Wrapping up with Minnetonka Vantage

This week, a Minnetonka Vantage team made their final presentation to Holter Communications. In short, I was wowed, and learned much more from them than I expected. I can only hope that they gained some insight from me and my experience during the process. What I do know? We had a great time working together.

Climate change is a very real topic of conversation for teens, and in many ways has brought them to engagement in political and environmental arenas they’d not explored before. The impact is real and palatable to them, and I’m so glad they’re energized to learn more and hopefully make a difference. They chose the topic of meat substitutes as a way to reach their peers about climate change and the negative impact the traditional meat industry can have on the environment.

Did the team succeed in changing minds, provoking thought, sparking debate? You’ll have to read THEIR blog published on my website HERE. There, you’ll meet the team, hear about the project and the results. It’s terrific!

My wrap up comes in the form of how much I learned from these bright kids and the good time we had. I’ll admit, I entered with some bias because we are a red meat-eating family, BUT we buy our beef mostly from a farmer who raises his cattle entirely on grass on his small farm. It’s a completely sustainable and humane operation from raising to slaughter to processing. I’m also personally someone who needs to eat gluten-free, so eating a meat substitute with many ingredients has never been interesting to me.

But explore we did! They did a ton of research and then conducted an initial survey of their peers, seeking to learn what other teens knew about meat substitutes, vegetarian and vegan diets, and would they ever consider adopting meat-free “meat” options into their own diets. Everything was pitched through a lens of eating less meat is a small way to help stem the tide of climate change.

Then we cooked! These resourceful students secured donations from Agri Culture Restaurant (Impossible Burger) and Lakewinds Food Co-op (Beyond Meat), and purchased regular ground beef from a local grocer. We cooked it all up in batches, added taco seasoning and were pretty exacting in our process. We wanted this to be a fair and blind taste test.

Back at the Vantage center, their peers tasted! Three “meats” served on chips, tested for taste, appearance and texture and then a final category of “which one is real beef?”. Guess what?

Real beef came in at about HALF of the responses, and overall the “fake meat” as we jokingly called it was equally tasty and appealing among all the tasters. One young man, a proud meat eater and protein advocate, came back for many second tastes of one of the non-meat options and was not ashamed to say he’d had his mind changed. SUCCESS!

The team wrapped up with a very polished, professional and engaging presentation for me. Their enthusiasm about their work was as impressive as the work itself.

Can a teen adopt a meat substitute into their diet and change the climate? No. But can small changes impact water usage, methane production, animal welfare and more? Absolutely, when added to those of other teens, and combined with efforts across the environmental stewardship spectrum.

Me? I’ll keep buying grass fed beef from small family farms, and avoiding gluten, but I guarantee you I’ll be ordering an Impossible Burger next time I visit Agri Culture to do my small part.

As I’ve said before, I know we’re going to be ok as a society because I have seen the future and it’s these students and many more like them. Thanks, Vantage, for asking me to be a partner!