Hello Jacob, this is a great piece. I have been doing commercial consulting work for many plant-based meat companies. I have noted that the industry has done relatively little to truly understand consumer motivations and preferences compared to what it has done in R&D. That people want to eat healthier food and reduce their animal protein is a valid premise. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that highly engineered food products may not be what they are looking for as options after all. Very few will succeed among those food tech start-ups if they do not start with the consumers... The solutions might actually be very low-tech.
Hello Jacob, this is a great piece. I have been doing commercial consulting work for many plant-based meat companies. I have noted that the industry has done relatively little to truly understand consumer motivations and preferences compared to what it has done in R&D. That people want to eat healthier food and reduce their animal protein is a valid premise. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that highly engineered food products may not be what they are looking for as options after all. Very few will succeed among those food tech start-ups if they do not start with the consumers... The solutions might actually be very low-tech.