#19 Varun Deshpande - Alternative Proteins Can Fix the World

Can there be a single solution to all of the following problems: malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and animal suffering?

Varun Deshpande thinks so. In this podcast, he makes a compelling case that alternative proteins (such as those derived from plants, fungi, or those that are cultivated in labs) can fix all these problems in one go.

== What we talk about ==
0:04 - Introduction
1:29 - Journey of starting Good Food Institute (GFI) India
6:01 - Decision of making a leveraged impact by starting GFI India
11:00 - What are alternative proteins?
16:55 - If we keep eating meat, can we get to a zero-emissions world that's required to keep the climate crisis from worsening?
19:31 - Categories of alternative proteins
25:17 - Cultivating alternative food and the connection of food we eat with status and prestige
28:49 - How much should developing nations like India be responsible for emissions reduction?
34:10 - What has been the progress like and what are the barriers you foresee in the uptake of alternative proteins?
39:54 - Are you optimistic that consumers will make this switch to alternative food/proteins willingly?
45:19 - How do you measure the progress you are making?
48:07 - What advice will you give to someone who wants to enter this space?

== About the guest ==
Varun Deshpande is the managing director of Good Food Institute India. The Good Food Institute is an international network of non-profits that promote plant-based meat, dairy, and eggs as well as cultivated meat as alternatives to conventional animal products.

Varun started GFI India in 2017 with an aim to answer one question: how can we feed 10 billion people by 2050 - a sixth of whom will be Indian - through systems that do not negatively impact climate, biodiversity, and scarce natural resources?

According to research, close to 80 percent of Indians are protein deficient. Traditional answers to fixing this nutrition gap is more animal proteins - i.e. more eggs, milk, and meat. However, livestock is a disaster when it comes to environmental impact and causes needless animal suffering. Can we do better?

Varun thinks so. Good Food Institute India is laser-focused on enabling an ecosystem in India for alternatives to animal proteins and in the process of doing so, fixing many of the world’s urgent problems such as public health, malnutrition, food security, climate change, and animal welfare.

== Useful links ==
GFI India: https://gfi.org.in/