Casey Laughman, Food Engineering (CL): Traditional protein production is so resource-intensive. How much land you have to have, how much water you have to use, you have to have feed and pasture and hay and all that. So as people move more towards this idea of we really want to make sure that we're eating as sustainably as possible, then I think that does open up a big market for the plant-based protein market to say, "Hey, you know, this is nowhere near the environmental impact that a giant cattle ranch or a giant chicken farm is," or something like that.

Tyler Lorenzen (TL): One of the best stats for this from my perspective is chicken—being the most efficient animal-based meat—is about nine calories per pound, and that's about nine times more energy required to produce a chicken than plant-based. You start going up to beef and other commodities that require more and it starts really making it lopsided. But you start thinking about the amount of corn and soybeans that we grow in the United States and what we use them for, you know, 90 million acres-plus of corn every year, 80 million-plus acres of soybeans, and the large majority of that feeds animals. And so it's just very resource-intensive.

To give you a sense, there's a million acres of peas. I mean, this is huge, a huge industry. Is it going to change overnight? I don't think so, and I don't know if it should. Maybe a balanced approach to enable farmers to make a better profit, a better return, access to nutrition for all in a easier way and more affordable.

I think it still will provide a lot of this, and the plant-based industry is going to put a lot of pressure on the animal protein industry, and I think there'll be new proteins that come out that will put pressure on plant. That's the beauty of what we do here in the United States and in this world is if we can create better ways and continually improve, that's better for everyone. And I think that's really what we're striving to do at PURIS is literally give farmers, makers and eaters options and if they can start understanding their choices and how they're tied to outcomes in terms of environment, that's even better, but let's make sure they enjoy their food and that will help them make that choice over and over.

After a brief stint in the NFL, Tyler Lorenzen ended up joining the family business, which at the time was a grain- and seed-handling company. But Lorenzen’s father had long had the vision of turning PURIS into a plant-based food company, and Lorenzen joined PURIS to lead it to that stage.

Tyler Lorenzen, CEO, PURIS

PURIS has partnered with Cargill and will be renovating multiple dairy facilities to use as production facilities. Photo courtesy of: PURIS.

"The plant-based industry is going to put a lot of pressure on the animal protein industry, and I think there'll be new proteins that come out that will put pressure on plant."

CL: Right, because when it comes down to it, you know, it doesn't matter how efficient your product is, it doesn't matter how environmentally friendly or sustainable or anything like that. If people don't like the taste, they aren't going to buy it again.

TL: That's right. Like, a plastic bag from Walmart—yes, plastic bags are not a good idea, so if we invent a new plastic bag from peas, hemp, whatever, and it doesn't work, no one's gonna use it. It functionally has to work. And food, nutrition and taste are key. And I think the other one is accessibility. I've said that a number of times. You have to be able to get it and afford it, and it tastes good and gives you the proper nutrition.

As part of its growth into an alternative protein company, PURIS has partnered with Cargill and will be overhauling two dairy facilities to turn them into production facilities to meet demand. Lorenzen sees that investment as part of the company’s larger mission to help support the communities it calls home as well as the markets it serves.

TL: In the end, we'll retrofit two dairy facilities and spend hundreds of millions of dollars to do it. Cargill's our partner and they're a huge player in the animal protein space, so they're helping us through all of this. And we have some other investors as well that, you know, taking assets that were invested in 30, 40 years ago and giving them a massive facelift and reusing the infrastructure and some of the things that matter. But really, it's right in these communities that tend to be forgotten about and with a lack of investment, they will be forgotten about. So we had to leverage our engineering teams and really create the best use case for facilities across the Midwest to give them new life, and we're not investing for a year or two. We're putting a 50-year life on these assets and extending what the future holds for them.

I think it's just getting started. You look at what's required in terms of actual amount of protein for the world and as the population increased, how we're going to fill the gaps to where we're at today to where we need to be. They say if we produce the same style of proteins that we have, the figure is about the same size of the United States is more land that we would need. Well, that obviously comes at a cost; we're not just going to create land. So what are we going to do? And we really need to be more efficient with the land that we have and it can't come at the cost for the environment. So you start thinking about well, what are the ways...? //

FOODENGINEERINGMAG.COM I FEBRUARY 2021

<< BACK TO CONTENTS