BON APPÉTIT IN DEMAND TO FORETELL THE FUTURE mine, or a supermarket, or an independent restaurant, they’re all going to have different distribution networks, different needs for packaging. For me, I’m not going to sell a product in a package. I’m going to sell a product on a plate, so I don’t really care what your package says, I don’t really care how pretty it is. But I want it to be big, and I want it to be easy to open. Very different than if you’re going to be on a grocery shelf.”
Chief Strategy and Brand Officer Maisie Ganzler (center) at EatingWell’s Future of Food Summit
CHIEF STRATEGY AND BRAND OFFICER Maisie Ganzler, in addition to writing a column for Forbes.com about sustainablefood news and trends, has become a sought-after speaker on the “Future of X” conferences being convened by thought leaders on various topics. This fall, in the space of a few short weeks, she was invited to speak at the Good Food Institute’s Future of Meat conference in San Francisco and at EatingWell’s Future of Food Summit in New York. The Good Food Institute’s conference was focused on cutting-edge plant-based and cell-based meat research. Maisie joined a panel with CEOs of three venture-funded alt-seafood companies (Ocean Hugger Foods, BlueNalu, and Shiok Meats) and the CEO of Oceankind, a nonprofit focused on researching moonshot-style seafoodsustainability projects. (Fun fact: Ocean Hugger Foods CEO David Benzaquen inspired Bon Appétit Management Company’s cage-free egg policy back in 2005,
when as a university student he asked now-District Manager Yvonne Matteson whether the company was concerned about humane treatment of laying hens, and Yvonne turned to Maisie!) As usual, Maisie offered pragmatic, practical insights from the point of view of a large buyer, in this case one that seeks out both sustainable seafood and alternative plant-based proteins. “It seems like everyone’s focused on ‘Develop a product, develop a product, develop a product...I’ve got a product, sell it!’ And there hasn’t been the focus on people developing real expertise in distribution, for example, which is the lynchpin to success in the food business,” Maisie told the panel and the audience of scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers. She advised them to start thinking about distribution and packaging from at least day two, and talking to the end purchaser — “be it a food service company like
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At the “Consumer Experience of the Future” panel at the Future of Food Summit co-hosted by EatingWell magazine and the International Food Information Council, Maisie shared a stage with EatingWell Editorin-Chief Jessie Price, GE Director of Industrial Design Chris Bissig, author Katherine Alford, and Mario Ferruzzi of the Plants for Human Health Institute. They debated whether the future included robots stirring the pots on our stoves; grocery store produce departments stocked straight from vertical farms on their roofs; and how concerns for sustainability, health, and social justice might reshape both fast-casual and high-end dining. Want to know the answers? Videos of both panels — and their entire conferences — are available via the conference websites. Submitted by Bonnie Powell, Director of Communications
Maisie (right) with two of her fellow Future of Meat speakers, Oceankind CEO Evan Rapoport and Ocean Hugger Foods CEO David Benzaquen (center)