The Future of Food Is Not Just Tech – It’s Habits and Emotions

As the world heads towards a population of 10 billion by 2050, the question of how we’ll feed everyone becomes more urgent. The food industry is currently facing a transformation as it struggles to manage growing demand while maintaining sustainability. The days of relying solely on traditional agriculture and meat production seem numbered, with innovators exploring smarter, more efficient ways to feed the world. But here’s the challenge: how do we continue to provide high-quality, affordable, and nutritious food without exhausting the planet’s resources?

This is where the future of food gets exciting… and complicated. From plant-based meats to lab-grown alternatives, the industry is venturing into uncharted territory to tackle issues like climate impact, resource inefficiency, and animal welfare. But changing what we eat isn’t just about technology; it’s about reshaping deep-rooted habits, tastes, and emotions tied to food – and the question looms, is that even possible?

In one of our latest episodes of The Forward Podcast, we spoke with Andre Menezes, co-founder of TiNDLE and former CEO, now a board member and advisor to Confetti Foods, and more. Andre’s entrepreneurial journey started at just 12 years old with a simple question: Is there a better way? This curiosity eventually led him from engineering to co-founding TiNDLE, a plant-based meat company that set a world record for “Seed and Series A” funding.

Having begun his career as an engineer in the meat industry, Andre’s perspective is unique. He didn’t initially set out to shake up or change the industry, but working within it opened his eyes to its inefficiencies (again asking, is there a better way??). As Andre puts it: “I didn’t start out wanting to end the meat industry. But working inside it, I realized just how much energy, time, and resources go into raising animals for food, and only a small fraction of that becomes meat.”

For Andre, the inefficiency wasn’t the only eye-opener. He explains, “Even as a meat lover, every time I’d visit a slaughterhouse, it would turn me off from eating meat. There’s a disconnect between the process and the product. When we’re far removed from how meat is produced, it’s craveable. But when we connect the dots, it’s not so appetizing.”

In this episode, we asked Andre what the future of food needs to embrace and leave behind to survive in a disruptive future. Here’s what he had to say:

Aziza: Now, you’ve described your career as a non-linear path. From a young age, you had an entrepreneurial spirit, and your background is really interesting. You’ve worked in the meat industry—on-site at slaughterhouses—and now you’re focused on shaping the future of food with a meat-free approach. Could you tell us more about that transition and those contrasting perspectives in your journey?

Andre: Sure. It’s interesting because, while it may seem like a huge contrast, it wasn’t about the contrast itself for me. It wasn’t like I set out to end the meat industry or anything like that.

When I was working in the meat industry as an engineer, I noticed just how inefficient the system was. Too much was going into raising animals to extract protein, which isn’t ideal because animals aren’t made to be food. Chickens, for example, are using energy, time, food, and water to generate heat, grow feathers, and jump around—and none of that is meat. So, we’re producing a lot of things we don’t need when we raise animals for meat.

Another big realization came from visiting slaughterhouses. As a meat lover, I often didn’t want to eat meat after those visits. There’s a natural disconnection between the process and the product, and when we’re confronted with how meat is produced, it’s not exactly craveable.

Finally, with the world’s population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, we need more protein, but the resources needed to grow animals won’t be sustainable. That’s what got me thinking about alternative ways to provide high-quality, affordable protein without overwhelming the planet.

Aziza: What key emerging trends are you watching for the future?

Andre: In the food space, it’s interesting to see how challenging it is to shift consumer habits. The idea of swapping a meat burger for a plant-based one should be an easy sell—it has no cholesterol, less saturated fat, and it’s better for the planet. Yet, people aren’t reducing meat consumption like they are with sugar or smoking. In fact, meat consumption is increasing in many places. So, one of the key learnings for me and the industry is that logic and rationality play a small role in food decisions. It’s more about emotions and habits. And as I look at consumer trends, there’s a growing push for less processed, more natural foods. Health perceptions are increasingly driving decisions, though “healthy” is subjective.

People are being educated about ingredients, and there’s a backlash against ultra-processed foods. But it’s fascinating because this only affects certain categories. For example, plant-based nuggets face scrutiny, but chicken nuggets somehow escape it.

I’m trying to cut through the noise to understand what truly drives these decisions, but it’s not easy. There’s no clear answer yet.

Aziza: Looking forward, what strategies do you think the food industry needs to bring forward to survive a disruptive future?

Andre: That’s a great question. The food industry went through a golden period between 2018 and 2022, with an influx of funding and innovation. We’ve never seen anything like it before. It allowed us to test many hypotheses quickly. But now the industry is back to its traditional roots—focused on organic, results-driven business. Moving forward, we’ll need to adapt to that reality while drawing from the experiments of the last few years. We’ll probably see slower innovation, but the trials that were funded will drive the agenda for the next 10 to 15 years.

The challenge is that the food industry has lost some of its sexiness. That impacts the amount of funding, talent, and attention we get. But the food industry is intimate and resilient. In uncertain times, it’s one of those industries that will keep going, with or without a lot of resources.

Aziza: Are there any fads or missteps you think the food industry needs to leave behind?

Andre: Yes, I’d focus on two key learnings. First, scaling a food business is not like scaling a tech business. The operational side can be scaled, but consumer adoption is a different story. Even if the barrier to switching food choices seems small, convincing a billion people to do it is a massive task. That’s something we haven’t cracked yet. Second, I hope the food industry can move away from overly conservative, marginal innovation. Some companies, like Liquid Death, are proving time and time again that bold, seemingly crazy ideas can work. No one would have believed water in a can would succeed, but it did. I hope the industry takes risks like that moving forward.