Notes

Just Egg - Foodtech
Have you always wondered whether it was the chicken or the egg that came first? Bet you never thought it might actually have been the mung bean! No, seriously, you know how it goes “Orange is the New Black”? Well, this 4,400-year-old legume is the New Egg!

No, I haven’t gone ‘quackers’, I'm talking about JUST Egg, the new plant-based egg replacement that “scrambles like an egg, fluffs like an egg and tastes even better than a chicken egg”. And even better: it contains no cholesterol.

Social-impact investments

You may think it sounds far-fetched, but international entrepreneur and investor, Nicole Junkermann thinks otherwise. She proudly backs such social impact products that aim to use Foodtech to combat climate change. Nicole, through her investment company NJF Holdings, and its venture capital arm, NJF Capital, seeks to invest in socially and environmentally responsible businesses.

Nicole is one of the powerhouse female entrepreneurs who are seeking to disrupt traditional business practices through new technologies and is particularly keen to support Foodtech start ups who are attempting to find new solutions for tackling Climate Change.

What’s the real impact of eating meat?

Questions regarding the impact of high quantities of meat on our health have been rife for a number of years. The levels of cholesterol and use of hormones are particularly worrying factors. However, it has recently come to light that our ‘love affair’ with meat is having a negative effect on our planet, too. Intensive animal farming has made the meat and dairy industry one of the main contributors to global warming. The raising of animals and the crops grown to feed them contribute a staggering one quarter of all global greenhouse gas emissions.

We are realising that something has to be done, but it is, perhaps, unreasonable to expect everyone to turn vegan. So this is where the Foodtech sector is ‘riding to the rescue’. Plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy are becoming all the rage, but is it just another fad? Or is it really making a difference?

Plant-based replacements - do they make a difference?

Well, let’s take JUST Egg as an example. If they are to be believed, using their plant-based egg substitute uses 98% less water and 86% less land than chicken eggs. According to them, “we eat 1.4 trillion chicken eggs per year, using 93 million acres of land and 51 billion gallons of water in the process”. That’s pretty staggering when you think about it! So, if we can bring that down to just a fraction, that would seem like a good thing.

What’s the next step?

On the heels of plant-based ‘meat’ like the ‘Impossible Burger’, various Foodtech companies are working on ‘lab-grown’ meat. These seem, at the moment, to still be a long way from being available on the market and may not be the answer we're looking for. However, Nicole hopes that the answer is out there and will continue to promote and support those who are actively looking for it. Technology has helped us to do so much damage to our environment; is the hope that it can save us just a ‘pipedream’?


Looking at the state of our planet and the many warning signs we seem to be ignoring, it seems to me that we need a few ‘pipedreams’. We certainly need to do something to radically change the way we ‘use and abuse’ this beautiful planet of ours.

Nicole Junkermann


Homepage: https://europeanbusinessmagazine.com/business/nicole-junkermann-on-how-technology-is-impacting-the-food-industry/