Mad About Food: Swedish American Sustainology

The Swedish American Chamber of Commerce of New York (SACCNY) hosts an annual conference highlighting green initiatives of Swedish and American businesses. The event held on November 7th at Citi brought together a diverse group of academics, business leaders, government officials, students and entrepreneurs with the aim of broadening business and social ties between the United States and Sweden through discussions focused around food. Scandinavians are well known and proud of their concern and connection to the environment and it seems fitting that they would coin a new phrase “Sustainology” to highlight the emergence of an ethos which has become a core value of the Swedish people. While the cynic in me finds the term “sustainable” too loaded with assumptions, often too selective about externalities and so overused that it lacks any inherent value, within the context of an “ology” the term regains relevance as it reflects an ontology that is active and no longer so rigid in its claims of material betterment. Swedes rank climate change as the most pressing issue facing the world today, above terrorism, crime and poverty. It is within this mindset that the concept of “Sustainology” becomes relevant.

The event MC, Nina Ekelund Executive Director of the Haga Initiative highlighted statistics of Sweden’s decoupled economic growth and carbon emissions. Sweden’s GDP has risen by 68 percent since 1990 and reduced carbon emissions by 25 percent in that same period. The decoupling of emissions and economic growth is also reflected in the corporate cultures of its top companies with 75 percent of those listed on the Stockholm stock exchange professing sustainability and decarbonization as part of their mandate.

The day’s only panel discussion “future food prophecies” addressed the coming trends in consumption from the perspective of big data, investment and innovation. Johan Jorgensen of Sweden Foodtech, made a case for Sweden as testbed for the future due to the cultural tendencies of its population and their willingness to adopt and try most anything. Danielle Gould of Food+Tech Connect predicted a food industry that was more decentralized and tailored to specific tastes of consumers (the end of “big food”). and Victor Friedberg of Seed2Growth predicted that food would become more nourishing and efficacious. All three panelists seemed to agree that blockchain would play an important role with regard to authenticity of product and that consumers would value knowing the source and inputs of ingredients of the food they consume. Victor Friedberg, a venture capitalist discussed a new approach to product design through a process he calls Foodshot. Using the analogy of a technology stack, his approach is to gather stakeholders to address a particular problem and then use the “integrated capital stack” to solve the problem by creating new products. By organizing around a problem and addressing it, FoodShot can transform an entire vertical by confronting a problem on multiple layers in consort.

I found this approach particularly exciting as it is extremely ambitious and helps me with the language and approach I have conceived for my own startup Electric Lobster. I have tried to solve for the problem of the use of petroleum products within the production and supply chain of the lobster industry. One of the challenges I’ve faced would be solved by having access to Friedberg’s “integrated capital stack” as it brings together stakeholders who may have a hard time organizing if it weren’t for coordination around a particular set of problems.

The remainder of the program consisted of presentations from companies innovating in various aspects of a product’s life cycle. Beginning with production, Absolute Vodka made a compelling presentation of their community based, single source philosophy of production. They highlighted the fact that over 90 percent of their employees take pride in their work and remain at the company for very long careers.

Tobias Peggs from Square Roots, a vertical farm start up that uses shipping containers to empower modern farmers to get to know their customers in urban environments, allowing the “know your farmer” concept to become relevant in the urban context where by 2050 over 70 percent of the world’s population will be.

Jeffrey Wojtowicz from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute briefed us on urban freight research projects and ways to reduce congestion in cities by setting up night time deliveries. In terms of packaging, Ecolean presented its line of environmentally friendly packaging for liquid substances.

Following production, distribution and packaging, we heard from a number of Swedish startups looking to improve global health outcomes through healthy choices of consumption. Bjorn Oste Founder and CEO of Good Idea beverage, shared with us data on how his product can reduce after meal sugar spikes particularly impactful to those suffering from diabetes or pre-diabetics.

In the waste reduction department, Baldor foods’ Thomas McQuillan outlined how in less than a year Baldor’s prepared foods division Fresh Cuts had achieved 100 percent usage of all its organic waste.

In partnership with Deloitte, the SACCNY presented its summit Green Award to Swedish startup Whywaste which uses data driven workflows and AI to assist grocery store owners in reducing waste. In their first year of operation, they have reduced more than 11 tons of food waste for their customers.

Celebrity Chef Marcus Samuelsson brought the formal portion of the summit to a conclusion with a cooking demonstration using rotten tomatoes to make a sauce and served it with cricket protein enhanced pasta. Samuelsson commented on the fluid nature of the term sustainability stating that being sustainable in Harlem is a different thing than in Sweden. For Samuelsson in Harlem the top priority is to provide opportunities for local young men and women, whereas in Sweden sustainability becomes about using buying power to change behavior and creating delicious vegetarian options to increase consumption through the power of taste. By focusing on flavors (umami sense of taste being key!), teaching people how to cook using all parts of produce/proteins as well as thinking about ways to reimagine the modern kitchen Samuelsson insists that the future of food can be both more delicious and sustainable.

It may be the lingering joy of the mouth watering cinnamon rolls stabilized by the “sugar killer” beverage Good Idea but the event ranks extremely high on the cohesiveness of message/programing and quality of speakers and interactions with the attendees. I certainly look forward to attending next year and in the meantime building bridges with the ambitious and thoughtful individuals I met.