The Sentience Institute Podcast - Christie Lagally of Rebellyous Foods on scaling up high-quality plant-based foods

Christie Lagally of Rebellyous Foods on scaling up high-quality plant-based foods

02/07/20 • 68 min

Since about 75% or so (and that’s just a rough estimate)... of plant-based products on the market today are actually made on off-the-shelf meat processing equipment, we’re looking to actually change that part of the industry by actually designing new production equipment that is appropriate for the production of plant-based meat... By creating new production methods and new equipment at Rebellyous, we can bring down the cost of plant-based meat, increase the quality, and increase the volume of our products to well beyond what it is currently, [just] 0.2% of the meat industry.
- Christie Lagally

Many advocates hope that conventional animal products will eventually be entirely replaced by animal-free foods. But what are the challenges in the way of achieving this goal? What role can entrepreneurs play in encouraging change?

Christie Lagally is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Rebellyous Foods, a company that is working to produce high-quality plant-based chicken nuggets in large quantities. She previously worked for 15 years in mechanical engineering and has also worked with the Good Food Institute and volunteered for the Humane Society of the United States.

Topics discussed in the episode:

Why and how Rebellyous Foods focuses on developing better tools for scaling the production of plant-based products (2:02)
The specific equipment types and processes that the plant-based food industry currently relies on that need to be replaced (7:34)
The uses and limitations of extruders (16:45)
Who designs, produces, and sells the equipment that is used in plant-based products (19:02)
The technical difficulties in producing plant-based chicken products compared to plant-based burgers (24:52)
Developing plant-based fish products (33:14)
Business to business vs. business to consumer strategies (36:43)
The importance of branding in marketing animal-free food tech products (41:00)
The use of engineering experience in developing plant-based foods (43:07)
The importance of mission alignment in working in animal-free food technology startups (50:23)
The transferability of experience in nonprofits to work in animal-free food technology companies (52:28)
Christie’s experience with political actions for animals and views on the interaction between animal advocacy nonprofits and the animal-free food technology movement (56:45)
The investment and support that Rebellyous Foods has received and the role of impact investment (1:04:48)

Resources discussed in the episode are available at https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/podcast

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Topics discussed in the episode:

Why and how Rebellyous Foods focuses on developing better tools for scaling the production of plant-based products (2:02)
The specific equipment types and processes that the plant-based food industry currently relies on that need to be replaced (7:34)
The uses and limitations of extruders (16:45)
Who designs, produces, and sells the equipment that is used in plant-based products (19:02)
The technical difficulties in producing plant-based chicken products compared to plant-based burgers (24:52)
Developing plant-based fish products (33:14)
Business to business vs. business to consumer strategies (36:43)
The importance of branding in marketing animal-free food tech products (41:00)
The use of engineering experience in developing plant-based foods (43:07)
The importance of mission alignment in working in animal-free food technology startups (50:23)
The transferability of experience in nonprofits to work in animal-free food technology companies (52:28)
Christie’s experience with political actions for animals and views on the interaction between animal advocacy nonprofits and the animal-free food technology movement (56:45)
The investment and support that Rebellyous Foods has received and the role of impact investment (1:04:48)

Resources discussed in the episode are available at https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/podcast

Support the show

Previous Episode

Kristof Dhont of University of Kent on intergroup contact research and research careers

More positive contact [with an outgroup] reduces prejudice. No matter how you measure it, no matter how you set up your study design, once there’s a positive contact situation, you lower prejudice towards the outgroup... These effects tend to be stronger among those higher on social dominance orientation and those higher on right-wing authoritarianism, which makes intergroup contact quite a good and efficient strategy to reduce prejudice among those who seem to be initially prejudiced towards outgroups.
- Kristof Dhont

Recent psychological research on intergroup contact and human-animal relations has implications for effective animal advocacy strategy. But what are the most action-relevant findings? And how can researchers maximize their positive impact for animals?

Kristof is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Kent. He founded and directs a research group focused on the “Study of Human Intergroup and Animal Relations at Kent.” He recently edited the book Why We Love and Exploit Animals and organises the Animal Advocacy Conference: Insights from the Social Sciences.

Topics discussed in the episode:

Kristof’s most action-relevant work for animal advocates and the audience of his work (1:29)
Finding the balance between academic rigor and making work accessible to advocates (6:15)
SHARKLab and the academic field of human-animal relations (13:28)
Connections between right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and animal exploitation (26:02)
“Vegetarianism threat,” its correlates, and its causes (41:12)
The pros and cons of advocacy focusing on children (55:38)
Research on human intergroup interactions and what this suggests about farmed animal advocacy (58:08)
The importance of intergroup contact (including between humans and animals) being experienced as positive, in order to improve attitudes towards outgroups (1:12:32)
The “secondary transfer effect” of intergroup contact, where reducing prejudice towards one outgroup also reduces prejudice towards other outgroups (1:14:52)
How research careers and training in academia compare to research careers in nonprofits and more independent skills development (1:18:05)
Advice on PhD applications and on research careers (1:31:16)
The interaction between researchers in the academic sphere and the “effective animal advocacy” sphere (1:47:55)

Resources discussed in the episode are available at https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/podcast
Support the show

Support the show

Next Episode

Lisa Feria of Stray Dog Capital on impact investing and animal-free food tech entrepreneurship

I think we forget sometimes because we look at Impossible, we look at Beyond, that they’re the tip of the spear, but there’s so much work and so much opportunity out there... We need to get to all the categories... Seafood in general is very, very underserved. And so getting access to amazing talented entrepreneurs who are going to focus on seafood... there’s a huge opportunity there, because that is such a level of high need. And there’s other categories like that, but I think... cheap, plant-based replacements specifically is an area of opportunity, and seafood is as well. There’s focus on burgers and hot dogs and products like that, especially in beef, and not enough focus yet on many of the other species that we need to get to.
- Lisa Feria

Investing in animal-free food technology startups offers opportunities to disrupt animal agriculture while making a profit. But is high counterfactual impact not irreconcilable with good returns on investment? And what kinds of entrepreneurs and companies seem most promising?

Lisa Feria is the CEO of Stray Dog Capital, a group that invests in high-tech plant-based food and cellular agriculture startups. She also helped to found GlassWall Syndicate, a group of investors who collaborate to support animal-free food technology startups.

Topics discussed in the episode:

How Stray Dog Capital evaluates which companies are likely to deliver good returns on investment and the skills that entrepreneurs need to succeed (2:25)
How companies can make high-quality projections and estimates about their chances of success and expected market share (19:45)
How Stray Dog Capital evaluates the impact of companies and how this affects their investments (24:35)
Why Beyond Meat was such a success story for its investors and why IPOs (initial public offerings) are the “gold standard” for maximising return on investment (30:55)
Why Stray Dog Capital focuses on early stage investments, how crowded the space of impact investing in animal-free food tech is, and the counterfactual impact of investments (33:35)
The trade-off between counterfactual impact and return on investment (55:05)
Why Lisa is optimistic about continued growth and opportunities for animal-free food technology (1:02:22)
How Stray Dog Capital collaborates with other investors through GlassWall Syndicate (1:05:48)
The markets and geographies that Stray Dog Capital is most interested in, and the importance of pre-existing demand for animal-free foods (1:07:54)
Broad vs. animal focus in terms of the impact and strategy of startups (1:12:10)
The expected impact (and challenges) of cellular agriculture / cultured meat companies compared to plant-based companies (1:16:27)
Projected timelines for when cellular agriculture products will become cost-competitive with conventional animal products, and how investors deal with this uncertainty (1:24:15)
Why more animal-free food tech entrepreneurs should focus on neglected product categories like seafood and chicken replacements (1:28:45)
Career preparation for working at impact investment groups and as entrepreneurs at animal-free food tech startups (1:36:58)

Resources discussed in the episode are available at https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/podcast

Support the show

The Sentience Institute Podcast - Christie Lagally of Rebellyous Foods on scaling up high-quality plant-based foods

Transcript

Jamie00:00:00.179

Welcome to the Sentience Institute podcast where we interview activists, entrepreneurs, and researchers about the most effective strategies to expand humanity's moral circle with a focus on expanding the circle to farmed animals.

Jamie00:00:20.679

I'm Jamie Harris, researcher Sentience Institute, and to animal advocacy careers. Welcome to our fifth episode of the podcast. I was excited to have Christie Lagally on the p