An interview with Chris Bryant

We are excited to renew our media partnership with Red to Green for Season 3! 

Red to Green is a Podcast dedicated to providing content on sustainable food innovations. What sets Red to Green apart from other food tech podcasts is that instead of adopting the more common approach of each episode discussing different topics, they chose a storytelling approach. Indeed, Red to Green grouped their conversations by seasons of about 12 to 14 episodes, each season covering one theme at a time. Organizing the podcast this way allows for a deeper and better understanding of the designated topic and to build up the audience’s knowledge towards the following subjects.

Season 1 encompasses different aspects about cultured meat and cellular agriculture, from introducing it to what it is and why it is revolutionary to hearing the perspectives of investors and consumer adoption.

Season 2 moves towards a conversation surrounding plastic alternatives and sustainable food packaging. We hear from experts and innovators in the field differentiating between different types of sustainable packaging, greenwashing, recycling and much more.

Season 3 is all about understanding how to promote alternative proteins and consumer acceptance.

Episode 3 features Chris Bryant, who recently finished his PhD in consumer adoption of cultured meat and other novel protein sources, as well as the psychology around consumption of meat and animal products, now offers consulting services through his own company Bryant Research Ltd. to companies looking to transform the food system. We will give you a brief overview of some of the topics discussed in this podcast episode!

Marina Schmidt, founder of Red to Green, and Chris explored the theme of consumer acceptance, mainly focusing on cultured meat. 

They discuss the importance of repetition when it comes to communicating with consumers. Cell-based meat can come with certain preconceived ideas, mainly stemming from the fact that the general population doesn’t quite know what meat made in a lab is, and that is why repeating the right messages to the consumers is important to make this conversation more prevalent. 

Another point to take into consideration is who should be the target audience? We may think of vegans and vegetarians, but the majority of them are satisfied with their diet not including meat. Perhaps the real consumer should be heavy meat eaters who don’t see themselves stopping eating meat.

Another interesting topic they discussed is how much transparency should companies provide to consumers – how to find the balance between being too transparent to the point people get suspicious of all the science behind it and lacking transparency.

In addition, there are interesting points of view regarding how cultured meat could potentially be accepted by religions such as Buddhism, Islam and Judaism that impose restrictions on meat eating.

Marina and Chris covered many other interesting and relevant topics, but we don’t want to give it all away! So head over to Episode 3 of this season’s Red to Green Podcast and listen to the entire interview.

Check out our coverage of the other episodes of this season here.