S5: E18: Bernat Añaños: Foods For Tomorrow
“…people were treating us like two crazy guys from Spain that were trying to change something in a country that loves meat... And now we see in these supermarkets, our product there… it’s crazy.
I get very emotional when I think about that day that with Marc. We were working in a library for free because we did not have money to pay for an office. We just had this idea. We had these first prototypes for a product… let's try to sell it in few shops and let's see the feedback. And now we are in more than 3000 points of sale, more than 10 countries. And, what's coming is big. It's huge.”
– Bernat Añaños
Bernat Añañosis the co-founder of the Spanish plant-based startup, Heura by Foods for Tomorrow.
Bernat and Marc Coloma founded Heura in 2017 with the goal of disrupting the unsustainable food system by bringing a solution that will accelerate the shift to a world where the animals are out of the meat production equation. Since they launched, Heura has become the fastest growing European startup in the plant-based industry, with 450% growth this year despite the pandemic.
Four years ago, Bernat and Marc could not get their products into supermarkets. That’s because people were unwilling to believe that meat-loving Spain would ever embrace plant-based products. But, like in every other country where it was assumed that the public would be resistant to plant-based foods, especially in chain restaurants and grocery stores, the assumptions were wrong. Heura’s products are now sold at over 3000 locations (grocery stores, restaurants, and online) and they’ve expanded into ten other countries with many more coming.
“I'm seeing a huge change. And the good thing is that it's not just in Barcelona and Madrid. It's also happening in villages and small cities. …my grandma, for example, she does not even eat meat anymore and she is using Facebook to introduce Heura to her 80-year old friends… and the response of these 80-year old friends of my grandma, it's crazy… I think we are on the right path… We were and we still are a meat-lover’s country, but maybe… it's a plant-based meat-lover’s country in very few years. “ - Bernat Añaños
Bernat’s enthusiasm and excitement and hope about the future of food are infectious. I hope that you enjoy listening to him as much as I did.
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Transcript:
Bernat: [00:00:00] People were treating us like two crazy guys from Spain that tried to change something in a country that loves meat and they are wrong. Now we see in these supermarkets our product there because people were asking. At the end something very special happened. People asked for the product in those places. So these places were pushed to the province. It's crazy. I get very emotional when I think about that day with Marc, working in a library for free because we did not have money to pay for an office, we just had this idea. Now we are in more than 3000 points of sales, in more than 10 countries and what's coming is big. It's huge.
Elizabeth: [00:00:49] Hi, I'm Elizabeth Novogratz, this is Species Unite. We have a favor to ask if you like today's episode and you have a spare minute, could you please rate and review Species Unite on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts? It really helps people to find the show. This conversation is with Bernat Añaños. He is co-founder of plant based meat company Heura Foods. Four years ago, Bernat and his co-founder, Marc Colon, could not get their products into supermarkets. That is because they were selling them in meat centric Spain. Today, Heura’s products are offered at over 3000 locations. They're Spain's fastest growing plant based meat company and have already expanded into 10 other countries, with the goal to disrupt the unsustainable food system. Hi Bernat, thank you so much for being on today. It is awesome to have you here.
Bernat: [00:02:02] No thank you for giving us a voice.
Elizabeth: [00:02:04] I want to talk about where you guys have come from 2017 until now because there's been a massive growth with Heura Foods. But before we get there, I really want to know a little bit about you. How did this all start, activism, veganism?
Bernat: [00:02:20] That's a big question because I cannot answer just by myself. I also have to tell my story with my other co-founder, because it is very necessary to explain the whole story. First, I'll start with Marc. He started being vegan when he was 17, and he was very like an activist since he was like 15. He was always making all these like demonstrations in high school and everything trying to move forward social changes. At some point he became vegan and he saw all this inequality. The system was broken and he started to to be like record farms and record everything that was behind the walls of those farms. For many years he was very involved in NGOs, different NGOs and organizing big teams in Catalonia and then all over Spain to move forward this movement in the country. At some point, he realized that some people were getting conscious about the impact of what we eat. But then when they were going to a supermarket or a restaurant, they were not finding products. This is like where we meet with Marc, and now I go to myself.
Elizabeth: [00:03:29] Ok. I love it.
Bernat: [00:03:30] I became vegan almost four years and a half ago and vegetarian seven years ago, but something that the whole life I've been bringing with me, it was being very sensitive to everything that's happening around me. I remember myself crying when Bush was like declaring war to Iraq or to Afghanistan. I remember like being a kid and like crying for that and thinking the world is wrong. What we are doing, like how we can go there and kill people just because they are from that country. So during my life, I always tried to be part of something that has a positive impact on the things we care about, the planet, animals and people. I started working and going to university and working more, and I saw that my time, that my effort, that my resources at the end were not going to something that has an impact in those things. I was a bit frustrated, not finding that thing to make this change happen. Then that’s where I met Marc in a course in a tech hub here in Barcelona. He had this project just as an idea, like with a lot of thought behind, but it was an idea. He had this project and I liked more of his project than mine. So I said, Mark, I'll try to help you with my time. Then all of a sudden, because I was helping him with marketing and communication, especially in community building, he said, We are building it together. We are working together. You are not doing your project, you are doing mine. I don't care if it's mine or not mine, if we are doing it together, it's from both of us. That's where we started and we say, Okay, so we started this together. We've been two years before 2017, obviously working on product development, but also working on breaking all those barriers that communication barriers, community barriers. So then in April 2017, we finally launched the product.
Elizabeth: [00:05:39] When you first started talking about it and when Marc was first doing it, it was definitely going to be food, right?
Bernat: [00:05:44] These are very interesting points because it was food at the beginning, but at some point we ask ourselves, Okay, we have a mission which is changing the food system because we don't like it. It's terrible, what's behind it. So is there a better way than doing plant based meat to accelerate the shift because the shift is going to happen. So what can we do from us like, what can we do to change it? At some point we said, maybe it's not plant based meat, maybe it's an NGO or like a company that delivers consciousness and information. At the end, we decided, Okay, we don't have one product because at the end we have yet to take innovation, but we have another product that we spend a lot of time and resources in our company, which is spreading consciousness because we think, within this community, we have we can spread a lot of consciousness and these people that are following this community want to be part of the change. So like, let's use this to be a change maker. Heura is a mission made company, and it came from getting more conscious about the impact we have because we are very disconnected on what we eat. At the end the mission is to accelerate the protein transition because we need to transition. Sometimes people treat me like all these crazy guys saying protein transition. But then I ask them, So could you imagine yourself going by horse to work? Can you imagine yourself fighting the horse in front of your office? It doesn't make any sense like we are using now. We are using not cars, but electric cars. When we look at meat, when we look at protein, we are using the same technology as the ones that we're using the horse and the whale oil. So I think it's to start to move this like to the 21st century because we are in like, I don't know, way history, but like very far behind. So I think this is at the end of the mission to push this forward and to make this animal seen as a machinery like free. So we can move to machinery like technology that it's much more efficient. It's more like the 21st century.
Elizabeth: [00:08:03] And it’s much cheaper and healthier. That's awesome. When you first envisioned this, was it going to be this global company or was it Spain?
Bernat: [00:08:11] We always dreamed of having a global impact because we always say that from the Mediterranean, we have a lot to say in changing the food system. It's great that companies from Silicon Valley, London, Amsterdam and like some Asian companies, are leading the way. But we think that from the Mediterranean, a place that is full of food lovers, we have a lot to say in the future of food.
Elizabeth: [00:08:35] Before you guys were there, was there much happening in the plant based space in the Mediterranean?
Bernat: [00:08:41] We’re still very alone in the south of Europe,I have to say. But the demand is growing very fast. Not just in Spain, but Portugal and Italy and France, all these countries are seeing huge growth on demand because the north of Europe is ahead of us as most of the trends go ahead. The UK obviously is full of plant based meat brands and the Netherlands a lot. But now in the south of Europe, we still don't have a lot of brands, producers, but the demand is huge. The change in Spain four years from now, it's crazy. When I go to a supermarket and I see so many options now and we still don't have enough because it's always sold out. So we have to bring more options because people are demanding this option. It's so good to see. It brings me a lot of hope to accelerate this change because I think at the end it's just bringing great products, consciousness again, the same bringing products again if not sold out and again, consciousness. Then I think we will see a faster change than we expected, I would say.
Elizabeth: [00:09:58] Talk to me a little about the community and the expanding of consciousness. What were you guys envisioning for that and where is it going right now?.
Bernat: [00:10:07] Hmm. First of all, we knew from the very beginning that we couldn't do it on our own, not even with a huge team of employees. We needed people behind and people want to be part of changes. So we envision a way of building community in a way that it's not talking to our ego, but like talking with things we think that can make a shift on people's mindset because at the end, we are full of myths and misconceptions about plant based diet and meat consumption. We just need to bring this in a more rational way than emotional way because people need to understand because people don't believe this because for many years what they received was the contrary, it came from their family and friends and obviously you trust that. So what we need to do is to bring information, but in a nice way, in a community based way, not pointing out to people you are doing bad or you are wrong. But like, this is the information, this is what Harvard is saying, this is what all the organizations worldwide are saying. We have to make it understandable because sometimes and I'm still seeing these from institutions or big corporations, a lot of people tend to deliver information, but in a very institutional formal, difficult to understand way which is not democratic. You have to bring information in an accessible way to everyone. This means using social media, that goes to everyone. This also means using understandable language and words, we need a change from everyone, not just from a few. So I think we put a lot of effort and we are very sure that this is our way to do things. Sometimes people say you spend too much energy and time and resources on bringing consciousness that also helps, beyond to sell more and I say I am crazy happy if I can help beyond to sell more, I'm very happy. I don't know if I can, but if I have this power, I'm amazed. Like, great great news.
Elizabeth: [00:12:25] What have some of the responses been like with the community?
Bernat: [00:12:28] It's crazy and sometimes because I became friends with a lot of people who we are working with, because there are a lot of influences that are pushing this message. Thanks to them, we arrived at being the biggest food community like brand community in the south of Europe, much more than brands that spend a lot of millions in community building. We've done it with almost zero and that's why we had a lot of influencers and people that care and individuals that wanted to be part of this and they help and they give feedback. I think it's great what we built and it's awesome to be part of that and to be a piece in this puzzle. And now the challenge is how we bring these outside of Spain, and this is what we're trying to do now. I think it's going to work because then there are millions of people worried and very conscious that we have to make a change and what we want to build is consciousness, information and people that want to be part of that. I think there are millions around. So hopefully we reach all these people and we can make change happen and push like corporations, institutions, which is something I'm pushing a lot lately because I think institutions have a lot to say and they're not saying anything.
Elizabeth: [00:13:48] How much are you speaking with or reaching out to non vegans and non plant based people like people who are more vegan, interested or eating less meat?
Bernat: [00:13:56] When we look at data, we see that most of our consumers are not vegan anymore. At the beginning, there were vegan because we were selling in vegan shops for easy. So yeah, most of your consumers are vegan. But now we are in big supermarkets and big restaurant chains, and we know that the minority of the consumption is from vegans. Plus, we've done a survey two weeks ago asking people for feedback and how we can improve the way we communicate and how we can reach more people. The vegans were like less than 30 percent. I think this is a very great news because this means like more than 70 percent of the people that are behind this or even more are non vegans that follow a consciousness vegan like platform that is delivering very clear messages about what meat does to your body, to the world and to the animals and what plant based can do.
Elizabeth: [00:14:53] It's way better, it's I mean, you don't really need to talk to the vegans since they're already they already know. Right? Go back to when you launched, you launched in April 2017. So how big were you when you launched? Did you have any idea of anything that was coming?
Bernat: [00:15:10] No, it's crazy. Three or four months ago, we made a post on Instagram where we put like some of the answers we were receiving from supermarket bias and restaurant buyers. People were treating us like two crazy guys from Spain that tried to change something in a country that loves meat and they are wrong. Now we see in these supermarkets our product there because people were asking because at the end something very special happened with Heura in Spain, is that people ask for the product in the places, so these places were pushed to put the product. It's crazy. I get very emotional when I think about that day with Marc, we're working in a library for free because we did not have money to pay for an office. We just had this idea. We have these first prototypes of products, let's try to sell it in a few shops and let's see the feedback. Now we have more than 3000 points of sales, in more than 10 countries and what's coming is big. It's huge. The good thing is we are not alone. There are many companies doing the same in different places of the world. So I think the trend is going to change much faster than what we were thinking five years ago.
Elizabeth: [00:16:24] It sounds like across the world, demand is bigger than supply right now with plant based.
Bernat: [00:16:31] Definitely, yes. With everything.
Elizabeth: [00:16:33] What was your first product?
Bernat: [00:16:34] We started with chicken because at the end we cared a lot about the lives behind and they are far more chickens than any other animal. There are almost 70 billion chickens every year behind the scenes of the humans eating and we were like, there are many people doing burgers. So let's try to make chicken, which is also like a product in Spain. We use it for a lot of dishes. So we thought, OK, it is a way to get very local, to make all the Spanish fall in love with this. With this product, they can see that it's very easy to cook. It tastes like chicken, the texture is similar and now we have obviously other products.
Elizabeth: [00:17:19] What have you expanded into?
Bernat: [00:17:20] Now we have beef-like products. So we have a burger, which is super crazy in terms of nutritionals because we want to make daily basis for food. Food that people are not scared of eating every day. People that look at that and they say, okay another barrier broken. Because these barriers with Plant-Based are not healthy. Also meatballs and now we are working on the first pork-like products.
Elizabeth: [00:17:48] I was reading that your products are healthier than many plant based products out there.
Bernat: [00:17:54] It's our way to do things like I would never criticize any plant based company alive because there are no competitors. But we put a lot of Mediterranean values in our products. So, for example, we've been developing a fat analog made out of extra virgin olive oil, which is unique in the world at the moment because extra virgin olive oil is its liquid, so you cannot use it as coconut oil, for example. So what we achieved after a year, almost a year in our needs to to get the best things of coconut oil, which is then but made out of extra virgin olive oil. This allows us to have these crazy, good nutritional profiles because it's one percent of saturated fat, just one percent in a burger, which is much better than animal meat, for sure.
Elizabeth: [00:18:52] What are your products made of?
Bernat: [00:18:53] Soy and pea. The beef-like products at the moment are pea protein and the soy goes to chicken.
Elizabeth: [00:19:02] During lockdown, you have grown 400, 500 percent.
Bernat: [00:19:06] Growth in supermarkets was big, but 43 percent at the moment in March, where it was coming from restaurants. Because we have a lot of restaurants in Spain working with Heura and delivering great options in Asian and like sandwich and all these kinds of restaurants that are delivering great plant based options with Heura. Obviously, that business went to almost zero because, like lockdown in Spain was huge and we were all at home. So yeah, we agree a lot on supermarkets, but like we went to zero in restaurants and we were trying to like try to be part of the solution to restaurants because it was a hard time for them.
Elizabeth: [00:19:51] What countries have you expanded into already?
Bernat: [00:19:54] We are obviously in Spain. We are in Andorra, sometimes people don't mention these very small countries, but it's in between France and Spain. We are in Portugal. We are in the Netherlands. We started in the UK a few months ago. We are in Singapore and Hong Kong, and now we are almost starting in France and Italy. These are very light food lovers, country as well. We have to find a way of saying you can continue doing your favorite recipes, but plant based. We are also in Chile.
Elizabeth: [00:20:34] I don't know if it's on your website, but somewhere it says that Heura is not a meat substitute, but it's a successor. Will you talk about that?
Bernat: [00:20:45] Yes, we say that because in a lot of interviews at the beginning they were saying, Oh, are these substitutes for chicken? And we were like, No, we didn't come here to be a substitute for vegans for chicken because vegans are already vegans like we create this product for all these people that love chicken, but also those who love the planet and the animals can align their values with the consumption habits. That's why we do this, and that's why we do it nutritionally, like very good, much better than animal meat in terms of sustainability. It's always going to be better. In terms of taste, trying to replicate and even make it better, maybe in the future than chicken, because you can make it more juicy. Maybe I don't know. I adjusted to different cultures and tastes, I think we can make it better than using an animal as a machine. We've always into the equation. We think we are building successes, not substitutes for some people, because if we can make a product with the same experience, but better in terms of sustainability, obviously animal rights and health, this shouldn't be a substitute. It should be a successor for everyone. This implies that we have to make a lot of effort on making it accessible and democratic in terms of cost and price. We don't want to be a product for some people, just for some neighborhoods. We want it to be a product that enters all neighborhoods.
Elizabeth: [00:22:11] Has costs come down since you started?
Bernat: [00:22:13] Yeah, yeah. We've made big steps there. Still to control all the supply chain and make adjustments in all these, very small parts of the supply chain and the process takes time. Sometimes when you make a change here until it has an effect to the very end, it's not like in an instant. We are making efforts there and yeah we've seen a reduction of price to consumers, which is the most important thing.
Elizabeth: [00:22:43] Spain, I mean, it's a really meat heavy country, right? Was there a lot of resistance in the beginning?
Bernat: [00:22:49] I was expecting more. I have to say that at the end, I had the chance to speak with a lot of buyers, the meat eaters and when you start to show that even with these products in the future, it can have better margins, so better economy and better business. I think people start to say, Hey, these people don't come here to destroy me. They come to like to bring new products that they say in the future will bring more business. I think this has been a very interesting side of having the chance to be in this sales process and in terms of the general population, obviously haters are going to hate everywhere in the world, but I know many meat eaters that love Heura and introduced Heura in their diets. They are making New Year's resolutions even if they reduce the animal meat. People that I would never have thought about were going to do this in 2021. I was expecting 2015 so much earlier than expected. Yeah, I'm happy about that. So I'm seeing a huge change and the good thing is that it's not just in Barcelona, Madrid, it's also happening in villages and small cities. I can talk about my grandma, for example, she doesn't even eat meat now anymore, and she's using Facebook to introduce errors to their 80 years old friends on Facebook. It's crazy. I know she does it because she loves me a bit and she promotes it. Seeing these and the response of these 80 year old friends of my grandma like, it's great. Something is changing, and I think we are on the right path of like, yeah, we were and we still are a meat lover country, but maybe we can put a plant in the very beginning. So it's a plant based meat lover country in very few years.
Elizabeth: [00:24:52] That story about your grandmother is amazing.
Bernat: [00:24:55] Oh yeah. My. grandmother honestly, you could interview her. She is so much fun.
Elizabeth: [00:25:01] I’d love it. So, have some of her friends started to switch a little bit?
Bernat: [00:25:06] Oh yeah, and here is one of the values we have, my grandma lives in a very small village and everything you get from there. So she's always complaining and trying to talk to the small supermarkets in her village, which she's not having because it's difficult to talk sometimes from the phone. She said, you supermarket from this village, you have to sell Heura because I have to go to this other village to buy it and my friends as well. We are all asking for this.
Elizabeth: [00:25:39] What a great marketer. But that's true because you hear a lot about younger people just because they're aware they've been on social media their whole lives, and they've seen the damage that has been put onto them from the meat industry. They get it. But I love hearing stories about anyone in their 80s.
Bernat: [00:25:59] She knows it and what you said. It's so true. When I look at my little cousin, she is nine, and she's so much more connected to the impact we have in the world she knows. When she eats meat, she knows that she is eating a piece of an animal. She's very aware and I wasn't. I think this is a big step. Because to know what you're eating and the impact and like, what's behind. It's so much like the first step to connect all the dots and so change the way we consume things. A year ago, when COVID was not here yet, I was giving a class at the University of Barcelona and I had this class in front of me, like a hundred people and I ask, how many of you are reducing the amount of meat or are already vegetarian or vegan? It was almost 60 percent. I was almost crying like, guys can you be like a picture for society.
Elizabeth: [00:27:01] I think a lot of vegans or people have been in this space for a long time. We do see that the future is probably hopefully going to be plant based at some point and cell based. But do you think it feels like it's going to be faster than everyone's been saying when you talk to people like you?
Bernat: [00:27:19] Definitely. I'm so hopeful with this. At the very beginning four years ago, I would say, no, it's going to take forever. But now seeing the reactions, and I think we just have like from the industry, the plant based industry, we have two challenges. Delivering great products like this means good nutrition, good flavor, good texture and everything, and then delivering good prices. I think when this is democratic, a good product is democratic. Plus obviously animal meat, traditional meat has to be more expensive than it is now, like it doesn't make any sense, like €3 kilo for chicken. Like what is this? The system is broken and this can cost this price. That's because the European Union, in our case, is putting a lot of money here to democratize these products because they say there's a need for people to eat this. So what we have to do is to start to invest this money in plant based, cell based, animal meat first to be more expensive and then the pricing for Heura, Beyond and all the other brands in the world doing this are starting to be less and less and less. I think when this happens, a shift is just going to happen.
Elizabeth: [00:28:39] What do you guys have coming up?
Bernat: [00:28:41] The most exciting thing for me is that we are going to double the employees. So from 37, we will reach more than 80, more than double.
Elizabeth: [00:28:49] How many did you start with in the beginning?
Bernat: [00:28:50] Two, Marc and me. We have to be more than 80 at the end of this year because we want to do a lot of things. We always say we will try hard and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but we will try the hardest we can. So I would say, doubling the team, it's big news because this means more people working on accelerating the protein transition, and I think this is great news for the whole movement. Then new products we will bring nuggets. I think when I saw the nutritionals of the nuggets, I was like, Guys, why did you put so much effort into trying to make it healthy? How can a nugget be healthier? But they made it, they delivered great nuggets, which is healthy at the same time. The big challenge is to build communities outside of Spain. So in the main markets, we want to be, but also creating a platform that just not delivers messages to the markets that we are in, but also like someone from New Zealand, Bali or California. They can follow us because they like the way we deliver the information and they want to be part of this information and they want to spread it, even if they cannot try the product.
Elizabeth: [00:30:07] I really want to try your product and once travel can happen again, I will. All I have read about you guys is that your food is so incredibly good. Like ridiculously good. Everybody's like, No, I've never tasted plant based chicken like this. Also about the community, how do people get involved?
Bernat: [00:30:26] We are working on a new website that has a platform to be more part of it because something that we sense when we ask people is like, what can we do more? We are trying to build a platform that allows people to not just be part of the Heura initiatives, but also, you know, this initiative. I would like to see a platform that can also announce a movement for another plant based meat company or like another alliance wherever in the world and people can be part of that. Or like sign a petition for New Zealand or I don't care which country because we have to unite ourselves because the meat industry is very united. They know how much power they have together. So what we have to do from the plant based meat sector is to unite efforts and forces and to go all together in the same direction.
Elizabeth: [00:31:18] I think whether it's in the plant based space or even the animal rights side of things, everyone needs to align and support one another and get behind each other because everyone's in the same movement and it all just pushes everything faster and bigger and creates a lot more change. Are you still doing activism outside of this? Is that still part of your life?
Bernat: [00:31:40] In Heura we help a lot of activist movements like sanctuaries and a lot of projects and proposals that are around. Something that I was speaking about with Marc, I want to be less of a workaholic. I would like to have the time, but not just for me or Marc, but the whole team to like, spend a few hours like us so that people can take part on different issues inside the movement because obviously now we are very in the business side. Even though we do things a lot as an NGO sometimes, to see other problems and other projects and how things are done and learn from that and we can give some knowledge to those projects. So yeah, hopefully in this year, I can be part of at least certain projects. Hopefully, everything is better, like it's a win-win for every single person in the world, every single animal on the planet. Sometimes, I feel that beginning, we feel that people have to make the transition in the way we've done it with the same efforts we've done. Why do people have to do it in your way? Can we do it in a better way? Can we move it faster? Why do we feel that people have to make the effort you made because they might not want to make this effort, but if we put something different like it accelerates. I think it has to be positive news. We are one percent of the population. So how can we move this one to a hundred in very little time?
Elizabeth: [00:33:19] We really want more people to even go partially vegan because more people are partially vegan, that's a lot better than another one percent.
Bernat: [00:33:27] Yeah and a lot of people like my friends and like people I meet, they are not completely vegans. Sometimes they feel when they share their status on their transition, they feel like I'm going to like, say, Oh, you're doing wrong? And I say, congrats, like, it's so good and you changed so much the past year. I'm so happy. Like, we have to embrace the change and not just try to be like professors examining people and saying, Oh, you're nuts. 10 out of 10 you are nine and this is wrong.
Elizabeth: [00:34:06] It doesn't help the movement. It doesn't help the progress, and it doesn't help the person doing it. It just turns them away from it.
Bernat: [00:34:12] Hopefully, we are part of that. I'm so happy. Like to see so many people lately that I’m following, a lot of English accounts as well and from the U.S. and seeing all these people like working on that. It's so great.
Elizabeth: [00:34:25] So many people I know now who aren't fully vegan but are eating more and more that way would not have looked at this five years ago. It's a miracle. To criticize them would be absolutely ridiculous.
Bernat: [00:34:39] Last year, Christmas with my family, we were normally like 17, 18 of us on the table. It was 90 percent vegan. Even though we are just two vegans and two vegetarians, chicken was left. No one was eating the chicken, everyone was eating Heura and all the other dishes that my grandma prepared with plant based meat. This year they had to be a fully vegan lunch, but it wasn't because of coronavirus, but it had to be. In my family five years ago, being a Christmas fully vegan did not make any sense. Everyone would say, You're crazy.
Elizabeth: [00:35:19] Bernat, thank you so much. Thank you for everything that you guys are doing on the planet and changing.
Bernat: [00:35:26] Thank you for being part of that, and especially to give us voice. Thank you very much.
Elizabeth: [00:35:40] To learn more about Bernat and about Heura foods, go to our website at SpeciesUnite.com. We will have links to everything. We are on Facebook and Instagram, @SpeciesUnite. If you have a spare minute and could do us a favor, please rate, review and subscribe to Species Unite on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps people find the show. If you'd like to support the podcast, we'd greatly appreciate it. We are on Patreon, its Patreon.com/SpeciesUnite. I would like to thank everyone at Species Unite, including Gary Knudsen, Natalie Martin, Caitlin Pearce, Amy Jones, Paul Healey, Santana Polky and Anna Connor, who wrote and performed today's music. Thanks again and have a wonderful day.
You can listen to our podcast via our website or you can subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or Google Play. If you enjoy listening to the Species Unite podcast, we’d love to hear from you! You can rate and review via Apple Podcast here. If you support our mission to change the narrative toward a world of co-existence, we would love for you to make a donation or become an official Species Unite member! You can learn more about this here.
As always, thank you for tuning in - we truly believe that stories have the power to change the way the world treats animals and it’s a pleasure to have you with us on this.