Interview with Amanda Oenbring

Transcript

Sheldon Young
Welcome to the No Footprints podcast brought to you by Alfa Laval. I’m Sheldon Young.

Jason Moreau
And I am Jason Moreau.

Sheldon Young
We’re here to talk about impact and to share the efforts and people behind making sustainability real.

And we do it with big smiles. Jason every day.

Jason Moreau
Exactly. It’s exactly, I was nodding because that’s what I do on this podcast, but I, then I was like, no, this won’t make it, this won’t make it to a clip. So I’m going to say exactly just so people know that I am a hundred percent in agreement.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. The, um, the nod is, is your signature move and, uh, it is, uh, it’s becoming my signature move at this point in certain circles. Yeah.

Terrible for an audio podcast, but, but a great move nonetheless. Exactly. I think I have to, every time you do, I just go, Jason’s nodding.

Jason’s nodding.

Jason Moreau
So your counter move is the, let me explain what’s happening because he’s not saying things.

Sheldon Young
Yes, exactly. It is to acknowledge Jason is nodding. Um, no, but, uh, great to see you again, my friend as usual.

Uh, so Tommy, what’d you get for a kickoff story for us?

Jason Moreau
So my kickoff story, I thought. It’s actually going to tie into our interview, uh, later in the episode, but, um, it’s about ups, upcycling. And the story I came across was really interesting.

It was out of the great state of Kentucky. Actually, I think Kentucky is technically a Commonwealth like Virginia. So props there.

Yep. Well, side fact for you, but it’s the only other one then. Oh, there’s one Massachusetts, Massachusetts, correct.

There’s four. Yeah, we got them all.

Sheldon Young
Look at that. Look at that.

Jason Moreau
Bring in the knowledge to the guest. You came for sustainability. We gave you random us state fact.

Exactly. Extra bonus. Um, anyway, out of Kentucky, the Buffalo Trace distillery is partnering with a food technology company to take their distillers mash.

I just do those grains, the leftovers, the grains, the spent grains, which essentially it’s like a 10 to one, right? So if there’s 10 gallons of spent grains to produce one gallon of bourbon, right? So it’s, if they’re scaling up production, they’re scaling up this essentially waste stream, but they are partnering with this company and they are going to take that waste stream and turn it into.

I believe it’s aquaculture, uh, pet food, uh, materials and organic fertilizer. Oh, interesting. Yeah.

I thought it was really, really cool. One, because it’s a true partnership where the, uh, distillage, am I saying that right? Yep.

Yes.

Sheldon Young
Yeah.

Jason Moreau
Yep. Is going to be piped directly to the other plant.

Sheldon Young
That’s interesting. Okay.

Jason Moreau
Yes. And the other cool part of it, uh, that I did a little digging was this was a reverse pitch, um, about three or four years ago. The, um, uh, I guess, uh, I don’t want to call it, it wasn’t just Buffalo trace.

It was like a, an organization. It was like a association, right? So they essentially did a contest.

So come pitch us your ideas of how to take care of this waste stream. So I thought that was a really cool, creative way to do it, both in terms of generating ideas, uh, finding potential partners. Um, so I just really liked the story altogether.

And like I said, I thought it went well with, you know, the interview that we’re going to be listening to later. So.

Sheldon Young
Yeah, absolutely. That’s, that’s a good, I mean, uh, we, we do a lot of stuff with distilled stillage grains, uh, without full valve. I mean, those are actually a pretty interesting story.

I can tell you about it, uh, offline, but, um, there’s, uh, uh, what often happens is they take that stillage off the bottom, they, they dewater it. They then put it through a dryer and then they take what they do water, which is like a serpent, they put it back in that’s called DDGS. It’s also often a cow food is what it often is.

That that’s the typical use for, at least in a lot of the Midwest places, they also have a lot of cows there. So there might be a direct, easy path for it to go to what I, it’s also energy intensive to drying for sure. Yes.

Yes. So that’s what I really like about this story is that it’s taking something that is often a, uh, energy intensive process. It doesn’t sound like they’re drying it for us.

They may be just piping it over and skipping that energy intensive aspect of it. And upcycling. I really liked that.

And again, if you can find that, that, that usage. Absolutely. Something fantastic to look like.

I remember back in, I’ve seen before where I’ve seen ethanol plants attached to feedlots where they just pump it out wet, uh, for cows to eat. I there’s some, there’s some, I’m not a dairy or cow person, so I don’t really know, I think there’s something better about the dry stuff, or it also transports. You can transport the dry stuff.

So you don’t have to be attached to a feedlot, but it really interesting. I really liked that. They found another way to make this interesting and upcycle that is not as energy intensive.

So I love the idea. Very cool. Well, I got a couple of things.

I was at the dairy sustainability Alliance meeting this week. I’m always energized when I go to these things. It’s like, you always, you surround yourself with other people talking the same challenges and things like that.

I really got the connect and starting to see people again, you know, uh, cause it’s like the third, third meeting I’ve been to and, uh, the lot of conversations around, um, you know, the agriculture side of dairy, cause a lot of the emissions happen in that aspect. Uh, and we’re in California. So a lot of, uh, discussion around California things, uh, including, uh, digesters or 186 digesters or something like that currently in the state with many more planned and why really, again, it’s addressing one of the toughest parts of dairy, and that is the emissions created from the cows themselves.

And so it takes the, the, the cow, um, waste product. It then puts it into a digester almost immediately and quickly so that it can, instead of turning to methane, it goes to the atmosphere. It at least out in the open, they do it in a controlled environment.

They are taking that processing it into biogas, like, uh, sorry, renewable natural gas, excuse me. Biogas is the undefined. It turned out renewable natural gas and pumping it right into a pipeline in many cases.

Oh, wow. So it’s really interesting, but I just, a couple, I get this fun little book. It’s a California dairy sustainability journey book.

It’s not going to show up well in the thing, but I love inside the statistic that drew my attention right away, the methane from five cows can power one house for a year. There’s a year for a year. Yeah.

So I’m thinking like, I’m getting myself five cows, just going to like power my house and, you know, and, and I knew I just got to feed them and stuff and take care of them. I gave a good home. I would take care of my cows and, and then take the methane and power my home.

Jason Moreau
That would be, you know, and, and, uh, how much acreage do you have for your cows at the moment? I don’t really have acreage per se. Right, right.

Sheldon Young
I wonder how a garage living would suit a cow. I don’t know. Oh, well, it was a nice thought.

That’s all I’m saying. Oh boy. All right.

Um, anyway, so that was the dairy sustainability. I had one other quick one also tied to food upcycling. I came across, I was, something came across on my social media is advertising an app called too good to go.

Apparently it’s a, uh, an app that if you have excess food, if you’re like a bakery or even a restaurant, I guess, or something, and you have excess food, kind of the end of your working day, you can say, Hey, I have this. And, uh, it essentially puts it on this app and people who are looking to potentially have some food can get it at kind of like a reduced price. Imagine like bakeries are a good example because oftentimes, you know, they’re not keeping it for the next day typically.

So you’re getting to, Hey, end of the day, I got, you know, a couple of dozen donuts left or whatever. Here’s a discounted real discounted price. It then upcycles that.

So, you know, so it doesn’t go to waste. Uh, it’s really about addressing that food waste. I think it’s a really neat concept idea.

I didn’t, I looked at it for, for where we are in Richmond. There was like one or two things on it so far. I think it needs to gain legs, but I can easily see it being a way to just, you know, just to reduce food waste, but also like cover losses for, uh, a bakery or whatever business.

Jason Moreau
So I like the idea a lot. The restaurant ecosystem here in Richmond is, is pretty tight. So I imagine if it, if it starts to take off, it’ll, it’ll take off in a really big way.

Sheldon Young
Yeah, for sure. For sure. So let’s move on to our guest for the day.

Jason, it’s Amanda Ombring from the Upcycled Food Association. And I’m really excited about this one. And, uh, we just talk about upcycled food.

I love food. That’s a good thing.

Jason Moreau
Most people do.

Sheldon Young
Yep. I’m excited to hear what she has to say and to teach us about sustainability and reducing food waste. So wait, see how we get to it.

Let’s listen. Today’s guest is Amanda Ombring, CEO of the Upcycled Food Association. Amanda has extensive experience in building sustainability focused nonprofits and brings the skills of community collaboration, climate philanthropy, and building global movements to this organization.

Now in its fifth year, she not only devotes her work to sustainability. She lives it. Homesteading with her family in Oregon.

We’re excited to speak to her here on the No Footprints Podcast and learn about how she makes sustainability real through building global food systems where food is elevated to its highest and best use. Welcome Amanda.

Amanda Oenbring
Thank you, Jason. Thank you, Sheldon. So good to be here.

Sheldon Young
Absolutely. So, uh, thanks for coming on, uh, quickly, just let’s get to know you a bit. Tell us your story and your journey, uh, to become a passionate and, uh, about the food supply chain.

Amanda Oenbring
Yeah, thanks for asking. Well, as you mentioned, based in Oregon currently, but West coast through and through, so I’ve always grown up in agricultural regions across the West coast, whether it was apple country in Washington down to wine region in California to now where I said in Oregon across from the tree crops of nuts and the vine crops of berries as well as surrounded by wine. So I’ve always had that context of really getting to know what it takes to make our food and the labor and love and inputs that go into everything that it’s our plates every day also as a backdrop to that group in the kitchen, cooking with my grandma who lived through the great depression.

So really learned a lot from her growing up alongside many siblings of just the sensibility of what we produce, let’s use it and use it to nourish ourselves. So fast forward to kind of post college career ended up in event planning, you know, lovely occasions, people celebrating lots of things, but also realizing, you know, in those moments, a lot of waste happens. So thinking about just our practices and the culture around food was feeling drawn to more purpose than just what that was bringing to my life.

Googled business sustainability and food and lucky enough in my backyard in Seattle, up popped an MBA program with a food systems focus. So I got to do a really deep dive, what is the purpose of how we run businesses? And then how does that get embedded into our food system?

So all those pieces kind of knitted together with the layer of being really passionate about the climate impacts of food coming out of my MBA program, did some work in chocolate supply chain. So looking at that kind of local behemoth and under the hood of that, and then ended up at 1% for the planet. So really helping support businesses aligned with the mission of Patagonia, give back to support thousands of nonprofits doing really important work, including those always close to my heart in the food systems.

UFA was one of those at the time. So followed the story since the journey began and then feel so grateful to be in this role for the past year and a half.

Sheldon Young
It’s amazing. Fun story. Just, you said, you said chocolate.

I mean, tell me about the chalk. I’m a, I’m a chocoholic. So what were we in that space?

What was kind of the, what was your focus around?

Amanda Oenbring
Yeah. So we were looking at how to empower craft chocolate makers, getting more closely connected with cacao farmers at origin. So looking at, you know, what are the mechanics of this being a big commodity market, but really how to make that more meaningful to both the producer of the crop and the producer of the product and bringing them closer together.

So learned a lot, really informed the way I think about our global markets, as well as the climate pressures throughout our food system, and that really helps inform the work today.

Sheldon Young
Great stuff. Um, so upcycled food, what, explain that to people. What do we, when we say it, I mean, you could make conclusions, but I hate to do that, but I love people to explain it from their perspective.

Amanda Oenbring
Yeah. Well, let’s start with the problem that presents the opportunity of upcycled foods. So when we think about all food we produce globally, 30 to 40% of that food is wasted.

It is either lost on farm, about 23% of that in the U S it’s lost in the manufacturing process, that’s about 17%, another 17% in food service. And then 35% is in our homes and the decisions we’re making every day. We’re really grateful to the nonprofit refed that measures that really closely, those are 2023 numbers.

So when we think about, you know, what are we doing with the food that is otherwise lost or wasted, that’s where the opportunity of upcycling really comes into play. So we are committed to seeing all the food that we produce in any way possible being put to its highest and best use. So that can look like a lot of different ways that can be that, you know, off spec produce grown on a farm that might not meet grocery store spec, it can mean the by-products, the trim, the, you know, in our processing methods, the promises, the appeals, or it can get really creative and thinking about, you know, what are other surplus off, you know, off shoots of foods we’re currently appreciating that don’t get put to their full use. So like cacao to come back to chocolate, right.

Cacao fruit, you know, so much of the chocolate process has this beautiful fruit that’s used in the process, but often left by the wayside. So all sorts of more examples and exciting applications we’ll get into, but that gives you a little, little taste.

Sheldon Young
I like it. A little, a little taste of chocolate there, just what I wanted.

Jason Moreau
Well, so, um, I was curious about the certification. I actually like read a lot through that, which was really interesting. One, I appreciated just sort of this attention to detail about clarity of like, what do we mean when we say all of the different components, right.

Like staying in the, for, for human consumption and right. Like, so, um, but I guess the question is, so there is a third party accreditation. Um, how, how, if you’ve only been around for five years, that seems like a huge win to actually get third party verification.

Like, can you take me on that journey? Like, how did you get that done? And like, how, how big is that to like, start seeing that on like grocery store shelves?

Amanda Oenbring
Yeah, no, it’s a huge moment in a very small, you know, tiny beginnings. And we actually just doing six years this week. So, you know, very, very recent times in that regard, let’s jump back to kind of what those beginnings were.

So it was 2019 is the organization got started as a membership-based trade association. So getting companies from all across the supply chain together to align on these kinds of things. The first was the definition.

We can zoom back to that. Second was developing the standard that became upside. So having the opportunity for either ingredients or products to be certified that launched in North America in 2021, and then has grown globally since then in all sorts of segments and different applications.

It’s been really, really fascinating to see core tenants of the certification for an ingredient to be certified 95% upcycled, and then for a product to be certified using 10% of an upcycled input or ingredients. So really, you know, strong focus on proving that the input was previously going to a waste destination and being able to measure the impact of that diverted supply. So it’s been a really great journey to see all the applications and things that people don’t even typically expect.

Pet products is the highest growing category right now. Beauty, home and personal care. So even just, you know, beyond human food consumables where there’s a lot of great applications and celebrate the impact of that.

We helped launch the certification with a broad suite of partners, worked really closely with a company where food comes from as our certification verifier, and they acquired Upcycled Certified in 2023 within their family of standards. So now they’re able to certify alongside organic, alongside non-GMO, and really have strong brand storytelling that pairs really nicely with certification. And excited to share, we just got year over year numbers from SPIN.

So US specific, US natural and grocery was up 27% in the last year from Q3 of this year back to 2024. So really a lot of exciting growth in that regard.

Jason Moreau
I would say the one bummer for me in the spec was that historical foods maybe don’t get the same certification. And I think the example called out in the paper was hot dogs, because they were upcycled from, you know, trimmings. And it’s like, yeah, but they’ve been around since the late 1800s.

So they don’t count as a net new. And I was like, God, but I need something to convince my wife that I can still buy hot dogs.

Sheldon Young
So I was like, no. It’s a great point. It’s the ultimate upcycled food.

It’s like, we’re the OG of upcycling.

Amanda Oenbring
Exactly. Well, if she’s a, if she’s a salmon fan, we have a great upcycling company doing upcycled salmon, sausages, and burgers.

Jason Moreau
Okay. Nice.

Please do. Yes.

Amanda Oenbring
And thinking about kind of the, you know, OGs of upcycling, tater tots, right? We know and love and appreciate. I heard Vegemite from down under, you know, that kind of process.

And then I think one of the heroes that’s really fascinating to think about kind of in our recent lifetimes way, we had our recent global scientific symposium. One of the players that was there kind of as the cheese making process was beginning to identify and help companies move through to really valorize this, that had just been previously going into to wastewater before.

Sheldon Young
So, yeah, that’s a great point. Yeah, I do a lot with the dairy industry and absolutely. It’s like finding ways to, no pun intended, but maybe intended the back of my brain, but, you know, finding ways to weigh for sure.

If you were to jump ahead five or 10 years, what would a great world for upcycled food look like for you?

Amanda Oenbring
Yeah. Thanks for asking. Let’s be, and I celebrated our five-year milestone last year.

We spent a lot of time thinking about, you know, what does the next five years look like, because this has been such a short period of time, you know, right now we’ve got numbers in 14 countries and there’s so much interest and activity happening in every corner of the world. So much interest in APAC, in Europe, Australia is doing really great work. Canada has just gone through this big national kind of convening on terms of what upcycling can be.

I get really excited about, you know, our roots from our beginnings were very strongly in the CPG space, startup-sized companies. But in our six years since then, we’ve grown to, you know, companies representing also multinational and the ability to think about inspiring our entrepreneurs to form a concept around upcycling at its core, but then also the opportunity to scale upcycling. When you think about the products we know and use and love and just the tiny shifts and formulations that could have a really, really large impact over time.

So I think coming at it from both ends of the spectrum of scale is a really exciting future that I think about.

Sheldon Young
How does an organization start thinking about things like upcycling? I mean, there’s some obvious ones, right? But I’m sure there’s a lot of non-obvious ones as well.

If someone says, hey, I want to think about upcycling, what would the process look like for them and how would they work with, say, your organization to make it happen?

Amanda Oenbring
Yeah. Thanks for asking. We get that question a lot because, you know, there’s so much possibility and, you know, companies that have current processes, I’d say, start there.

Look at your current manufacturing, whether you do that in-house and, you know, map it out. There’s so many cool stanky diagrams to say, okay, you know, what are inputs and what are outputs? What are we, you know, currently is a cost center that could be, you know, really transformed into a value stream.

So starting there and just getting really introspective and working with your teams. I think on the flip side of that, you’re sourcing and procurement, right? There’s so many great upcycled ingredients and upcycled, you know, availability now that can be kind of that unlock for teams that are thinking about, you know, their broader scope impacts and, you know, just those small decisions that can really make a good impact.

And then we’ve got some great meeting of the minds. I think, you know, that’s the beauty of the UFA network. We’ve got members in all sorts of different aspects of the supply chain, and we’ve definitely been leaning into the scientific research, especially in this last year.

So we’ve got great partners like Drexel Food Lab does a lot of product development with a lot of different companies. And then we’ve started convening with an upcycled food foundation, which is our foundation arm, the global scholars who are living and breathing this research, whether it’s the qualitative or quantitative research, you know, let’s really deep dive into consumer perceptions in Poland or let’s, you know, pull apart what, you know, citrus peels and their applications could be and everything in between.

So we’re really excited to have convened two virtual symposiums, one in June of 2025, just wrapped up our second in September of 2025, and then are looking forward to our next upcycled food month, which will be the month of June in 2026. All those recordings, that knowledge is available to our members to really kind of deep dive into and get inspired by.

Jason Moreau
I was I was curious if you how closely you work with so looking at the brands that are certified, I saw the Kroger House brand. And I was just like, really curious about that, because like, again, marketing brain, but it’s like, I would love to walk into a Kroger and see them actually, you know, doing a section of like, here’s all of the upcycled stuff, right? Like, and yes, ultimately, you want upcycled to just, you know, you want upcycled tortilla chips to be with the regular tortilla chips, but just looking at the trajectory of like, how organic was introduced and like, better alternatives, it kind of feels like you could follow that same playbook.

And I’m just like, do you ever have those conversations? Or?

Amanda Oenbring
Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of the magic of the network is exactly those kind of that matchmaking, right? Of who has the knowledge or who has the ingredient for folks that come to us and say, you know, we’re looking for this.

So those that Kroger product was a great example. Another great one I love to point to member Misfits Market. So they really, you know, created their whole concept around let’s give consumer facing home to products that might not otherwise end up on store shelves or grocery carts.

And their private label team has done a really good job of, I think, you know, having those inputs and kind of that need in the moment come to them and then creating kind of product concepts and working with members and collaborating. So definitely would point to that as another good example. But yes, hope and dream upcycled food month in the month of June.

Let’s get some upcycled end caps. And, you know, you see it across every grocery aisle now too, which is really great.

Sheldon Young
Nice. Very fun, very fun. Organization like yours, what’s required for it to operate?

I mean, it’s engaged with all, it sounds like all parts of the value chain. How do you, how do you function with that? How do you get support to do these things?

People want to know.

Amanda Oenbring
Really that, you know, who in wherever seat of influence they’re sitting has a role to play. And that’s what we really try to inspire through our membership. So we’re a membership based organization.

So whether it’s a $50 student membership, a hundred dollar individual membership or company memberships of all shapes and sizes for the startups to the larger companies, really, that is the core of how we hum, how we operate, how we, you know, make sure that collaborative conversation is generous and generative across such a wide globe. And it’s really such a fun opportunity to have that be global and have that be virtual and getting to connect people in real time, whether it’s on a webinar or through our member directory, really it’s that core of how we hum and operate. But then again, we’re a two-part organization and that our UFA is a 501C6 membership organization, but UFF is a 501C3.

So also, you know, open to philanthropic support. And that’s really the home of our research network, as well as Upcycle Food Month, growing that awareness as well.

Sheldon Young
Excellent. So if someone is a member of your organization, you know, what do they get for that? What’s membership mean for them?

Amanda Oenbring
Yeah. So really it’s, you know, understanding where they’re at in their journey, helping them along that process. And if they’re already upcycling, you know, once they are upcycling, helping us to understand and then tell that story.

So we really act as kind of both the dot connector and also the megaphone. So, you know, we get, you know, press and media inquiries and just really helping shine the light on the good work that’s happening and the possibility that’s out there for other companies looking to answer exactly that. Where do I start question?

And then we really do, you know, showcase where our members have density. So, you know, trade shows throughout the year, Natural Products Expo West, we always have a good saturation and presence there. IFT First is a great part of our community.

And then we’re really honored to be the purposeful partner of Food Ingredients Europe at the Paris trade show coming up in December. So taking moments like that to really shine the light on our members and their good work and their stories.

Jason Moreau
Is that this, I mean, it’d probably be a little bit different if I joined as like an individual member.

Amanda Oenbring
Yeah. Thanks for asking. Yeah.

Individual is like with my, you know, personal hat on, I’m here to learn and glean and connect versus a business membership. Let me shine the light on my business story and, you know, help get that amplification out there. So we’d like to have that two fold option for folks that are, you know, that champion within a team, trying to figure out where to start and then eventually, you know, growing over time.

Every member gets our member newsletter. So that’s chock full of all the industry headlines, industry opportunities, our events, and those kind of ways we bring everyone together from that wider tent.

Sheldon Young
Awesome. So we mentioned that in the teaser, you kind of live in a homestead with your family. How does that culture of living in homestead blend into what you bring into UFA and vice versa?

How do they intermeld?

Amanda Oenbring
I always love it. In our last, I think both of our last scientific symposiums, there was the topics where I was literally looking out my window and the aha moments were going out off of, we have literally hazelnuts right across the street. And it was a presenter from Turkey talking about whole hazelnuts and, you know, all the applications of the fiber and the protein and everything from those processing streams that can be put to use.

We also have a great member, Renet, that’s working on how to whole nut process any kind of tree nut, right? So they’re working with almond and hazelnuts. What’s the paste?

What’s the application that you can be really using to amplify? And then we’re also right in the heart of wine country. So, you know, our traffic is right now this time of year is those big bins going by and, you know, thinking about all the byproducts of the wine process.

You know, my husband will put it in our garden as the soil amendment compost next to our, you know, llama fertilizer that happens naturally. But we’ve got some great members really looking at those processes. The pumice, Alvanesa, one of our members is looking at both wine and olive byproducts and all the different applications, whether it’s natural colorants, which are such, you know, a big issue right now.

So really grateful to be, you know, embedded in where I see that happening day to day. One other fun shout out being that we’re in berry country too. We’ve got our member, Farmer Bob, and they essentially took the challenge of all these berries that might not end up in that perfect little grocery store bin clamshell you get and they made a frozen berry product that’s kind of the conglomeration and a really great, you know, frozen capturing of that value.

So love having them right now. Far from me too.

Sheldon Young
Very fun stuff. So, okay. We talked about some of the events you have coming up.

Any things you want to shout out and make people aware of for UFA that they could participate, engage with?

Amanda Oenbring
Yeah, we’ll always do. Check out our events calendar. We’re getting our next webinars up on the calendar soon.

So some moments this fall. If you’re at trade shows that I mentioned, please reach out and engage whether it’s food ingredients, Europe, Expo West, and then really, you know, getting on our newsletter list. If you’re interested, that’s where we shine a light on all these things in real time.

And always the pinnacle of our year is upcycled food month in the month of June. So looking forward to that, our next scientific symposium. And yeah, definitely do explore the website upcycledfood.org because we do have a wide variety of recordings from past events and webinars like previous Upcycled Food Months that are a great way to kind of tour around and start getting immersed in the world of upcycled food.

Sheldon Young
Sounds great. This is really fascinating. Again, it sounds like there’s a lot of value in being engaged in the organization, understanding the real power and impact of upcycled food and what it can do for sustainability and how, you know, engaging in upcycling can make sustainability real in such a real way, such a big way.

So thank you for telling that story. I appreciate you being on the podcast and looking forward to supporting you and your organization.

Amanda Oenbring
So if you see the opportunity, look for that upcycled label out your next grocery trip and enjoy eating up.

Sheldon Young
Absolutely. Thank you. And we are back just like that.

The magic of podcast, Jason. It’s awesome. It is.

We transport through time to another place.

Jason Moreau
Yeah.

Sheldon Young
Another conversation.

Jason Moreau
I feel most of the time we use those awesome powers responsibly.

Sheldon Young
We do with great power for good.

Jason Moreau
That’s right. Yeah.

Sheldon Young
Speaking of great responsibility, Amanda showing us the great responsibility of food upcycling. You know, I remember when we had Caroline Koda on and, you know, we talked about food waste, how big of a problem it is. And oh, by the way, Caroline has the tasty awards coming up in the spring.

If you don’t know about the tasty award, you should go sign up for it and go see if you go, if you’re going out to California to the future of food event there. But she dropped a hard fact on it. It’s like, you know, like one third of all food produced for human consumption is in our homes is wasted.

And then, you know, Amanda also gave us some great statistics. Uh, I, I, I hear it, I feel a lot of guilt in this space. I waste a lot of food, uh, not intentionally, right.

But it’s like, I’m just a poor planner, I think when it comes to food. Right. And I get optimistic about things like salad, you know, stuff like that.

Um, I, I will give you a little tip trick though. Uh, we, I mean, I can’t remember if I’ve talked about this before. We bought like, uh, you know, like, uh, canning jars, right.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we bought like this little vacuum sealer thing that goes on canning jars.

And if you put like fruits and vegetables, like, you know, for example, for a salad, if I have cucumbers or peppers or whatever, blueberries, whatever I want, right. I find that I, they often go on me, particularly things like fruit, like pretty quickly, and even the fridge, right. Right.

I find they last a ton longer in these little vacuum jars. So little tip trick. Um, don’t take, don’t say I never told you anything and it was useful.

The, the little vacuum jars, big difference in food waste for me, frankly, I’m not throwing out nearly as much.

Jason Moreau
I think that’s great because it was a, like, I won’t say it was an easy fix, but like, in terms of a behavior change, right. Like you didn’t have to get better at planning. You didn’t like, so everything was still coming in.

It was just a better way to preserve what you were already getting. So, and you still maintain the optionality that you like in terms of, well, I don’t know what I want. I don’t want to plan.

Like I want, I want, I just want stuff on hand. So that’s really cool.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so again, what were your thoughts around the discussion we have with Amanda?

Jason Moreau
I mean, super impressed, um, just from the standpoint of the association’s only five years old and I think what they’ve been able to accomplish in that really short period of time is nothing short of remarkable in terms of getting multiple, uh, food produced, like one agreeing on language, creating the certifications, uh, then getting a third party, uh, you know, to adhere to those certifications and do the certificate, like do all the measurement responsible to verify that the certification is being met and then getting companies on board. I mean, the amount of work, I mean, I just very, very impressed is, is all I have to say. And I just think it’s, it’s really great.

Um, and my, my one other takeaway, my little tidbit was, uh, she, she’s essentially framed the association’s role as a dot connectors and megaphone. And I thought that was great and just a succinct way to really like, this is what we do and this is our role. And I thought that was a great way to describe it.

And also you should steal that with pride and make that like your LinkedIn byline or something.

Sheldon Young
I kind of do in a way I kind of have something very similar in the way I go about what I do. It’s like, I kind of bring people together to in, in, in this fragmented world of sustainability. I love hers exactly for the reason you said, it’s like her world in particular is one that is novel kind of still, right.

It’s still almost a wild West in terms of, it’s an exaggeration of term, but you know what I mean? Uh, a lot of opportunity exists. Let’s put it that way.

Right. She made it very clear. There’s a lot of opportunity and we haven’t cracked that code.

So connecting the dots between those that are winning and are solving the problems with those that are, that are challenging to, and still striving to, it shortens the life cycle of the whole thing. Exactly. Right.

And so it’s so important that us as, you know, in sustainability and we’ll call it professions work together and find ways to support each other. You know, you don’t have to give away the company secrets. It’s sustainability is everybody’s problem and we should be helping each other no matter what industry we’re in, no matter, you know, what situation we’re in, you know, we should all be helping each other move the needle.

And the fact that people like Amanda put in her organization, putting themselves in place to help facilitate that is so needed. And, you know, it’s very much like this, the dairy sustainability lines, I think I told you about earlier, same type of concept. It’s about, uh, I think they’ve, yeah, I think she mentioned it too.

Like they’re doing similar things in terms of elevating knowledge. Uh, you know, a lot of education, a lot of connection, a lot of addressing the top problems of, of, uh, of the industry. So I love it a lot.

Jason Moreau
I think it’s, it’s great. Well, and depending on where you are in the supply chain, you might not have a waste stream that you can convert into something that’s upcycled, but you might be able to purchase upcycled material as part of your, you know, intake, so to speak. So I think making those connections is really important.

And being that cheerleader and that megaphone that like, wherever you are there, there probably is a space for you to participate.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. And, uh, well, at the end of the day, my big takeaway for me is I blame marketing for everything.

Jason Moreau
Yeah. I feel like a lot of your takeaways from these episodes has been marketing is a problem.

Sheldon Young
Well, look, it is certainly marketing.

Jason Moreau
It’s hard not to start taking that personally.

Sheldon Young
That makes us want the perfect food, right? The perfect looking apple, the perfect looking this or that. If we didn’t have such a, such an influence in our brain, we’d be gladly picking up the weird looking tomato and be, Oh no, as long as it isn’t rotten, it’s good.

And it’s, you know, it’s got a little wonkiness to it, but it’s good. No, it’s gotta be perfectly wrapped. It’s gonna look like the one in the ad.

See, I think there’s a need for marketing to start to show imperfect things like, and, and, and, and to, uh, normalize say like, you know, food that, you know, doesn’t look bad, but you know, is it, you know, necessarily dressed up. You know what I mean? I got you.

Jason Moreau
I’m yeah. I’m here for it. I know.

Sheldon Young
I know it’s a terrible idea from a marketing perspective.

Jason Moreau
Never going to work, but no, I mean, I would, I would love to see, you know, the carrot that has like the extra, like the extra leg coming off of it. Extra. Yeah, exactly.

Sheldon Young
I’m here for it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But no, I, I don’t really blame marketing, but in a way I think we’ve taught ourselves, you know, that, you know, we have to look, you know, I admit I go to, when I go look at the lines or whatever, I’m like, I’m looking for the greenest one and I’m like, they probably all taste exactly the same. It’s just our brains are wired.

I don’t know. But I liked that. She talked about chocolate.

You know, I was like that fan, big fan of chocolate. Funny. I, I, you know, in a previous podcast life, I interviewed someone that did sustainable chocolate and he actually works for Alfa Laval.

Oh, very cool.

Amanda Oenbring
Yeah.

Sheldon Young
Steve Gilley works down in our, our organization, our, our manufacturing organization. Really, really interesting story. Um, you know, he had for a while there, he had a sustainable chocolate business and it was kind of cool and it was doing a lot with the farmers and in a kind of disadvantaged countries and, and supporting them through the journey.

It was kind of nice.

Jason Moreau
Oh, so he, he went like all the way to source and was like maintaining a sustainable supply line all the way through like production of absolutely.

Sheldon Young
Absolutely. Yeah. I don’t remember all the details, but, um, there was a, there was an intermediary, but it was a very specific one designed with the end user, uh, in my, I’m sorry, the, uh, farmer in mind, making sure that they got paid more than, you know, substantially more than what they would have been paid to, you know, typical channels.

And so, uh, really did tremendously, you know, life-changing for these families in terms of getting chocolate, right. Um, and growing chocolate, but yeah, it’s important stuff to know. And there’s a lot more behind the scenes and it all trickles down to, again, the producers and the, and the ones that are trying their best to, to, to provide food.

Um, you know, the better we are at, at, uh, conserving it, the better we are at understanding where it comes from, the more we can, uh, make it a sustainable in every sense of the word. Not just the, the, the climate wise. Right.

Yeah. But, um, okay. So, um, Jason, tell me what, okay.

I did have one question. One thing I’m going to ask certifications. Yeah.

Like we just talked about, you know, Amanda in the upcycle of food, where it’s organization has done the association has done the nice, uh, upcycled labeling that they, they give to product. Does it work in your opinion? I mean, I’m sure it does to some degree, but what makes it work better than say any sticker you see on some, okay.

I’ve seen some stuff. They they’ll throw, some companies will just throw a sticker on this is sustainable and they have no validation or anything like that. I’m like, is that doing anything?

Right. What does an organization need to do to make sure that the label comes with, I guess, power and credibility?

Jason Moreau
Well, first of all, let me just thank you for slamming marketers and then coming back and asking for a professional marketing opinion.

Sheldon Young
Um, little whiplash on that one, but it’s, you know, I, I, I only, I only slam with, with, with jest and love, but it makes for entertaining. I guess it does.

Jason Moreau
Yes. So I think, um, it’s a great question and I was sort of hinting at it when I was asking her about the, I think we believe it was the Kroger house brand, right? Cause I think, I, I think it’s a, you know, where, where does the, where does the cycle start?

And I, and I don’t think consumers start to care until consumers start to know what is this thing and you do a little bit of that initial legwork of education and differentiation in the sense of, you know, if you see upcycle food label, that means, oh, you know, at least 5% of these ingredients used to be, you know, used to be waste products. So we’ve saved it from becoming waste and it’s now like in all of the good that comes with it. And so I feel like that education piece is, is really critical.

Um, I’ll, I’ll just put myself out there and say like, I wasn’t familiar with upcycled as a concept or as a certification, um, really until we talked to Amanda and now I’ve started looking for it. So it really is just like that level of like awareness and knowledge. Um, but I would, I would love for Kroger and other stores to start highlighting it more.

So I think there’s an education piece, but I think at a certain level it needs to be prioritized so that it has the attention it deserves.

Sheldon Young
Yeah, absolutely. I think it, uh, yeah. How do you, how do you bring it to the forefront in a way that you have to, there’s so much noise, right?

And you have, you have to try to differentiate the message and do you pick and choose as to where you go for after first to gain, I guess, visibility and awareness of what the, the label means. And then, you know, people will start looking for it in other places, right? You know, uh, you know, it’s, uh, I’m curious as to what the journey is going to be in its growth and, you know, the foothold that it takes can be fun journey to watch, but well, I think the certification itself is again, only it’s pretty new.

Jason Moreau
And so I think now that it’s like all of those, like initial gates have been met. Now they can focus on the marketing piece, right? Which is that promotion and education.

So yeah, I’m really excited to see where it goes from here.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. Well, you heard it here. Maybe not first, but you know, we’re sharing it to our, our vast audience, Jason.

Jason Moreau
Yeah, exactly.

Sheldon Young
That’s what we’re doing. That’s right. Okay.

So last question I have for you is Amanda talked about her life homesteading, which is, you know, uh, commitment in terms of lifestyle. Are you in what would make you homestead and what would be, what would be necessary and required you to be able to take on that kind of, well, I feel like anything I would say at this point, it would pale in comparison to your like five garage cows that you’re planning.

Jason Moreau
This is true. Yeah. So with that caveat, um, I don’t know.

It’s a really challenging question. I, I, I feel like conceptually, I like the idea of being self-reliant, self-sufficient as much as possible from a practical standpoint. I, I, I’m going to have to acquire some new skills.

I don’t, I don’t, I don’t have any familiarity with like livestock. Um, but no, I, I think I would very much be interested in, in starting more of a garden as a first step. I like that idea.

Um, we’ve talked about that a lot over the years. My, but my big question then is like, what’s the right size garden for the amount of food that either me and my family can consume or can easily give away or donate. Because then I’m like, then it becomes a waste thing again.

Right. Like, and then back to your original thing of feeling guilty about wasting food, man, I’m going to feel really guilty if I put in all this effort and it just starts, you know, I’m not even feeding the squirrels and the chipmunks, right? Like it’s just not being used.

So I think that would be the first thing I would attempt, uh, to get right and get balanced. Everything else is pretty daunting for me to consider at this point. I think that’s fair.

Sheldon Young
I think that’s right. That’s not a bad, no, that’s not, I’m just curious about it. It’s like, I always wish I could be more off grid, um, in terms of, you know, impact and stuff like that.

And I take my little steps, but, uh, yeah, I, it’s, I, I commend her immensely for being able to, to do a more sustainable lifestyle like that. And so it’s impressive to have the skills and abilities, but all right. So final wrap up here.

Let’s, so where can you connect with a mandate organization that the, uh, they have an events calendar and upcycled food.org upcycled food.org. And you’ll be able to see where they are, where they’ll be attending, what they’re going to be talking about and all that fun stuff. A couple of things she mentioned food ingredients, Europe, I believe is one thing that’s coming up for them.

Uh, they also have a newsletter. And so, uh, make sure you subscribe to that so you can kind of learn about what’s going on and, and in the world of upcycled food. So all those things.

And so she was a great guest and I appreciate having her on. She was awesome.

Jason Moreau
And they have the memberships too. So, I mean, that’s right. Yeah.

Feel so compelled either as an individual or an organization should absolutely join and get more involved.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. I think it’s, it’s, uh, it’s something again, food waste is a big problem and, uh, finding ways to avoid it is, is a big step for the planet in terms of sustainability journey. So let’s, uh, let’s make it real.

And she likes to say, uh, uh, enjoy eating up is what she said at the end of the podcast. And I really appreciate that. So we’ll end the podcast today with Jason enjoy eating up.

You too, my friend. Thank you. Our guests come from many industries and companies, as we’re talking about how the world makes sustainability real.

Our company Alfa Laval is a global supplier of process solutions. So it’s very possible that the organizations our guests are with may use Alfa Laval or even our competitors’ products. But this does not mean that we, the hosts or Alfa Laval are endorsing any of the company’s guests or the specific ideas that we discuss.