Yes, animal. And, plant.
What the protein conversation can teach us about competition and personal choice.
I could feel the sweat dripping down my back as the sun inevitably burned my fair skin. I had a portable tripod in one hand, a phone in the other, and an oversized portable battery pack in a drawstring bag over one shoulder to keep all that tech running for a full day of live streaming. Believe it or not, this was one of my favorite days of the year 2020.
I first met Rick Clark in the fall of 2019 when I attended the Sustainable Agriculture Summit in Indianapolis. We shook hands, exchanged a few words, and went our separate ways. I didn’t realize that was just the first of many times our paths would cross: from more field days and conferences, to podcast interviews, to my summer internship, the man seemed to be everywhere that soil health conversations were found. I’ve learned a lot from Rick, and one of the biggest lessons comes from how he’s embracing the complexity of agriculture and food systems.
That hot August day, my internship-turned-part-time-gig led me and my boss, Mitchell, to run the virtual portion of a field day at Rick Clark’s farm. Partnering with local watershed groups, conservation organizations, and ag businesses, Rick brought together an array of people who care about different aspects of agriculture. Some of them were logical guests, like the watershed and conservation groups, but there was one that seemed a little counterintuitive; that one was PURIS, a company that touches every piece of the plant protein supply chain from seed genetics to packaged energy bars. Part of their vision is to increase consumption of plant protein.
“Why is that so strange?” you may ask. Well, a significant piece of Rick’s farming business includes raising and selling beef cattle, that is, animal protein. Yet, here he was, partnering with a plant protein company because both Rick and the people at PURIS realize the necessity of “yes, and” when it comes to protein sources. Rick raises beef cattle, but he also grows crops for PURIS products. From where I stand, it looks to me like there are three main lessons to be learned from the plant/animal protein conversation.
1) Healthy Competition = Higher Quality
Have you ever been the only person interviewing for a role, competing in a contest division, or trying out for an open position on a team? Chances are, when we lack competition, we don’t try as hard (unless we choose to still push ourselves, but it’s harder to manufacture competitive pressure). But when there’s more candidates than spots to fill? We push ourselves to be the best that we can be, because we’re not guaranteed that role unless we work for it. It makes all of us better. I see competition in food products the same way: if our only option is animal protein, we don’t have as much pressure to produce the highest quality products we can. That’s not to say that there’s no competition under the umbrella of animal protein; but, when there’s an external competitor like plant protein, it behooves animal protein producers to let that competition drive innovation for higher quality across the board. The same is true in the other direction, as plant protein manufacturers are driven to increase the quality of their products, too, to even gain shelf space in grocery stores. Many of Rick’s conversations with PURIS focused on how both could improve, in plant and animal realms.
2) Opportunities > Threats
This follows from the competition lesson: instead of seeing the competitor as a threat, we can see them as showing us opportunities for growth. Many consumers choose plant protein because they prioritize sustainability-which means different things to different people, and regardless of how we want to measure the validity of those opinions, they are what they are. Those of us who raise animals (myself included) can get really defensive, really fast, when we hear about plant protein. We feel threatened by the competitor and, afraid to lose our precious market share, we fight back. What if, instead, we looked at how we could satisfy the same consumer desire with our animal protein? Many groups are doing this — the United States Dairy Export Council is a great example — but we can all do better on an individual basis. For plant protein producers, one of the bigger struggles is to provide a product with excellent taste. Instead of seeing consumer taste preferences as a threat, many companies are investing more in research to increase the taste quality of their foods. Another way to think about this concept: instead of pointing out the bad in someone else’s way, share what’s good about your way.
3) Your Choice ≠ My Choice
At the end of the day (and this is similar to what we talked about a few weeks ago), you and I don’t have to make the same decision, even when presented with the same options and the same information. “Educating the consumer” by telling people they should have to buy what we produce can be disingenuous. Having a two-way (the two-way part is critical) conversation about what the options are and how they’re produced is a better strategy for both parties. You do you, I’ll do me, and as hard as it is to believe, we can still be friends. Or, in the case of Rick and PURIS, collaborators in business.
These concepts aren’t just about the protein conversation, either. They can apply just about anywhere we look: competing for a job, serving on a team with different people, or starting a business. Maybe it’s something as simple as a conversation about whose idea to use to win the next softball game or as complex as which public health policy to vote for on the next ballot. That day in August was long, hot, and tiring, but the lessons I learned were more than worth it. (And y’all know I never turn down a chance to go to a field day.) If we remember that healthy competition makes everyone better, that it helps to view differences as opportunities instead of threats, and that we don’t have to choose the same thing, we’ll find our conversations filled with more grace, our business decisions stronger, and our lives more balanced.
What are your thoughts on the plant/animal protein conversation? Have they changed after reading this? Let us know in the comments or on social media by tagging @miriamrosah and @nffaevp and using the hashtags #EmbracingComplexity and #FFA21.
Originally published at https://miriamrosah.substack.com.
