The #1 Climate Change Solution with Turner Wyatt of Upcycled Food Association

Written By Modern Species

Food Waste is a global issue and plays a pivotal role in the onset of climate change. While the problem might seem overwhelming, there are increasing opportunities for consumers to impact change through their choices. 

This week we welcome Turner Wyatt, CEO at The UpcycledFood Association, to discuss how his company is helping producers and consumers make better decisions that will have a global impact on food waste reduction. Turner shares his journey with food waste reduction and sustainability and explains how taking a solution-based approach has led to outcomes that align environmental and sustainability goals with financial incentives and healthy profits, and why this is great news for the future of upcycling food. 

Make sure you tune in for this remarkable conversation to learn about the power of upcycling food and how you can make a difference!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • Learn about the research-based evidence presented by Project Drawdown that illustrates the critical role that reduced food waste plays in curbing climate change.

  • Why it’s essential to hold big companies accountable for the massive amount of food waste occurring every year and how they benefit from it.

  • The huge benefit of aligning environmental and sustainability efforts with financial incentives.

  • Our natural tendency to upcycle foods and how the industrialization of food products has disrupted those traditions and caused a dissociation with food in modern culture.

  • Why Turner founded The Upcycled Food Association after working with multiple non-profits.

  • The Upcycled Certification logo and how it empowers consumers to align their choices with their values.

  • How concerns over food waste is a universal concern that bridges political divides.

  • The important lessons that Turner learned about food charity and unintended consequences after co-founding Denver Food Rescue as a young adult.

  • The Fresh Food Connect app and how it takes a solution-based approach to overcome complex barriers that prevent us from combating food waste and food insecurity.

  • The future of upcycling and a circular economy.

Tweetables:

“I think the that it's really exciting to me is it's like you can make this solution aligned with something that someone already does. It's beneficial to the environment and beneficial to business at the same time.” — Turner Wyatt [0:07:30] 

“It's exciting because it's really about engaging millions of people around the world with this really natural relationship that we should have with our food and with each other.” — Turner Wyatt [0:14:17]

“Upcycled makes preventing food waste really easy for people to engage with the products they buy. That helps to make it more of a thing, right? And, at the end of the day, that's what consumers respond to.” — Turner Wyatt [0:17:58]

“Upcycling can be a tool to gain financial independence or gain revenue for these organizations.” — Turner Wyatt [0:32:32]

“If you want to build sustainable solutions, you have to let the people who have the most lived experience of the problems have the most power in determining power and agency and determining the solutions.” — Turner Wyatt [0:36:11]

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Modern Species

A sustainable brand design agency helping better-for-the-world brand launch, evolve, and grow to scale their impact.

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