GUEST POST: Minnetonka Vantage Team
As part of the Holter Communications project team at Minnetonka High School we were lucky to have the opportunity to work and learn from Jill. As Jill previously mentioned, we are fortunate to be a part of a unique hands on experience, called VANTAGE. VANTAGE is a program that offers off-campus classes focused on a certain area of study, such as global sustainability. Each semester, students get assigned teams to work with a company and gain real world experience. For our first project, we were tasked to work with increasing the exposure of plant based meat.
The diversity of this team has proven to bring helpful insight to the project. As we all chose to work on this project for different reasons, we utilized our differing perspectives and backgrounds to approach our lofty end goal. Below, we go into detail on why each of us were personally interested in this topic and the unique takeaways we had as a result of this project.
My name is Libby Andraschko, and I served as the project lead on the Holter Communications project. I was eager to be a part of this team because I wanted to further my knowledge on plant based meat. As a vegetarian, I am always looking for new protein sources and recipes to add to my repertoire. Being a part of this team allowed me to prepare and taste these products for the first time. I also enjoyed this experience I now have a much better understanding of the science behind these meat substitutes. I learned a lot about the environmental damage the meat industry inflicts and how much more sustainable it is to eat plant based.
My name is Brice Sutfin and I am a junior at Minnetonka High School. I am the communications director of our VANTAGE project team. When we were presented with different project opportunities, I felt especially passionate about this one because I grew up around livestock on a farm. I knew about meat production, but I was unaware of the environmental implications of this unsustainable practice. At the beginning of this project, I had my own thoughts on plant based meat. However after we conducted the research on these meat substitutes, my opinions of these products have completely transformed. What I once found awful, I now find fascinating.
Hello, this is William Schulenberg, and I directed the primary research process for the Holter Communications project. This included planning ways to collect our own data and then executing them. The team decided to gather the initial data using a survey. Quite honestly, it was difficult to decipher the responses as they were abundant in spelling errors, however, it did reveal a lot about people’s opinions of plant based meat. After that, we planned and conducted a taste test. This allowed us to gather direct opinions on these products. After stuffing multiple spoonfuls of the meat products into my mouth, I determined that I not only like plant based meat, but also think that it should become more prominent in restaurants and the general population’s diet.
My name is Sydney Anaya-Mullen, and I served as our secondary research director. My job was to use the internet and pre-existing information to better our understanding of meat substitutes. I was intrigued by this project because I grew up in a household where I was always told that “meat should be your primary source of protein”. According to my parents, failing to do so would result in poor health. Something I enjoyed during the process was weighing the costs and benefits of both real beef and its substitutes. I was inclined to share my findings with friends and family even when it resulted in debates at the dinner table. Even though I think my family will continue to eat meat, I can confidently say that I have expanded their mindset in the acceptance of meat substitutes and will continue to share my knowledge with the people around me.
I am Hang Song, the wireframe director of this project. This means I am responsible for oversight, coordination, and execution of the slide decks we present to Jill and other business professionals. I enjoyed the process of researching plant based meat products, because I learned a lot of new information. Prior to this experience, I hadn’t yet tried any of these products and didn’t have an interest in doing so. Now that I have gained exposure to these meat substitutes, I will certainly implement them into my diet to promote environmental sustainability and overall nutrition.
Our initial objective was to recommend ways to accelerate adoption of the meat substitute products Impossible Meat and Beyond Meat by high school students. As beef is the most environmentally damaging, we were all interested in finding ways to lessen the consumption of it. By promoting these sustainable substitutes, this would also promote water conservation, lack of dependence on greenhouse gasses, land conservation, and safe animal ethics. As Jill is an avid meat eater, we also took it upon ourselves to convince her to possibly add these products to her diet.
Once we had our roles and the end goal in mind, it was time for us to design our project procedure. Unlike the other VANTAGE company projects that were given detailed plans of execution, Jill assigned us an objective and allowed us to choose our approach. “I (Libby) very much enjoyed the flexibility of the project. It allowed us to practice our critical thinking and problem solving skills in a real world environment.”
It quickly became apparent to our group that we needed to gauge our peers’ initial knowledge levels on meat substitutes. This would allow us to customize our recommendations to be most effective. We sent out a survey to gather this background information and were not surprised when the results came back revealing that most people have not heard of Beyond or Impossible meat. Additionally, there were many misconceptions people held regarding meat substitutes; they said that meat substitutes have “insufficient protein/minerals”, are “only for vegetarians and vegans,” “take more work to prepare,” and “taste bad.” After hearing these perspectives, it was evident that a lack of exposure to these products lead to the minimal desire to eat them. To allow our peers to gain exposure to plant substitutes in an unbiased way, we designed a blind taste test. We thought that if the students were able to compare plant based meat to actual beef without considering their preconceived notions of the products they would then be able to realize the similarities between them.
There were many challenges that fostered as we planned the taste test. A challenge that was specifically difficult to overcome was obtaining Impossible Meat. In Minnesota Impossible Foods are only sold in restaurants, so we needed to find a way to get it through a retailer. Our initial plan was to call grocery stores on the east and west coasts and see if they would be able to ship us the product. “We quickly saw that stores didn’t react well to shipping products across the country. They often felt overwhelmed by the complexity of the task. This meant we had to obtain the Impossible Meat in another way” (Sydney).
Our backup plan was to find a restaurant that sells Impossible Meat and ask for a donation. We quickly stumbled upon Agra Culture, a restaurant with many diverse options designed to cater to the dietary needs of all of its customers (including those who exclusively eat plant based). “I was nervous to reach out because I had never sent an email requesting a donation before” (Libby). The owner, Aaron Swift, graciously donated 5 lbs of Impossible Meat to allow us to run our taste test. This prompted us to see if we could also find a source to donate Beyond Beef. We found success at Lakewinds Co-op who agreed to donate the product. The rest of the ingredients that we needed were purchased at Target. We found this to be a very fun aspect of the project; to actually leave class and go shopping “cause who would rather sit in class? Not me for sure” (William).
Once we collected all the necessary ingredients, it was time to execute. Thankfully, Jill let us cook in her kitchen and taught us many tips and tricks about food preparation. “I have never cooked this much meat before!” said Hang as he stirred 15 pounds of ground beef and meat substitutes. During this process, we found it difficult to find the right ratio of ingredients, but after much trial and error we decided that for every four lbs of meat/substitute to use a quarter cup of olive oil, 6 tablespoons of Old El Paso taco seasoning, and 1 tablespoon of salt. Even though we made sure to keep these ratios consistent between each protein type, the two meat substitutes ended up having contrasting tastes as they both are purchased pre-seasoned. This initially caused some panic because we wanted to control the cooking as much as possible and eliminate all unnecessary variables, but it actually gave the meat substitutes a unique and stronger taste that many enjoyed.
After we finished cooking, we brought the products to the VANTAGE building and set up our experiment. We had the students try a scoop of each sample on a tortilla chip. As they tried the products, they expressed their opinions on each “meat” in a google form. People ranked each product in taste, texture, and appearance on a scale from one to five and then guessed which product was the real beef. To our surprise, Impossible Meat beat both Beyond and real beef in every single category. Additionally, half of the people thought that the meat substitutes were the real beef thus revealing that there was no distinguishing taste between the plant based and real beef. These results confirmed our initial theory; most students were able to enjoy eating plant based meat after overcoming their stigmas around it.
After receiving the data, it became evident to us that the simple way to accelerate the adoption of meat substitutes is to simply increase exposure to them. “Once people were able to try plant based meat, they had trouble telling the difference. Some people got mad when they guessed wrong” (William). Additionally, our team decided that the advertising around plant based meat should be changed. “If we were able to end some of the misconceptions around the products, I believe that people would be much more inclined to try them”(Libby). We think it is critical to show that these products are not limited to vegetarians and vegans, but can be easily implemented by everyone.
Reaching global sustainability is a lofty goal. Society has been functioning for years with the same habits and patterns with no concern for environmental health. As time has passed, science indicates that we need to make immediate changes to preserve our planet. Often times, most people think that these changes are too difficult to make, however, through this project, we have learned that even changes as small as dietary ones can have major environmental impacts. So next time you reach for a burger, consider going plant based to do your part in saving our home.