[PODCAST] As the leader of v2food, Australia’s largest plant-based meat company, Nick Hazell understands that when it comes to tackling the world’s looming food shortage and climate crises, there’s no time to waste.
“What we’re trying to do is solve an existential sustainability problem, and we have to solve it quickly. We really do not have a lot of time,” Hazell said in Future Alternative’s latest podcast episode.
“If we don’t hurry up and get [plant-based meat] to everybody in a mainstream way … then we wont have a lot of planet to hand over to our kids. I actually kind of feel this to my core; it’s quite an unusual feeling, like a panic that we have to move quickly.”
And move quickly is exactly what the business has done. Launched in 2019 as a partnership between CSIRO, Main Sequence Ventures and Hungry Jacks’ founder, Jack Cowin, v2food dominates the Australian plant-based market and has a growing footprint overseas, particularly in Asia.
“[We have] 25 million people in Australia, but we’re on the doorstep of 1.3 billion in China and Southeast Asia. So of course we’re focusing on those markets … It’s extraordinarily scary, and there are lots of geopolitical and other reasons why we wouldn’t do what we’re doing. But if we’re really serious about doing this at a global level, we have to go into Asia.”
Learn more about v2food’s aggressive expansion plans, its unapologetic collaboration with the meat industry, and Hazell’s take on the recent Senate inquiry findings by listening to the full episode below.
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