at farmers’ markets that are critical to crop rotation, quality soil and organic farming. Most importantly, he got us talking about waste. This national conversation about changing our relationship with food waste is trickling down, inspiring new business ideas and making an impact in dining rooms where chefs are putting those typically wasted ingredients on your dinner plate.
5. Edenworks by Jason Green, Matt La Rosa & Ben Silverman
The more our cities grow, the more we’re asking ourselves, how can we grow closer to our cities? The closer we can grow to our cities, the less transportation it takes to move within it. Edenworks is a stacked farming system they call “Farmstacks,” their custom aquaponic growing infrastructure built to sit on top of unused space on commercial buildings, supporting lettuces, herbs, and fish.
6. Imperfect Produce by Ben Simon and Ben Chesler
One in five fruits and vegetables grown is rejected from the supermarket because it’s cosmetically-challenged, or shall we say, ugly. It’s staggering to think of the food lost because we simply don’t like the way it looks. Imperfect Produce is on a mission to eliminate food waste. Today they are doing it with the next take on the CSA, ensuring farmers can sell all of their produce (even the misshapen, spotted, and ugly), and then passing on these savings of 30 to 50 percent. Good for the farmers, good for you. On top of that, they’ve done a tremendous job adding food waste into the conversation about our relationship with food.
7. Daily Table by Doug Ranch
Americans waste a staggering amount of food each year (yes, you can see a trend on this list), 35 million tons and $165 billion worth, to be exact. Doug Ranch, the ex-president of Trader Joe’s saw this firsthand as food that wasn’t truly expired got thrown away. This wastefulness sparked a new retail concept. His new grocery store, called Daily Table, sells extra food or items that weren’t purchased in time for typical grocery store standards, passing those savings onto the community.
Thank you to Darya Rose, Ali Partovi, Kristen Hawley, Rahmin Sarabi, Sarah Henry, and Summer Rayne Oakes for contributing to this list.
And thanks for reading! I’m Em, a second time food & tech entrepreneur, currently building Din. We’re on a mission to help people cook more often, by connecting restaurant kitchens with home kitchens. Through cooking, we hope to build a better food system with less processed food and less food waste. We want to see more people connecting around the dinner table, enjoying a meal they proudly cooked themselves.
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