SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT: Meat Alternative Trends and Technology - May 2022 - 14

LEADERSHIP
" It has a really excellent innovation orientation
and a commercialization orientation that I've benefited
from getting to participate in, " she said.
Participating in the production of plant-based
alternative proteins at OSI gave Johnson-Hoffman
a glimpse of how innovation in the food industry
can take many forms and how there is potential
for even more innovation in plant-based foods
and other meat alternatives.
" There's been a real evolution in thinking in
traditional animal protein over the years, " she
said, " to the point that today I think it is well
understood that trust in animal protein is a really
important thing for us all to be working on.
" The sustainability work has given us new
ways to talk about our commitments in the food
business. And it's given us some common language
that we lacked before. It's also helped us
to create new incentives and motivations for
people to do work that is hard, to improve the
sustainability of food production in the US and
around the world. "
ENCORE CAREER
After leaving Cargill in 2016, Johnson-Hoffman
went to work for OSI, where she was based in
Aurora, Ill., and oversaw the company's business
segment that supplied beef to McDonald's Corp.
She ended her five-plus-year tenure with OSI working
for a year in Gersthofen, Bavaria, Germany,
managing its processed foods business, which
included responsibility for nine further processing
plants located across Europe. During her time
at OSI her oversight of production included traditional
proteins as well as working in partnership
with alternative protein companies to make vegetable-based
products.
She admired OSI's diversified, entrepreneurial
business strategy and the hands-on approach
of its entire hardworking team.
14
2022 MEAT ALTERNATIVE TRENDS + TECHNOLOGY MEAT+POULTRY
Officials with Future
Meat contend their
company is part of the
meat industry, unlike
plant-based companies,
because its products
are cultivated from the
cells of live animals.
" Like everyone, I have watched the rise in interest
of these new alternative protein products, and
I've tried them myself, " she said. " Some of them I
loved some of them I didn't love. "
She said it didn't take long for her to recognize
that companies making plant-based meat
alternatives share some of the same goals as
companies that make traditional, animal-derived
meats, including the need to be transparent and
sustainable so consumers can eat those foods
with confidence. Johnson-Hoffman said she has
also stayed abreast of the development of cultured
meat products over the years.
" I watched the rise of cultured meats with a
whole lot of skepticism, " she said.
Challenges facing what she prefers to call
" cultivated " meat are many, including scalability
and acceptance in the market.
" There are a lot of people out there who are
happy to say 'it can never be done,' " she said.
" But one of the benefits of being 50 years old now
is that I've heard that over and over again in my
life. I've watched how the things that could never
be done have miraculously been done by the
people who were willing to put in the hard work
to make it possible. "
As for co-existing with other types of protein
providers, including plant-based meat alternatives
and traditional meat production, JohnsonHoffman
believes the planet is big enough and
population growth is substantial enough for all
food solutions to thrive.
" Cultivated meat is meat, " she said, " and for
us, we are really pleased to be a part of the meat
industry and to work together with the rest of
the meat industry to solve our various sustainability
issues and solve all the other issues that
go along with providing meat to the world.
" I subscribe to the idea that we need all the
solutions we can get and that we have a hungry
planet, " Johnson-Hoffman said. " We have environmental
and sustainability challenges that we
need to overcome in order to feed this hungry
planet, and I know people love and want meat in
their diets. "
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT: Meat Alternative Trends and Technology - May 2022

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