Adrian Bota, co-founder and CEO of Ohio-based ORIGIN Milk, says he wants to bring “some much needed innovation and disruption to the dairy industry.”

“Let’s give people dairy products that are more nutrient dense. Let’s give them something that is helpful to the planet, and let’s do something good for the soil along the way,” he says.

Produce A2 milk

Better nutrition is one of the pillars that ORIGIN Milk is founded upon. The company promotes its milk as “A2 Heritage.” Their milk contains the health-promoting A2 protein, which is produced by heritage breeds of cows such as Guernsey, Jersey, Milking Shorthorn, Dutch-belted, and Brown Swiss.

Cow’s milk traditionally contains the A1 and A2 proteins. But according to Bota, breeding of Holsteins—the dominant breed of dairy cows—to produce increasing amounts of milk in industrial dairy production caused a genetic mutation that led the cows to produce only the A1 protein.

“The A1 milk protein is not natural for our digestion,” Bota says.

As a result of drinking conventional A1 milk from Holstein cows, 25% to 30% of Americans complain of difficulties digesting dairy, he says.

By contrast, ORIGIN Milk’s Guernsey and other heritage cows produce the A2 protein, which produces more nutritious milk.

“It has more protein, more calcium, omega-3s, and vitamin A and D than milk from Holstein cows,” Bota says.

Two papers from Purdue University and the University of Auckland suggested that people with lactose intolerance experience far fewer symptoms from drinking A2 milk than conventional milk.

ORIGIN’s milk also has a golden hue, the natural color of nutritious milk, not white.

ORIGIN’s A2 products include whole milk, 2% milk, chocolate milk, heavy cream, butter, cheese, ghee, and eggnog.

The products are sold at national natural food chains such Natural Grocers, Mom’s Organic Market, and Whole Foods Market as well as a range of other retail stores in 17 states.

“We try to take the 360-degree holistic look at the entire ecosystem in the dairy world—from soil to animals, to the crops, to the farmers, and to the consumers, and try to connect the dots in a unique way,” he says. “And for us, that converged in regenerative organic farming practices and heritage breeds of cows that are also genetically A2, and that’s what our focus has been.”

Fair pricing for farmers

ORIGIN works with 24 organic dairy farmers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Colorado who produce the company’s A2 milk. The farms use regenerative organic practices, and the heritage breed cows are raised on pasture.

Bota says there are another 38 farms on a waiting list to join the project. “If we really opened it up and recruited, we could add another 70 or 80 farms to that waiting list,” he says.

The farmers are paid a premium price for their milk. “Everyone talks about fair trade with Kenyan coffee or Brazilian sugar but very few people talk about fair trade or pricing fairness for American farmers,” Bota says.

ORIGIN pays its farmers a base of $40 per hundredweight for their milk. “If you’re a 100% grass-fed, certified organic, regenerative organic, and A2, your based price will be $40 per hundredweight, and increasingly we want to push that base to $41 or $42,” Bota says.

As a comparison, organic dairy farmers earn about $34 or $35 per hundredweight while conventional dairy farms earn about $24 per hundredweight.

Dairy Grazing Project

ORIGIN has a strong focus on regenerative organic agriculture with its emphasis on soil health.

“Soil health is incredibly important to us,” Bota says. “If we get healthy soil, we’re going to get nutrient dense grasses. Those grasses are going to be eaten by our cows, and they’re going to produce a superior quality, great tasting milk.”

ORIGIN is a partner in a $1 million initiative to create the nation’s first regenerative organic dairy supply chain, the Dairy Grazing Project, which aims to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay watershed. With a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Pasa Sustainable Agriculture hopes to transition 10,000 acres to grass-based dairy in southeastern Pennsylvania. This includes 6,000 acres of cropland to managed grazing systems and 4,000 acres of cropland to perennial hay.

ORIGIN will provide the market for the farmers’ regenerative organic grass-fed milk, giving them five-year contracts and paying them $40 per hundredweight for their milk. The Rodale Institute will provide consulting to help farmers make the transition to regenerative organic, and Mad Agriculture will provide a third-party assessment of the project.

The Dairy Grazing Project aims to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay by reducing annual runoff by 400,000 pounds of nitrogen, 9,000 pounds of phosphorus and 23 million pounds of sediment.

“We want to preserve that water resource by getting farms that are organic to switch to regenerative organic and farms that are conventional to go all the way through the organic and regenerative organic certification process, and thereby have a more positive impact on sustainability,” Bota says.

© Copyright The Organic & Non-GMO Report, November/December 2022

Read the original article here.

What: Nest Cafe at Nurture

Where: 2949 Federal Boulevard

When: Open Monday and Tuesday from 7:45 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Friday from 7:45 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Happy hour is Wednesday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m.

The place:

Housed in what used to be an elementary school, Nurture: A Wellness Marketplace is a maze of fitness studios, holistic health businesses, salons, physical therapy areas, masseuse rooms and even tarot reading services. But before you find any of these niche offerings, the space opens up on the ground level with a stunning cafe that’s at once cozy but not confining, and stylish with a comfortable flair.

Nest Cafe launched in May 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, and despite the year-plus of being in this space, it exudes a feeling of newness mixed with the laidback attitude of a tried-and-true coffee shop. I soaked in these vibes on a recent visit around lunchtime, when the bright cafe was filled with people working, chatting and, of course, eating and drinking.

While all those other services at Nurture may be great, I went for the food, which is mostly plant-based. For starters, there’s a great juice program, with organic, cold-pressed juices that come in flavors such as watermelon-lime-jalapeño-cilantro (aka jasper) and lavender-raw honey-lemon-ginger with activated charcoal (aka onyx). Get them solo or sign up to do one of the multi-day body cleanses that the cafe offers. There’s also an iced mushroom coffee that shouldn’t be missed: It tastes nothing like fungi and instead is akin to a liquid dessert that’s actually good for you; as a bonus, it can be made with oat milk or ORIGIN A2 whole milk. Order these drinks and any of the food to stay or to go at the long black-and-white-tiled counter.

If you decide to dine in and, say, partake in a spicy veggie burger with roasted tomato-garlic aioli and fresh greens, or a slice of gluten-free caramel apple cake, simply tell the staff you’re staying and they’ll bring the food out to your table. While waiting, enjoy the dozens of large houseplants thoughtfully placed around the space, giving it a lush, homey feel. That is, if your home was neat as a pin, with velvet-textured chairs, a lot of sunlight, and an army of sexy plants that not only make the air feel fresher, but offer a sense of privacy in certain spots.

What you’re eating:

It may be surprising to find yourself pining for most of the things you see on the menu. After all, this food is supposed to be healthy and vegetable-heavy. Yet, co-founder Kelly Campbell and Nurture culinary director Elizabeth Woodard have conceptualized a menu of craveable dishes.

On another visit, I found myself swooning over a fancy piece of toast — in this case, a tartine, topped with monk fruit-cured salmon, housemade labneh, capers and a bit of fresh onion. The key to this dish was the thick slice of sourdough baked by Reunion Bread that held all the other good stuff and gave the tartine the perfect amount of tang and chew.

While the menu at Nest features fresh greens and plant-based foods, there are animal proteins, too. The chicken masala dosa hit the right notes, with tangy pickled onions and tomato chutney cutting the richness of the meat. The thin and crispy dosa that wrapped around the chicken recalled the classic Indian dish, something I sampled many times while traveling in India.

There are numerous other options here, from salads to pastas to rich bone broth. All of the baked goods are gluten-free, vegan, contain no refined sugar, and are totally worth trying. Pair any bite with a no-ABV cocktail or a boozy drink, coffee beverages, one of those juices or a smoothie. And if you’re taking food to go, grab a container of the vegan cashew ranch dressing. It’s addictively good on anything, including salad, fries, bread and crudité.

Read the original article here.

Rocking W Farmer’s Cheese 

Farmer’s cheese is simple stuff, made by pressing curds together, but the version from Rocking W Cheese in Olathe (rockingwcheese.com) has a great, mild, tangy taste and is made to melt on toast.

Origin A2 Jack Cheese 

Colorado’s Origin Jack cheese (originmilk.com) is made from Guernesy A2 milk with more of vitamins D, A and K, plus more calcium, protein and omega-3 than regular milk. Origin partners with Longmont’s Haystack Mountain Creamery to make Rocky Mountain Soft Ripened and Camembert cheeses, as well as A2 Jack, one of the creamiest, richest tasting Monterrey Jack-style cheeses I’ve ever sampled.

MouCo Fresh Cheese Curds

You don’t know cheese until you’ve squeaked some fresh curds. Once a rare treat in Colorado, fresh cheese curds are now sold by the bag at MouCo Cheese (mouco.com) stores in Fort Collins and Greeley.

Smashing Cukes big hit in Boulder

Because of a wetter-than-usual spring, gardens and farms are delivering a wave of cucumbers. Besides pickling cukes, try this taste-packed simple salad from Edwin Zoe, owner and chef of Zoe Ma Ma, Chimera Ramen and Pho Mi. The recipe is from 2020’s benefit cookbook, A Bite of Boulder, edited by Jessica Benjamin of First Bite: Boulder County Restaurant Week (Oct. 8-17). More than 40 recipes from Boulder eateries plus other features on local food fill the book, with 50% of proceeds going back to the eateries. Information: firstbiteboulder.com

Chimera’s Smashed Cucumber

• 2 small Korean or Persian cucumbers
• 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
• Dash of toasted sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon of chili oil
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon of minced dried shrimp (available at most Asian grocery stores)
• Green onions, finely sliced

Cross cut two small Korean or Persian cucumbers in half, then quarter cut lengthwise so that each slice is about 2 to 3 inches long. Cover with plastic wrap on a cutting board and then smash cucumbers with the flat of a knife, a mallet or your hand. Not too hard, just a few whacks. This creates more surface area for dressing.

Place the cucumbers in a mixing bowl. Add rice vinegar, dash of toasted sesame oil, chili oil and salt, to taste. Sprinkle finely minced dried shrimp over the top. Place in a dish and garnish with finely sliced green onions. Serves two.

What’s made here? 50% of it is disposable

According to Tim Broderick, senior sustainability strategist at Boulder County’s Office of Sustainability, Climate Action & Resilience, “…46% of all manufacturing in Boulder County (is) attributed to the food and beverage industry.” Boulder County is supporting the design of reusable, recycled, recyclable, bio-based and compostable food and drink packaging.

Celebrating Colorado culinary milestones

Along with Boulder’s Flagstaff House, Glendale’s Bull & Bush pub is celebrating 50 years in business, while Pueblo’s Gagliano’s Italian Market & Deli celebrates its 100th birthday this year. Meanwhile, Kim Moyle has been named executive chef at Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel. It’s notable because she is the first woman to hold the position in the more than 100-year history of Denver’s stolid Palace Arms restaurant.

Read the original article here.

It all started with a partnership between ORIGIN Milk, a regenerative dairy brand producing high-quality milk from the heritage cattle breed Guernsey, and Mad Agriculture, an organization based in Boulder, Colorado, (a state where cows are the No. 1 agricultural commodity) that helps farmers implement and finance regenerative principles on their farms. They connected with the DeGroots in Kersey, Colorado, a family who previously had 1,100 black-and-white Holsteins.

A Needed Shift

The dairy industry itself is a tough business, which made working with ORIGIN appealing to the DeGroots.

“The dairy system … has a very dirty legacy,” says Adrian Bota, founder of ORIGIN . “With things like controls on farmers and pricing always below the cost of production, it’s become an unsustainable system for many dairy farmers.”

So, in 2020, the DeGroots sold all of their Holsteins, replacing the giant herd with only 14 Guernsey cows. It was a major transition for the farm, which previously had been surrounded by 150 acres of wasteland, filled with invasive weeds and degraded soil.

ORIGIN’s goal is to restore the relationship between the farmer and the animal, which means restoring the opportunity for cows to be outside and eat a healthy, diverse diet — which in turn helps to repair the land. This process doesn’t happen overnight, however.

“The first time we went out [to the DeGroot farm] to get cows out on the pasture, it was such a big change from being in a pen to being in a pasture outside, everyone locked arms around the cows so they didn’t run away,” says Tanner Starbard, director of operations at Mad Agriculture.

One reason the transition was possible is because the DeGroots were very open to doing things differently. They bought into this idea of a paradigm shift in dairy, says Bota. “They were very open to doing things differently,” he explains.

Bota knows about doing things differently himself. Having founded ORIGIN in 2015, it was never only about producing milk, but becoming a differentiated nutrition platform, he says. They’ve worked to develop networks around the country with farmers raising Guernsey cows (the last true heritage breed in production, with only about 14,000 in the country). Their goal is to connect the consumer to the farms as closely as possible, working with producers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Colorado, and soon with those in Texas, North Carolina and Washington.

Why Guernseys Are Superior

At a commercial dairy, Bota says, the cows have been bred to produce 8 to 10 gallons of milk per day. “Guernsey cows, on the other hand, only produce about 3 gallons of milk per day. Yes, that makes the milk more expensive — but also much more nutritionally dense. “It’s known as the highest-quality milk of any breed in the world,” Bota says. Guernsey milk also has a golden hue, due to an abundance of nutrients like beta carotene, vitamins and healthy fat. ORIGIN pays farmers 50-100% more for their milk, as well.

By having a herd of fewer cows that are able to graze freely, eat better grass, and in turn improve the soil and the biodiversity of the ecosystem itself, farmers like the DeGroots are able to produce less but ultimately make more. While 14 cows were a starting point for the DeGroot family to shift to a pasture-led farm, they’ll continue to grow their herd with this sustainable and regenerative model. Once they reach 170-180 cows, they’ll be more profitable than they were with 1,110 cows, says Bota, and have lower input costs.

“You can tell when a farmer has reached that shift,” says Starbard. “They stop saying ‘I’m a cow farmer’ and start saying, ‘I’m a grass farmer’ or ‘I’m a soil farmer.’” That’s part of raising cattle on a pasture-led farm: recognizing where the true nutrition in the milk originates — the soil, he adds.

When you drink a glass of Guernsey milk or add a splash of Guernsey cream to your coffee, there’s no denying it has a different taste and mouthfeel than commercial dairy products. It’s all part of a slow process designed to help show consumers the real cost of our food, like high-quality, high-nutrition milk that comes from regenerative agriculture.

“This movement is about bringing life back into agriculture: life in the plant community, life in the soil, life adjacent to the farm, and life back in the communities so that farmers can thrive,” says Starbard. “It’s about appreciating all the things that make life so wonderful – on the farm and adjacent to it — restoring what’s sacred and special about eating food. That’s where nourishment comes from.”

Read the original article here.

Entrepreneur Adrian Bota is the co-founder and CEO of ORIGIN Milk. Adrian is committed to leading the shift away from“big dairy, ” which is reliant on legacy cows, to a regenerative, organic, always local model of “clean dairy.”

Adrian’s roots in farming go back to his father working on a farm in Romania. Adrian’s parents and four siblings escaped from Romania right before the fall of Communism, immigrating to the U.S. and arriving in Cleveland in 1991. While Adrian’s father imagined his children would seek careers in medicine or law, Adrian drew on his background in business and health to enter the farming industry.

Prior to launching ORIGIN, Adrian began his career in business and health, helping to define Pfizer Pharmaceuticals’ approach to the changing healthcare marketplace in the U.S. He also worked at Cleveland Clinic Innovations Group to manage new ventures in healthcare technology, genetics, and health and wellness.

Led by his passion for nutrition and innovation, coupled with searching for the best options in nutrition for his new child, Adrian embarked on the journey of utilizing his background in the pharma/biotech sector to rethink human nutrition from the ground up. In 2015, Adrian shifted from biotech and pharma to wholesome, nature-led nutrition. Adrian established ORIGIN, a trailblazing regenerative A2 Guernsey dairy brand. Adrian founded ORIGIN in Cleveland, Ohio, first partnering with small farmers in ORIGIN. He has since grown the operation, partnering with small, family-owned farms in Pennsylvania and Colorado. Adrian Bota’s deep expertise in product development and knowledge of emerging consumer demands has led ORIGIN to expand its portfolio into multiple verticals.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

Iwas born and raised in Communist Romania during the 1980s. I came in as the fourth of five kids and my parents were interested in providing a better life for their kids somewhere in the West, eventually hoping to make their way to America. However, Romania was completely closed, and there was no way out. In 1988 when my mom was pregnant with the fifth child, Anamaria, the Romanian government finally relented and allowed her to immigrate to the U.S. on a 30-day visitors visa on the condition that Anamaria be held back, as collateral, assuring my mom‘s return to Romania. After my mom arrived stateside, my father had a conversation with her letting her know that he’s going to bring the kids to her in America.

She nearly had a heart attack, knowing that he was bold enough to try to escape the country with five children. No one had ever done this in Romania’s history. Soon thereafter, and several weeks of us kids being kept in hiding in a small village, my father shows up and tells us all to put as many layers of clothing on as possible telling us we’re going to go on a hiking trip so no talking, sneezing, coughing or noise of any kind or else an avalanche would come. We crossed into Hungary that night and turned ourselves over to the authorities there. We were sent to a refugee camp, but before making our way there, my father snuck us away. On a very rainy fall Friday night, we showed up at the American Embassy in Budapest trying to explain our story to two Marines at the gate.

The gates eventually opened with American officials welcoming us into the embassy. They were somewhat expecting us to arrive as they informed my dad that they heard chatter over the wires of Romanian authorities trying to track down a large family who had potentially escaped. There we were. They couldn’t do much for us except help us to get to Austria — the free West where we could then eventually make our way to America to be reunited with our mother. The U.S. government helped make arrangements for us to be smuggled into Austria. Unfortunately, the first time around, we got caught and the entire family spent some time in an Hungarian prison. The two girls, Anca and Anamaria, got the cot and the boys were on the floor. We went back to refugee camps and had another unsuccessful attempt, which almost led to us getting captured for a second time. Finally, through an amazing set of circumstances and a complete side story of its own, we made it safely into Austria on November 14, 1989, Anamaria‘s first birthday and the beginning of the end for communism in Eastern Europe as the Berlin Wall was beginning to crumble. After almost two years in refugee camps (a whole other story) in Austria, we were finally reunited with our mom in America. There’s a bit more to my childhood backstory but that’s a pretty annotated summary.

Can you share with us the story of the “ah ha” moment that led to the creation of the food brand you are leading?

The aha moment for us as co-founders was when we understood two things: 1. that dairy is the basis for much of the nutrition in the world, but it is an absolutely broken system in dire need of a complete paradigm shift AND 2. that one breed, namely the Guernsey breed, produces dairy that is genetically the same as mothers milk, nutritionally superior to all other breeds, better tasting, more sustainable and inherently better for the planet. Understanding all of this was the “ah ha” moment that told us we needed to look at dairy in a completely different way. ORIGIN is really about elevating the role of the dairy farmer to farmer-physician, regenerative a2 dairy as food as medicine, and looking at a sustainable, living ecosystem. If done right, it can help heal the planet, human health, and bring back balance to all the interconnected systems. We have always been ethos-driven and it has been about the movement and the story as opposed to just starting a brand and selling some products.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

There are a lot of funny stories about taking this dude (me) whose background is in Pfizer pharmaceuticals, The Cleveland Clinic, Wall Street and corporate America and smashing this with dairy farmers from around the country. This dynamic translates into many many funny and cringe-worthy moments. Needless to say, mistakes still abound. One very interesting and absolutely cringe moment was when I was on a panel presenting ORIGIN to a large group of dairy farmers at a national dairy conference and I presented a two-minute video highlighting ORIGIN. The video featured an Amish farmer milking by hand and talking about going back to nature, not using chemicals, etc and the ENTIRE audience, several hundred farmers just shook their heads. Turns out that they were ALL conventional farmers and they just were not having it — they weren’t into discussions of regenerative practices, using tinctures instead of antibiotics, biodiversity of soil, heritage breeds, etc. During the Q&A follow-up, hands went up and one representative farmer said “Adrian, if what you are talking about is true and that is where dairy farming is going, then we are all going to be out of business!” When the organizers tallied the four days worth of feedback and comment cards for all of the presentations and break-outs, they told us that our panel discussion and presentation garnered the most comments — mostly negative ones. The organizers thanked us and gave us positive feedback and invited us back the following year.

What I’ve learned along the way is to absolutely value those around me, especially those people in the regenerative community, more than I value myself. Humans have infinite value in the eyes of their creator, and we often forget that or gloss over it. We tend to let our own pride shine and bring the spotlight on us when we would do so much better to learn from others and humbly be teachable at every level.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they start a food line? What can be done to avoid those errors?

Most common mistakes:

• Accepting the current paradigm and not pushing back against large producers, farmers, distributors, stores, buyers, all others up and down the chain
• Not fully starting with the end in mind, which is the customer and what she wants
• Overly branding and overly packaging in a way that seems like you’re trying to compensate for something like lack of true differentiation in quality or lack of a story
• Food startups can fall into the trap of just making minor tweaks here and there without truly being innovative and just having some marginal improvement on a previous product
• Not fully being engaged from the ground level, including with farmers to help build that living ecosystem and that network from the ground up.
• Being too far out in terms of ethos/change than the customer and not being close enough to where the consumer is currently. You want to help the consumer move along that continuum if they are perhaps not where you’d like them to be

To avoid these errors, start with the end in mind and keep the customer first and foremost, do something truly innovative and push the envelope, get your hands dirty on the ground understanding the entire ecosystem from the soil to the next step, learn about every little intricate detail of what is happening, push people into uncomfortable positions, and craft deals/relationships that push boundaries and are truly innovative

Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to produce. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

First, identify your idea/product’s true innovation, sustainable competitive advantage, or any other truly distinct features and then make sure you can build a differentiated platform off of this idea/product.

Make sure that two things are true: 1) that your idea/product is truly best-in-class and 2) that there is a captivating and compelling story behind it. True brands don’t simply sell products but rather a story or perhaps an “image” in certain categories. Focus on storytelling, speaking to or leading a movement, and engaging people (not just customers) with your story/message and sales will come. Whatever product you are considering, look at it upside down, left and right in every direction and every angle possible and ask questions that no one else is asking. Then, get on the ground and meet everyone involved in the production of that product. Reverse engineer it to every single tiny ingredient or every ancillary thing and understand it intimately. Go back in history and understand how perhaps something like this was done completely differently in the past. Ask all the questions around why things are being done in the way that they are in this category today and challenge every single assumption. Get ready to hear a bunch of “NOs” and “that can’t be done… it’s never been done”. I guarantee you, other than some very very small exceptions, 99% of the time when someone tells you that can’t be done or it hasn’t been done before or it’s impossible, it is absolutely doable and likely worthwhile.

Perhaps most importantly, consider the following two things: is your product of superior quality and markedly better than anything else available? And two, is your product backed by a unique and captivating story? These are the two main components as far as I’m concerned. Now the only thing left to do is to get that message out to consumers, and you have a sustainable business with truly sustainable competitive advantages.

Many people have good ideas all the time. But some people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How would you encourage someone to overcome this hurdle?

Are you struggling to take a good idea into an actual business because you have a full-time job and cannot commit the adequate amount of time? Are you struggling because you don’t know what initial steps to take or because you don’t have the money? Are you struggling with taking your idea and turning it into an actual business because they are artisans, scientists, etc. and simply don’t know the basics principles of business?

What I can say is that regardless of the hurdles or barriers, tenacity and grit are key to starting and growing a business. Just having the stomach to bear risk and the unknown is such a large part of the startup world.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

I would advise entrepreneurs to delay hiring consultants for as long as possible. Do everything you possibly can, especially early on, to work within your network and to use your position as a new entrepreneur just trying to figure things out (and therefore getting a lot of free insight/consulting/help) as that is a good asset early on. If you’ve got something technical that requires consultants, go for it without hesitation.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

In my mind that all depends on your ultimate goals for your business, goals for yourself AND the type of product/product category. If you have a very long-term goal of starting, growing, and managing a business for the long term, then bootstrap for as long as you can or bootstrap it all the way. Conversely, if you are more of a risk taker, but not necessarily a manager, and you don’t see yourself at the helm of this venture for 10, 20, or 30 years, then bringing in venture-capital early on to grow it quickly and get it to scale is probably a better option than bootstrapping. Again, it depends on the type of business and the goals you have for the business as well as your personal goals and future plans.

Can you share thoughts from your experience about how to file a patent, how to source good raw ingredients, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer or distributor?

If you’re going to file a patent, then absolutely make sure you hire an attorney. I’ve learned on many different occasions that even very simple legal review work for a contract or anything that requires a signature, it’s a good idea to have an attorney look at it first. The best advice I can give anyone about raw ingredients is get to know the producers intimately. Try to create your own ingredients platform if at all possible. Do not settle for simply sourcing raw ingredients, but rather look at the people who produce those raw ingredients as your true partners and know them, partner with them, fund them, help them in any way you can. As your true partners continue to ask the question “how can I make things markedly better for these partners than what is currently accepted in the market?“ When it comes to distributors and retailers, if you have a product that is superior in quality and is backed by a captivating and engaging story, distributors and retailers will be easy to lock down. Pick up the phone and share your story directly in a passionate and captivating way and people will listen.

Here is the main question of our discussion. What are your “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. A superior-quality, differentiated product. This is food we are talking about so quality and taste are paramount. We looked to take a deep dive into dairy to understand that different breeds produce different levels of quality of milk. We found the breed that produces the highest quality milk (defined officially by components such as fat, protein, vitamins, etc.) and had the “innovative” idea of separating those cows from all others and focusing on superior quality dairy products, sourced from the premium heritage breed. Make it first and foremost about quality and building a name around superior-quality, just like some of the premiere food names or certifications that often come to mind i.e. Certified Black Angus Steaks, wild-caught Salmon, etc.
2. A uniquely compelling and captivating story. Many companies have a superior quality product. Many companies have a really cool story. Few companies or products get to have both. In today’s world, having a great story behind your food brand really connects with foodie culture and is essential to your launch and to building lasting success. People want to know the origin story or the backstory of what they are eating. For us, it’s the famed Guernsey cow which was found on the legendary and mysterious Isle of Guernsey in English Channel between France and England. In 962, a group of monks decided to build a monastery, and they kept to themselves until the 1800s. Word spread throughout the 1800s of the golden “milk of the gods”, the golden-hued milk of the Isle of Guernsey. Like so many other things that are now ubiquitous, the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts had to have this milk for themselves so they brought in cows from the island and started a vanity herd of Guernsey cows in upstate New York and that’s how Guernseys made it to the U.S.
3. More than just a product or a brand but rather a movement-driven, differentiated platform. It’s just so much better, easier, happier over the long term (not at first) to build your company around a movement — to really be ethos driven and to connect on that level with consumers. Build a platform that can be the basis for multiple products in different categories. A good example might be CAULIPOWER where they are using cauliflower as the base for pizza, rice and a myriad of other products. They created a platform and built multiple verticals off of that platform to cater to different demographics and sub-categories, all built on one foundation. Many of these companies have built a platform and can then produce different products in different categories based on that platform. This helps make a larger impact, build brand equity with multiple categories and customer demographics, and gives you more messaging power.
4. A strong stomach for risk and persistence when hearing the words “NO” and “THAT CAN’T BE DONE, IT’S NEVER BEEN DONE” over and over again.
5. Dedicated partners throughout the ecosystem who are as ethos driven and passionate as you. You can do it alone, and you don’t want to. Build community and true partnerships with others and you can do infinitely more than you first thought.

Can you share your ideas about how to create a product that people really love and are ‘crazy about’?

I think it comes back to the following:

• Have a captivating and compelling story. Dig deep around your products’ origin story or the way it’s farmed, produced or processed; its unique characteristics, features, affect on people/cultures or affect on the environment. People love stories, and they especially love the back stories to the food they eat and feed their families.
• Make sure you are movement and ethos-driven: does your product make people want to eat it or use it because it means more to them than just your product? Does it inspire them or allow them to truly feel like they are doing something impactful and are part of a movement?
• Focus on quality and ask the question “Is the product noticeably better/higher quality than anything else?” Quality parameters will vary based on category so really dig deep to understand this
• Become a consumer education expert. If you’re doing something unique and superior, you will likely have to educate consumers and done the right way, this can be an awesome opportunity to turn a hurdle into a platform for engaging with customers
• Turn your customers into evangelists because they are crazy about the quality, captivated by the story, empowered by the education and thrilled to be part of a movement that is making a difference, and not just a customer.
• We are talking about food so make sure that it tastes REALLY great and discernibly better than your competition.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

We have been focused on doing good first and foremost from day one. The mere fact that we only utilize A2 Guernsey nutrition means that we are making the food we eat every day — from milk to butter and cheese and all the way to nutritional products for children and adults. The products are more nutrient dense and rich than any other dairy-based food or nutrition products. Inherent to using heritage a2 Guernsey Cow Association is the fact that we are bringing much-needed biodiversity back to dairy given that 96–98% of all dairy in America comes from modified, black and white Holstein cows that have essentially been turned into unnatural milk factories. Heritage breeds are also inherently more sustainable and better for our planet as Guernsey cows drink and eat 20–30% less food and water, compared with production Holstein breeds. This helps conserve precious resources, such as water, and puts fewer methane emissions into the atmosphere.

From our founding, one of our core principles was to pay close attention to our farmer physicians as we truly see our products as food is medicine and so much more than just dairy. Therefore, we honor our partner farmers by paying between 50% and 100% more for their milk. We look at our work as being regenerative all around: we want to regenerate the soil, we want to regenerate biodiversity, we want to regenerate nutrition, and we want to regenerate the financial outcomes of farmers and elevate each one of these components of the living ecosystem that we touch. Done well, wisely and correctly in balance, we make the world a better place.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

This might sound self-serving but I absolutely believe that addressing the general problem of NUTRITION — with its two main drivers of malnutrition for those who do not have access to food and malnutrition/poor nutrition choices for those who have abundant access to food — would change the world. Think about it: developing nations have the problem of a lack of food or nutrient-poor foods, a lack of bio and nutrient diversity and people subsist on very little. This causes hunger and myriad healthcare problems, stunted growth, and ultimately death for many around the world.

On the flip side, in the developed world, you have a nutrition problem that’s at the opposite side of the spectrum with unlimited access to all kinds of food and still people making poor food decisions/eating horribly. This is absolutely at the core of poor health outcomes, the leading factor in healthcare costs, disease, and, ultimately, death. The common denominator? Nutrition — the right nutrition getting to the right people in the right proportions.

Doing nutrition right will help both developing and developed countries, eliminate waste, reduce pollution, decrease healthcare costs, decrease deforestation, boost rural communities, reallocate resources, and so much more.

If you solve the nutrition problem of developed countries, then you allow people to move beyond daily food-seeking activities and into education, jobs, and opportunities to flourish. If you solve the nutrition problems of the developed world you greatly reduce waste and pollution, decrease healthcare costs tremendously, decrease deforestation and the myriad ecological issues caused by aggressive, factory-style over farming, boost rural communities and reallocate resources.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

The guys from the All In podcast — Jason Calacanis, Chamath Palihapitiya, David Sacks and David Friedberg. These guys are bright, they have solid startup and VC/investing chops, care deeply about founders, and they have a very pragmatic and realistic approach to problem solving for policy, society, education, etc. Lunch with them would be very interesting, educational, fun and just overall engaging.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

About The Interviewer: Vicky Colas, Chef Vicky, is an award-winning chef in the Caribbean food arena. In 2012, Chef Vicky was awarded a silver medal for Caribbean Chef of The Year at the Taste of the Islands completion hosted by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association. She was called to represent her country and be a part of the Culinary Team Haiti as a Culinary Chef Ambassador competing with 10 other Caribbean nations. The team was also awarded a silver medal for the Caribbean Team of the Year and received an Award for “Best Team for Taste of the Islands”. A published nutrition researcher, her study was selected in 2013 in the International Journal of Child Nutrition. Her recipe and interview have been featured in Essence Magazine online, Island ORIGIN, and most recently the cookbook Toques in Black: A Celebration of 101 Black Chefs in America. In 2019, she was nominated in the “40 under 40” class of Legacy Magazine as one of South Florida’s “Black Leaders of Today and Tomorrow”.

Most recently, Chef Vicky was selected as one of twenty women candidates awarded for the 2019 James Beard Foundation Women Entrepreneurial Leadership (WEL) fellowship and is also part of a selective group of talented Chefs in the James Beard Foundation local food advocacy training programs. She is a wife, a proud mother of 3 boys, a business, and a food influencer in her community. Chef Vicky has been featured in her local news stations such as WSVN CH 7, Deco Drive, WPLG Local 10 News, 6 on the mix CH 6 and Good Morning Miramar.

Vicky is also a subject matter expert in the Hospitality, Culinary Arts, Restaurant Management, and Public Health (Dietetics and Nutrition) arena. She is a graduate of Florida International University (FIU) and Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.

Colorado Cow, a small dairy farm run by the DeGroot family in Kersey, Colorado, once housed 1,100 Holstein cows — a cow genetically bred to produce high quantities of milk, which studies have shown contain low nutritional density and high percentages of water. A year and a half ago the DeGroot’s reevaluated their operation and realized three things: Their cows weren’t happy, they weren’t making any money and their product wasn’t as good as they believed it could be.

Now the farm is home to 80 Guernsey cows, an endangered heritage breed shown to produce rich, golden, nutritional milk.

“We love our cows and wanted to make the best quality product we could,” says Terri DeGroot of Colorado Cow. “The dairy industry had become so big, and didn’t really care about the animals or the product. When we downsized, it was based on the idea that we could go back to what farming was supposed to be before it became so industrialized.”

The DeGroots saw their part in a faceless dairy industry and realized they wanted to do things differently. They have since partnered with ORIGIN, a regenerative dairy brand based in Cleveland, to reimagine a local, low-impact operation — a partnership that also extends to local farming sustainability organization MadAg. With all their goals aligned, it was an easy decision to make.

ORIGIN finds solutions to the questions of sustainability and quality in the dairy industry by working with small-scale, heritage-breed farms like Colorado Cow. Many small farms don’t transport their milk cross-country. Rather, they sell locally, providing a better environmental option, which puts money back into the local economy. Heritage breeds, like Guernseys, consume 20-30% less feed and water, according to ORIGIN cofounder Adrian Bota. This means less methane output and fewer resources used for the same amount of dairy.

“We started this organization because we saw a gaping hole in dairy nutrition and the connection between the farm and consumer,” he says. “We wanted to create a new standard in dairy that was sustainable for the planet, the farmers and the consumers.”

Colorado Cow’s Guernseys are 100% grass-fed, put out to pasture to graze every day and rotated on the land, allowing it to regenerate. The ratio of cows to acres of land allows the ground to effectively absorb their manure, sequestering certain amounts of carbon per acre.

“Good milk ultimately comes from the soil,” says MadAg’s director of operations, Tanner Starbard. “With smaller operations, cows spend more time in the pasture grazing and less time being milked. This means they’re out there recycling resources, cultivating a symbiosis just like what we saw with bison living on the grasslands. The animal eats, digests and returns those nutrients to the soil. Healthy soil makes healthy grass, which makes healthy cows who make good, nutrient-rich milk.”

Sustainable dairy farming does not replace big dairy but provides an ethical alternative, according to Tom Lipetzky, director of marketing programs and strategic initiatives at the Colorado Department of Agriculture.

“I wouldn’t necessarily view having a higher-priced product as negatively impacting other producers,” Lipetzky says. “They rather might be viewed as having identified a segment of consumers that value their story, how they operate, and the type of products they are willing to pay a higher price for.”

Colorado Cow’s market right now is relatively niche due to its high pricing, but what consumers are charged is akin to what the product actually costs to make.

“We’re trained to pay less for certain products,” Bota says. “It’s a broken system. The farmers in Big Dairy don’t get paid what they should, and the cows are continuously modified to produce more milk. We’re trying to get people used to paying the true cost of the product, which is why we pay our farmers nearly double the going rate in big dairy for their milk.”

This could, however, alienate a large percentage of the population who cannot afford to pay $7 for a gallon of milk. For now, Colorado Cow is the only ORIGIN partner in Colorado, but the DeGroots are hoping to offer a new perspective on what it means to be a dairy farmer making a living wage, and what it means to get your dairy products from local farms.

“We want to show people in the community that we can make dairy in a healthy way,” Terri DeGroot says. “It’s a scary time for farmers as we try to navigate new pathways in the industry that are beneficial to the animals, the environment and the consumer, but this way we get to be real farmers again and believe in the products we’re putting on the market.”

Read the original article here.

According to Chef Jason Morse, owner of 5280 Culinary, a food marketing and advocacy consultancy, the pandemic year was a good time to look for gaps in the market and think about ways to fill them.

He founded his company in 2010, after years of working in institutional food settings such as hotels and country clubs as well as restaurants. Among other things, he now serves as a national spokesperson for Ace Hardware. He also works with Colorado-based agricultural commodity groups.

He spent the past year cutting costs, fine-tuning and diversifying his business, he said during the webinar.

“Consumers wanted a digital experience, so we added the digital experience to the other activities we were already doing,” he said of his three-person staff.

Early on Morse saw a need to break down barriers between producers and consumers and get producers more familiar with tools that allow them to tell their stories.

“Producers do a great job, but they are constantly being scrutinized and beat up for doing what they do. I don’t blame them if they want to hide out in the pasture with their animals,” he said.

But while engaging is likely to bring a few negative comments, learning to deal with detractors is necessary to meet the rising consumer demand for information, he said.

“In the absence of a story, there’s scrutiny,” he said.

He gave an example of how to do this in a positive manner by using a specific commodity, San Luis Valley-grown potatoes. Consumers want to know how they are grown and stored, and who the people are behind the products.

“There’s a hunger for that,” he said. “Make it cool, make it fun, and that makes it easier to promote the product, build a brand and stay true to what that brand is.”

He also stressed being creative and adaptive, something the pandemic dictated for businesses large and small.

“When we couldn’t do a potato festival, we did a drive-up baked potato bar,” he said. “It was such a feel-good at the end of the day.”
Filling in the gaps

The pandemic provided an unexpected opportunity to identify gaps in the market and think about how to fill them, he said.

For example, consumer surveys show that Instacart shoppers generally trust the online grocery platform to pick out chicken and pork on their behalf, but not to pick out a cut of steak.

“That led us to thinking, how could we work with the beef industry to train grocers to pick out a great cut?” he said.

Since the convenience factor is increasingly important, having better trained sales associates coupled with better shopping tools offer “a huge win for everyone,” he said.

Elizabeth Moser has been looking to find and fill gaps too. Moser is the founder of LoCo Food Distributing, which represents 140 Colorado food brands that sell to wholesale buyers at grocery store chains and smaller independent outlets from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs.

One thing she focused on over the past year was making sure local products are just as accessible as national brands through online shopping portals.

“It’s been a steep learning curve, and as we learn, it seems to change,” she admitted. “Even our contacts at the grocery stores do not seem to be experts on it.”

An interesting thing they’ve discovered is that online ordering options often change by zip code.

“We’re working on making sure there are local options, not just when someone is in-store shopping, but making sure our products are available through third party options like Instacart as well,” she said. “I think that will be an ongoing concern.”

So far LoCo works mostly with processed items such as salsas and sauces, oils and condiments. But Moser said she’s interested in handling more perishables, specifically produce, dairy and meat.

Since these items have limited shelf life, sufficient volumes are key to making this segment work, she said.

“If you only get an order for one case here and maybe another there, it is hard to keep that product in your catalogue so it’s available when someone suddenly wants it,” she said.

Support from large chain grocers is critical to building up necessary volume, she added.

For example, Whole Foods Market now carries ORIGIN Heritage a2 Guernsey Milk. The milk is produced through a partnership with Colorado Cow in Kersey.

With Whole Foods carrying it in their stores, LoCo is able to offer the product to smaller independent outlets located on the same delivery routes.

Working with perishables also requires a precise and dependable system of fulfillment, she added.

“We have to have the logistics worked out with producers,” she said.

For a Friday order, it might be necessary to pick up the item the following Monday so it can be delivered that same week to insure freshness, she said.

LoCo provides resources to start-up businesses, including a decision tree they can use to plan and scale up wholesale distribution. Moser said it works best if entrepreneurs begin building demand for their product through product demos, farmers markets and individual wholesale relationships before contacting LoCo.

After an individual outgrows what they can do on their own, that’s the ideal time for LoCo to step in and take their product to a larger audience, including national chain stores, she said.

Morse has experience with that side of things too. He recently started his own line of low-sodium barbecue rubs, brines and sauces, which were initially offered in three stores but are now available in 3,000 Ace locations nationwide.

What he took away from the past year’s surge of online buying activity was the need to put more emphasis on high quality photos and making sure the online shopping experience was “totally dialed in.”

He hired an additional employee just to insure all online orders ship the same day.

“We include a hand-written card in every package that goes out,” he said. “And we add little things in there from time to time, an extra item to reward the customer. There are no price deductions — we don’t want to devalue what we do — but if you order a certain amount from us, we’ll throw in an extra item.”

“It’s about adding value versus reducing the value of our products,” he said.

Read the original article here.

According to Chef Jason Morse, owner of 5280 Culinary, a food marketing and advocacy consultancy, the year of the pandemic was a good time to look for gaps in the market and think about ways to fill them.

He started his company in 2010 after years of working in institutional restaurants such as hotels and country clubs, as well as restaurants. Among other things, he now acts as the national spokesperson for Ace Hardware. He also works with Colorado-based agricultural commodity groups.

He spent the past year cutting costs, optimizing and diversifying his business, he said during the webinar.

“Consumers wanted a digital experience, so we added the digital experience to the other activities we had already done,” he said of his three-person staff.

Early on, Morse saw the need to break down barriers between producers and consumers, and to familiarize producers with tools with which to tell their stories.

“The producers do a great job, but they are constantly being scanned and beaten up for doing what they do. I don’t blame them if they want to hide in the pasture with their animals, ”he said.

While engagement is likely to generate some negative comments, learning how to deal with critics is necessary in order to meet increasing consumer demand for information, he said.

“In the absence of a story, there is scrutiny,” he said.

He gave an example of how this can be achieved in a positive way by using a specific commodity, potatoes from the San Luis Valley. Consumers want to know how they are grown and stored and who the people behind the products are.

“There’s a hunger for it,” he said. “Make it cool, make it fun, and that makes it easier to promote the product, build a brand, and be true to who that brand is.”

He also stressed being creative and adaptable to what the pandemic dictated for businesses large and small.

“When we couldn’t do a potato festival, we have a baked potato bar,” he said. “It was such a good feeling at the end of the day.”
fill gaps

The pandemic provided an unexpected opportunity to identify gaps in the market and think about how to fill them, he said.

For example, consumer surveys show that Instacart shoppers generally trust the online food platform to select chicken and pork on their behalf, but not a piece of steak.

“That led us to think about how we could work with the beef industry to train grocers to pick a great cut.” he said.

As the convenience factor becomes more and more important, better trained salespeople combined with better purchasing tools offer “a huge win for everyone,” he said.

Elizabeth Moser has also tried to find and fill in the loopholes. Moser is the founder of LoCo Food Distributing, which represents 140 Colorado grocery brands that sell to wholesale buyers at grocery stores and smaller independent stores from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs.

One thing she focused on over the past year was making sure that local products are accessible through online shopping portals as well as national brands.

“It’s been a steep learning curve and as we learn that seems to be changing,” she admitted. “Even our contacts in the grocery stores don’t seem to be experts.”

One interesting thing they discovered is that online ordering options often change by zip code.

“We’re working to make sure that there are local options, not only when someone is shopping in-store, but that our products are also available through third-party options like Instacart,” she said. “I think that will be a constant concern.”

So far, LoCo has mainly worked with processed products such as salsas and sauces, oils and spices. But Moser said she was interested in processing more perishable goods, especially products, dairy products and meat.

Because these items have a limited shelf life, sufficient quantities are key for this segment to work, she said.

“When you’re only getting an order for one case here and maybe another there, it’s difficult to keep this product in your catalog so that it will be available if someone suddenly wants it,” she said.

Support from large grocers is critical in building the volume required, she added.

For example, the Whole Foods Market now stocks ORIGIN Heritage a2 Guernsey Milk. The milk is made in Kersey through a partnership with Colorado Cow.

With Whole Foods in stores, LoCo can offer the product to smaller independent outlets that are on the same delivery routes.

Working with perishable goods also requires an accurate and reliable fulfillment system, she added.

“We have to have the logistics worked out with the producers,” she said.

For a Friday order, it might be necessary to pick the item up the following Monday so it can be delivered the same week to ensure freshness, she said.

LoCo provides startups with resources including a decision tree to help plan and scale wholesale. Moser said it works best when entrepreneurs start building demand for their product through product demos, farmers markets, and individual wholesale relationships before contacting LoCo.

After a person has grown beyond what they can do by themselves, this is the ideal time for LoCo to introduce their product to a wider audience, including national chain stores, she said.

Morse has experience with this side of things too. He recently launched his own line of low-sodium barbecue rubs, brines, and sauces, originally sold in three stores and now available in 3,000 Ace locations across the country.

What he took away from the surge in online buying activity over the past year was the need to put more emphasis on high quality photos and ensure that the online shopping experience was “fully dialed”.

He hired an additional employee to ensure that all online orders are shipped on the same day.

“We add a handwritten card to every package that goes out,” he said. “And we add little things from time to time, an extra item, to reward the customer. There are no discounts – we don’t want to devalue what we do – but if you order a certain amount from us, we’ll throw in an extra item. “

“It’s about adding value rather than reducing the value of our products,” he said.

Read the original article here.

So what is A2 milk? A2 milk only contains the A2 protein, while conventional milk contains the A1 and the A2 proteins. A1 proteins are scientifically linked to digestion issues. Studies have shown that 60-80% of people with lactose intolerance symptoms and/or dairy allergies can enjoy A2 milk. (ORIGIN is actually net-positive in terms of carbon footprint).

Read the original article here, at page 133.

Read the original recipe here.

This sauce was invented in the 1970s in Glasgow, Scotland by a British Bangladeshi chef, Ali Ahmed Aslam, that wanted to please a local patron. It was a new thing to make a tangy yogurt tomato marinade which has become a hit throughout the world. An improvisation has changed the way that people view South Asian cooking.

Ingredients

Serves 2

Marinade

• 16 ounces of white button mushrooms quartered
• 4 ounces mixed mushrooms in comparable sizes as white button mushrooms
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of Kashmiri chili
• 1 teaspoon chaat masala
• 1/2 teaspoon of truffle zest
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of onion powder
• 1/2 cup of greek yogurt

Masala

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 8 0z of crushed tomatoes/plain tomato sauce
• pinch of mustard seeds
• pinch of cumin seeds
• 1 cup Origin whole milk
• 1 medium onion diced

Cooking instructions:

1. Clean and cut the mushrooms. Try to dry as much as possible. In a mixing bowl add all of the ingredients listed in the marinade. Let sit at least an hour. I let mine sit for 4 because I made the marinade right after lunch.
2. When ready to make the dish add the oil to a sauce pan and as it warms add the cumin and mustard seeds. Keep on low/medium heat until the seeds start “popping”. Once this happens add the diced onions but be careful to not splash.
3. Next add the mushrooms and sauté till you see water being released and the mushrooms start shrinking
4. Stir onions on high heat until translucent then add the tomato sauce. Let the mixture simmer for ~ 2-5 minutes on low.
5. Then add the milk slowly and let simmer for another 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.
6. Serve with rice, roti, or even eat plain.