Klaus Mitchell, Founder and Co-Director of Plant Based News

Elysabeth: Who knows the news better than the founder and co-director of Plant Based News. I want to welcome Klaus Mitchell for the first time if you can believe it, to the Plantbased Business Hour.

So 2023, what are your predictions for 2023?

Klaus Mitchell: I think it’s going to be the continuation of the environmentalist angle taking off. I think organizations like Plant Based Treaty are going to be endorsed by more cities and more countries. I think general awareness around environmentalism is going to be there. I think society is going to become more plant-based but then gaslight us and be like, “Oh yeah of course we’re plant-based, what do you mean? We’ve already been plant-based with 75% this and that.” No you weren’t. This is a new thing because you had to move into this space. Don’t try and act like we’re the weirdos and this is a normal thing. You’ve been abnormal for not adopting it earlier because it’s a common sense thing.

So I think we’re going to see a little bit of mainstream gaslighting. It’s going to creep into the mainstream in a way where they will make it such that it won’t seem like a novelty. It won’t make big headlines, it will just kind of drip into cafeterias and messaging and things and it’s not going to be, “Oh my god the vegan this and the vegan that and plant-based.” It’s just going to tacitly weave into the messaging and the supply chain. Do you know what I mean by that?

Elysabeth: I totally know what you mean because I totally agree. It was going to be one of my predictions. It’s just going to happen. It’s not going to make big news. It’s just going to happen because it makes so much sense for the business bottom line. People want those carbon reductions so they’re going to take their university and their corporate cafeterias plant-based and they’re going to continue to offer plant-based options in restaurants and it’s just going to be food. It’s not going to be plant-based or vegan or meat, it’s just going to be consumer options.

Klaus Mitchell: Absolutely. Business to business disruption as well and to point to the messaging, right? I think one thing we’ve left out of this is with cell fermentation and precision fermentation, the meat industry is going to take it down on the basis that “Oh it’s new and it’s built in a lab.” But this technology has been around for years. 90% of milk is made using precision fermentation. It’s something that’s been around for years and we need to get that messaging out there. It’s not a new concept and it’s not a new technology.