After 20 days locked in a 5m2 life capsule, the intrepid scientists of the Gombessa 6 returned to Monaco on Tuesday with answers and even more questions about the puzzling rings of coral they explored off the coast of Cap Corse.
The mystery of the Cap Corse coral rings is being slowly unravelled after the head of underwater expeditions, biologist and photographer Laurent Ballesta, along with aquanauts Antonin Guilbert, Thibault Rauby and Roberto Rinaldi, spent 20 days on the sea floor observing and categorising findings from this never-before explored area.
The mission was made possible through a collaboration between several partners including the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and Swiss watchmaker Blancpain. A reception was held after the return of the team on Tuesday, hosted by the Prince’s Foundation.
There were 35 French and international researchers on the operation. The cooperation of the researchers, who all had their own pet projects in mind, was a testament to the level of willingness to learn and share on all levels.
Photo by Jordi Chias, Gombessa Expéditions
Located 120 metres under the sea, the 4km2 zone encases coral structures that reach up to 30 metres in circumference and are home to an astonishing array of sea life.
“The mission ends with, as with all expeditions, its share of things of which we are proud, but also with frustration,” said Laurent Ballesta. “We have approached new horizons that we had not imagined and that makes us want to go further. But the goals were met and it’s wonderful.
“Scientifically, there was the riddle of these rings first. We have succeeded in carrying out cores, sometimes over a metre, to pierce the rock in the heart of these rings. It was far from a given because we didn’t have the opportunity to test these manoeuvres before.”
These samples were able to be taken through a collaboration with the Sephismer, the French Navy’s human diving division. In the samples, there were some surprising findings. A coral called Callogorgia, which typically lives in far deeper waters, was found, as were small pearly shells thought to exist only in tropical reefs. DNA samples were also obtained, and the divers placed hydrophones and current metres in the rings to be able to observe remotely the comings and goings of sea life as well as the sea conditions.
Photo by Jordi Chias, Expéditions Gombessa
“We hope that the results of our research will help to understand the origin of rings, how they function, their age, etc. And there is still so much to discover,” Ballesta went on to say.
In addition to reaching their scientific goals, the team were also rewarded with some exciting finds, such as a line of underwater caves that have yet to be explored, as well as something that scientists rarely can boast of: the discovery of a new species.
“We found a small nudibranch sea slug that we had seen on a previous dive, and which turns out to be a new species. We are going to have the privilege of giving it a name and that is a great source of pride. It will most certainly be my daughter’s first name,” the team leader said.
Aquanaut Thierry Rauby voiced his early concerns, which soon dissipated as the mission progressed. “Before the start of the expedition, I was worried that spending 20 days around a sandy bottom would quickly end up being boring. But we have discovered an incredible biodiversity. It was a very good surprise. We have the impression that we have only glimpsed something incredible and, of course, it makes you want to go back.”
Along with the good, there was a bit of bad. The team came across plastic waste mixing with thousand-year-old amphorae and stunning sea fauna, a stark reminder of our human impact on the planet.
The team brought back thousands of images, which will be put together in association with Arte to create a film about the voyage. They also plan to make a book and to hold conferences to speak about their discoveries, raise awareness and promote environmental protection.
Photo by Laurent Ballesta, Andromède Océanologie, GOMBESSA 5
Results from the mission will start coming in September, with the DNA results being forecast to arrive by the end of the year and the rest of the test results by the end of 2022.
The team intend to make more journeys to their new, now not-so-hidden treasure where they hope to continue unlocking the mysteries of this fascinating area.
Top photo by Photo by Laurent Ballesta, Gombessa Expéditions
Prince joins prominent list backing Great Barrier Reef protection
Prince Albert of Monaco has joined the likes of Joanna Lumley and Jason Momoa in backing calls for the Great Barrier Reef to be placed on a list of world heritage sites in danger.
The list includes an international line-up of actors, conservationists and scientists including activist Lumley, Aquaman actor Momoa, Australian singer Cody Simpson, former lead UN climate negotiator Christiana Figueres, and oceanographer Philippe Cousteau, the grandson of French diving pioneer Jacques Cousteau.
“The scientific evidence is beyond doubt: the Great Barrier Reef is in danger and it is time to act,” the group said in a global statement.
It follows a recent recommendation from the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) that Australia take “accelerated action at all possible levels” on climate change, citing global heating as the cause of mass coral bleaching in 2016, 2017 and 2020.
Later this week, the world heritage committee will be asked to put the world’s biggest reef system on its danger list. If Unesco follows the recommendation, it would be the first time a natural world heritage site has been placed on the “in danger” list mainly because of impacts from the climate crisis.
The statement that Prince Albert co-signed was organised by the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS), who says: “The reef belongs to the world and, as its custodian, Australia must show global leadership on climate action to preserve its future.”
Coral reefs are considered one of the world’s most at-risk ecosystems from the climate crisis due to their sensitivity to warming oceans.
A Unesco report said that despite efforts and achievements by the state and federal governments in Australia, key targets on improving water quality had not been met.
“The plan requires stronger and clearer commitments, in particular towards urgently countering the effects of climate change, but also towards accelerating water quality improvement and land management measures,” it said.
Unesco is also asking Australia to link its policy to protect the reef to the Paris climate goals to keep heating to 1.5C.
A consultant to the AMCS, Imogen Zethoven, said Australia’s climate policies were “more consistent with a 2.5-3.0C rise in global average temperature – a level that would destroy the Great Barrier Reef and all the world’s coral reefs.”
The high-profile statement comes amid backlash from Australia’s Scott Morrison government, who is calling the Unesco decision political and lead by China. Australia’s Environment Minister Sussan Ley is also in Europe lobbying countries against the danger listing.
Photo of the Great Barrier Reef by Nico Smit on Unsplash
"Electric motorcycles and high tech wearables – this is lifestyle"
It’s a story that began in 1903, when aristocrat Marquis Ricardo Soriano Scholtz von Hermensdorff II invented a racing engine far ahead of its time. Throttle forward a century and that pioneering spirit continued through the bloodline to Economist Marco Antonio Soriano IV, who is rebooting the Soriano family legacy in Italy with an all-electric motorcycle and a game changing global business model. Monaco Life caught up with Marco Antonio after he spoke at this year’s Energy Boat Challenge at the Yacht Club of Monaco. Monaco Life: Can you tell us about where it all began for the Soriano family?
Marco Antonio Soriano IV: In the early 1900s, the Sorianos started manufacturing the first racing cars in France, piloted by the British race car driver Jean Graff in competitions like Le Mans. Then in the mid-30s we decided to move to Spain where we became the first manufacturer of motorcycles.
Soriano motorcycles pioneered the whole industry. We even created a line of scooters towards the end of the 50s. Engines were the primary focus of the family business, then it started merging into hospitality. Where is the family, the company and yourself positioned today?
The Soriano family was everyone – my great grandfather and all his siblings – and I am the fourth generation of the family office. What tends to happen is, when there is second and third generation wealth, family members live the life of a rock star but they don’t want to work or bring any value to the family business. So, I became the black sheep and started cutting people out who were draining what had been built in wealth over time but were not producing. I restructured during the financial crisis in 2009 because we were facing a very hard time, particularly my generation which is 50 family members. This fifth generation now has been narrowed down and structured to what the Soriano family office is today – our brand. Left to right: Sergio Moroni, CEO Soriano Motori Corporation, Francesco and Filippo Micchelaci, 3rd generation brothers in fashion and Lead Directors of Fashion Design and Production in Florence, and Marco Soriano, Founder and Chairman of Soriano Motori Corporation. You’re also a specialist in wealth management, which I am sure has contributed to the success of the company and the family office. So, why electric motorcycles?
Having a motors company history, I saw the opportunity to rebirth the family brand with a new vision, the electric vehicle (EV) global platform. Having a narrative allows you to be heard, and then once you are heard you have to create your own legacy. So, we did. In 2019, I started drafting on a napkin the first lines of the kind of motorcycle I would like to create. I took that to a designer and engineers in the US, and then I went to Italy – because Italians have a very keen eye for beauty and design. I am also part Italian myself.
We were the first in the world to build an electric vehicle with shift gears, which allows you to conserve energy and boost performance as you ride the hills of Europe.
We patented the technology and we now have a modular system that we can use in any other vehicle in the world. When can we see the first prototype?
This November at EICMA in Milan, the world’s largest motorcycle trade show, we will present two cruisers, one Enduro model, and possibly a couple of our new EV scooters as well. We presented the specs for the first prototype in November, but they were pandemic times so this will be the real worldwide reveal. We will also present the motorcycles at Art Basel in Miami and at the Fashion Week in Tokyo, Japan this December. What sets this EV apart from other electric motorcycles that are currently on the market?
A regular rider wants the traditional sound and motion of a motorcycle, so that’s what we have done. You can’t even tell the difference between an ICE combustion engine and the EV, it is the same feeling. We added the component of shifting gears to conserve energy and to add torque, while the ABS braking system that we created also allows you to conserve energy and recharge the battery during that process. Battery options range from 15kWh to 20kWh, both lithium-polymers. The motorbike’s range is 200km, maximum velocity 260km per hour.
The motorcycles can be customised and we are taking pre-orders now at www.sorianomotori.com. They will be built in limited-edition capacity and I will laser sign each one. We can produce about six per day, but we do have a 10,000 units manufacturing capacity per annum. This can be scaled up very quickly, but I am not interested in creating oversupply and a sub market. Where are they made and what kind of prices are we talking?
The EVs are made in Italy in two state-of-the-art facilities in Oggiono and Intrubio in the Lecco Province of the majestic Lake Como. Costs range from around €25,500 for the V1R to €32,500 for the V1 Gara. We also accept payment in mainstream cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin. You also say that you are reinventing the business model of the motorcycle sector. What do you mean by that?
The automobile industry does not have a true lifestyle around it, so we started to create our own kind of fashion and high-tech wearables using recyclables as well as photovoltaic undergarments. In some of our leather bags, for example, we are incorporating recharge capacities with small solar panels that connect to a battery system that can charge cell phones. We will also present these at EICMA Milan, Art Basel Miami, and Fashion Week Tokyo, Japan.
High-tech wearables, sustainable products, and motorcycles – the real lifestyle.
But I am crazy enough to do more. So, I am opening the Soriano Lounge Club in New York City where all members get full access to our factories, so when you buy a product, you can go to the factory to see the birth of your bike and form a real connection with it. It’s like those apps that pregnant women have, that compare the size of their baby to a walnut or avocado. With us, you are buying something that is customised, so you want to see this “baby” grow.
My slogan or tagline is: Where engineering meets fashion.
There is a reason why a Lamborghini and Ferrari are popular by word of mouth, and a Toyota is not. I want to unite that gap between engineering and fashion, between the US and Europe.
I also want to create the Soriano Foundation for the education of children, because they are the future. I’m intrigued by these high-tech wearables. Can you tell us more?
Smart wearables are, for example, elbow patches that a rider can put on their jacket that have a sensor that will vibrate when a car is coming through on their left or right, like the sensors that are in cars today. It will help to eliminate blind spots and the need for riders to turn their heads, when maintaining straight vision is critical for safety.
Helmets will also be able to connect to a mobile device, allowing the rider to know what is going on within their periphery, exactly the same way that cars today have 360° satellite vision when parking and driving.
We figured that a Ducati rider is not going to switch to buying a Soriano if it doesn’t have the same features or better. In style and design, you can almost compare us to Ducati, but we are a superior product because of the engineering thought behind it, including its unique international lifestyle. Is sustainability purely a business motivator for you, or do you feel a moral responsibility to take the company in this direction?
I am one of almost eight billion people in the world, and I am contributing my little grain of salt. I heard a story once: A father and son were walking on the beach when they came across all these star fish that had washed ashore. The child started throwing them back in the sea, and the father said, “What are you doing? There are thousands of them, that’s not going to make a difference”. The kid replied, “It is going to make a difference to the ones I am putting back in the water”.
So that’s my approach. I can’t take full responsibility for what is happening in the world, but I can add my grain of salt.
MEB resumes economic missions in show of "recovery and optimism"
After a quiet pandemic year, the Monaco Economic Board and its members have hit the road again, this time heading to Florence, Italy for an economic mission.
From 12th to 14th July, the Monaco Economic Board (MEB), with the help of the Embassy of Monaco in Italy, organised an economic mission in collaboration with the Consulate of Monaco in Florence, the Club of Ambassadors of Destination Monaco, the Florence Chamber of Commerce, Cofindustria Firenze and the Promotion Office of the Principality of Monaco in Italy. It is part of a particularly close economic relationship between the Principality and its “other” big neighbour.
“Italy is the leading customer and the leading supplier (excluding France) in terms of trade with Monaco. This economic dynamism can be explained by the close links between the two countries: geographical, historical and cultural proximity,” said the MEB in a statement. Photo provided by the MEB
For many years, the Monaco Economic Board has been organising operations in Italy in order to intensify these exchanges. For this, it naturally relies on the Embassy of Monaco in Italy and the local Chambers of Commerce. But it also has a valuable network: the Club of Monaco Destination Ambassadors, a club of first-rate Italian economic decision-makers with a strong link to the Principality, supported by the Prince’s Government and the MEB. This network, with more than 400 members and present in 13 cities, allows Monaco to shine at the highest level and aims to offer new business opportunities between the two nations.
In this context, the MEB has organised promotional operations or economic missions to Turin, Milan, Naples, Rome and Venice.
July’s delegation, led by Executive Director General of the MEB Guillaume Rose, was made up of around 10 Monegasque leaders operating in the sectors of banking and finance, ICT, e-commerce, business services, energy and insurance.
On Wednesday 13th, two memoranda of understanding were signed by the MEB and its counterparts from the Florence Chamber of Commerce and Cofindustria Firenze at the Florence Stock Exchange.
Other highlights included visits to Villa Bardini which overlooks Florence, the Nana Bianca incubator and the Gucci museum.
“This economic mission was a real breath of fresh air for our members who, like us, have been stranded by the pandemic,” said Guillaume Rose. “It sends a strong signal of recovery and optimism for companies in the Principality who are thirsty to find new development possibilities.”
The MEB has a series of economic missions planned for the second half of the year to destinations including Antwerp, Saint Petersburg, Amsterdam and the Monaco Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.
Top photo provided by the MEB
All the highlights from the Red Cross Summer Concert
It was an historic moment as Jamie Cullum took to the stage in the Place du Casino for the Red Cross Summer Concert on Friday night, watched on by the Princely family.
After many years at the Sporting Monte-Carlo, the event this year took on a new name and a new location. Under the starry summer sky in the Place du Casino, guests gathered for what was the first major concert in Monaco since the pandemic began. It was also the first time the redesigned Casino Square has been transformed into an open-air entertainment venue since it was unveiled in 2020.
Prince Albert II of Monaco was joined for the occasion by his sister Caroline, Princess of Hanover, Pierre Casiraghi, Andrea Casiraghi, Charlotte Casiraghi-Rassam and Gareth Wittstock.
Among the guests was legendary singer Dame Shirley Bassey, the 84-year-old looking effortlessly chic in a black trouser suit.
Art works by acclaimed artists Laurence Jenkell and Nick Danzinger were offered in support of the charity. Red Cross Summer Concert featuring Jamie Callum by Palais Princier/Monte Carlo Société des Bains de Mer
The Red Cross was established in 1948 by Prince Louis II, and the gala has been an opportunity to showcase its ongoing daily action among the most vulnerable over the past 73 years.
The missions of the Monaco Red Cross are to save lives and prepare the general population for disasters, to support all people in need without discrimination and to lead awareness-raising and preventive actions in the humanitarian sector. It acts both nationally and internationally.
It is supported and guided by HSH Prince Albert II.
Video by Palais Princier/Monte Carlo Société des Bains de Mer Shirley Bassey at the Red Cross Summer Concert by Palais Princier/Monte Carlo Société des Bains de Mer HSH Prince Albert II and Caroline Princess of Hanover with Mr and Mrs Gareth Wittstock, Charlotte Casiraghi-Rassam, Andrea and Tatiana Casiraghi, Beatrice and Pierre Casiraghi by Palais Princier HSH Prince Albert II and Caroline Princess of Hanover with Frederic Platini, Pierre Dartout, Jean-Luc Biamonti and Bettina Ragazzoni-Janin by Palais Princier HSH Prince Albert II and artist Laurence Jenk by Palais Princier Café de Paris all dressed up for the Red Cross Summer Concert, by Monte Carlo Société des Bains de Mer Photo by Monte Carlo Société des Bains de Mer Photo of Jamie Cullum in concert by Monte Carlo Société des Bains de Mer Photo of Jamie Cullum by Monte Carlo Société des Bains de Mer
“OMD is about changing One Meal a Day to a plant-based dish, and it is enough to make a huge difference to our water and carbon footprint, as well as our health,” says American environmental advocate, author and former actress Suzy Amis Cameron.
Who is Suzy Amis Cameron? Before becoming an environmental advocate and going plant-based, Suzy had a career working as a model and actress since the age of 17. She appeared in many movies including the award-winning Titanic with Director James Cameron. She soon fell in love with and later married James, and focused on raising their family of five children. In 2012, the Camerons decided to change their eating habits and become completely plant-based. With James and Suzy’s strong sustainable values, they believe it is impossible to identify as an environmentalist while eating meat. They are literally walking their talk and letting everyone know about it.
Meanwhile, Suzy and her sister Rebecca founded Muse School, now Muse Global School – Calabasas, which is the first school to become 100% solar powered, have zero waste, and have a 100% plant-based lunch program for the students. The school has now emerged into Muse Virtual, a K-12 online school which drew national and worldwide recognition for its innovative approach to education, fostering graduates who become bold leaders who are engaged with the world around them. Along with meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, they implement the three R’s: Recycle, Reduce and Reuse by growing their own food, composting, reducing water and producing their own energy. Muse Virtual reduces their carbon footprint while teaching the children how to help and not harm the planet. This school is the future. Suzy, leading the way with her plant-based movement, is the author of the book The OMD Plan, in which she invites her readers to swap “one meal a day” to save their health and save the planet. This book is a fun read and offers quick and easy steps to follow, including healthy meal swaps, recipes, shopping lists and more. Monaco Life: What prompted you to start eating plant based?
Suzy Amis Cameron: On 6th May 2012, I watched Forks Over Knives, and it blew me away. I had a friend that had been plant-based and he had been telling me for about nine months: “You know Suzy, you’ve got to watch Forks Over Knives.” So, one day while I was on the treadmill I grabbed it and put it into the DVD player and after about 10 minutes I had to get off the treadmill. I was so gut punched that I had been lied to, and advertised to my whole life that we needed to eat meat to be strong and we needed milk to have strong bones. It’s completely the opposite of that. Once I finished watching it, I went up to the house to find Jim and told him we were going to watch a movie tomorrow. From the time we sat down with a couple of the kids, to the time the movie finished, we didn’t say a word. Afterwards, Jim said, “We shouldn’t have any more animal products in the house”.
The following day, the whole kitchen was completely cleaned out. That’s just how we roll. So, what happened after you immediately decided that you were going to stop eating all dairy products and meat?
Then we decided that everybody else in the world needed to do the same thing. We really learned the hard way; we got up on our soap boxes and started preaching because we felt so great. We had so much energy and we had all the science behind it. Jim has cancer, heart disease and diabetes on his side of the family, and I do too. We wanted all of our loved ones to know about it. We made up gift bags with DVDs, books and vegan snacks and shipped them off to everyone. Well, it arrived like a bomb. No one wanted to hear about it. People thought we were crazy and that we were on to some weird California thing. People would see us coming and would want to turn around and run away because that’s all we wanted to talk about. We were like born again vegans.
Watching Forks Over Knives was a huge tipping point for Jim, but it also put me on this trajectory of my new purpose in life.
I had been working with the largest environmental NGO in the United States for about a decade and learned about the environmental issues, from dead zones to biodiversity loss, deforestation, ocean acidification, melting glaciers, I mean everything that you can ever imagine, but no one had ever said a word about animal agriculture.
It wasn’t until we had watched Forks Over Knives that Jim started giving me books, maybe two or three at a time, and talked to me about how devastating animal agriculture was on the environment. Suzy Amis Cameron How was going plant-based at Muse School received by the students and families?
Once we decided that we couldn’t call ourselves an environmental school and still be serving animal products, it took 18 months to educate the kids, teachers and parents on why we wanted to become a vegan school. We had a speaker series with a new speaker every month, either a doctor, a climate scientist, an athlete, an author or a chef, and they spent the day talking to the children about plant-based lifestyles in a developmentally appropriate way. In the evenings we would have adults and families come and offer them a glass of wine and beautiful plant-based meals. After 18 months, in the fall of 2015, we opened our doors and were 100% plant-based. We immediately lost 50% of our kids overnight. We thought we had done everything right. Where did you get the name for your book, The OMD Plan?
One day, our head of school was very frustrated with the families and said: “You can give the kids what you want for breakfast and dinner, but at school it’s one meal a day. It’s OMD”. So that’s where OMD came from. How did you manage to pull it together and what are you most proud of with this project?
The good story that comes out of that is we quickly regained our enrolment and we surpassed it and started having families move to the area from all over the United States and quite a few people from Europe.
Muse became the first plant-based School in North America and potentially worldwide because no one raised their hands and said they were first. That was a feather in our cap and also pushed us over the edge for something called the ‘Green Restaurant Award’. We beat the number one green restaurant by 600 points because we were solar powered, and the water and carbon footprint of being plant-based is so much lower than animal products, which became our pledge for OMD.
The whole premise of OMD is one person changing only one of their meals a day to a plant-based meal for one year saves two hundred thousand gallons of water and the carbon equivalent of driving from Los Angeles to New York (4,500 km), so the savings are astronomical if you think about it.
Meanwhile, 80% of all diseases are caused by the exploitation of animals. So, if we want to avoid pandemics in the future and stay healthy during pandemics, being plant-based is absolutely the way to go. Now more than ever people are shifting to a new state of consciousness, and are aware of the fact that change is needed for the future of our planet. How do you feel about society’s consciousness of our planet since the outbreak of Covid-19?
We were only able to hypothesize what would happen to our planet if we took millions of cars off the roads and if we quit flying so much. Now suddenly we have seen fish in the Venice canals, Los Angeles’ air quality was the best in the United States during the lockdown, Beijing’s air cleared up. It gave us the window into “What if?”. Also, because pantry food lasts longer, more people were eating plant-based than they realised, by using tomato sauce or beans and rice. Why was it important for OMD to suggest easy food swaps and nutritious recipes?
The beauty of OMD is it’s not about being perfect, it’s an invitation to dip your toe in and just give it a go.
You can try different recipes and there are so many easy swaps to do. For breakfast, you can use oat, soy or almond milk for your cereal or coffee instead of cow’s milk. For lunch, you can add tomato sauce to your pasta instead of a meat sauce. You can make a grilled bean and veggie burrito instead of a beef or chicken burrito. There are so many easy tricks you can do, and the book is full of ideas and recipes. How did the students and children react to the shift to eating plant-based meals and practices like recycling?
We took the 18 months to transition and did it in a way where we used plant-based Meats, Garden chicken and we had Burger Day where we had Beyond burgers and things like that. Because it is an environmental school, there is a thread of sustainability that goes through absolutely everything that they do. The campus itself is sustainable. The paint is 0 v o c, the borders around the doors and the windows are made from recycled wood.
It’s 100% solar powered, our water usage is low, and we have zero waste. If you come on site with a single-use coffee cup you will probably have a child come up to you and say that doesn’t belong here. You will not find a single plastic bottle. How many students are enrolled at Muse School?
We had about 230 students pre-Covid, starting from two years old all the way through to 18 years on two campuses. Because of Covid, we are now Muse virtual, and we have kids from around the world. Tell us about some of the school programs.
We have a very robust seed to table program, so the children learn how to plant, grow, harvest, prepare and then compost. Some parents say: “My kid doesn’t eat anything green, so good luck”. But there’s this positive peer pressure thing going on. So, they show up kind of pale and their eyes are a little bit dead, but within a month into they’ve got rosy cheeks and they’re eating green beans off the vine. Kids will say “hey man, look at this carrot, isn’t it great?”, and some kids say, “I don’t like carrots”, but they encourage the others to try it.
We started getting calls from parents asking things like how to plant a raised bed garden, or how to compost. So, we created an entire program to teach parents how to do composting and put in gardens and how to cook plant-based meals. We still have an online cooking show that we do with our chef. Suzy Amis Cameron Parents are always concerned about making sure kids get enough protein. What can you say about that?
It comes up all the time. People ask if their child’s brain will develop properly, will they be getting enough protein. The bottom line is that there is a protein obsession around the world. People think that we need two, three or four times the amount of protein than we actually need.
If a child is eating a very colourful diet, then they are getting the right amount of protein. If they are eating lentils, beans and chickpeas and lots of grains, they’re getting enough protein. If a parent is nervous about it, they can make a smoothie and chuck some plant-based protein powder in it. Kids love smoothies. Now, there are many options. In 2012 when we went plant based, there were not that many options.
Now, a large part of my job is to create and change the supply chain and people’s consumer behaviour patterns. The plant-based industry is the largest growing sector in the food industry. In the last three years, it has grown astronomically by 250 per cent. Even the meat industry is investing in plant-based alternatives, and the dairy industry is investing in plant-based milks. It’s not a trend anymore, it’s the future of food.
The bottom line is we can not feed the planet and humankind with animals. It just won’t work with the amount of land and water that is needed to grow one pound of meat, which is about one acre of land.
We were able to calculate here on our farm that we can get one tonne of meat per year or we could get thirty tonnes of vegetables. It is the same amount of land but with a quarter of the water – a one to 30 ratio. As the founder of the plant-based ventures Verdient Foods, Cameron Family Farms, Food Forest Organics and Plant Power Task Force, what can you tell us about animal agriculture and what it’s doing to our planet?
What people don’t realise is that animal agriculture is the leading cause of greenhouse gases and climate change, more than all transportation combined. It accounts for 14.5%, compared to 4% for jet travel
Animal agriculture is a huge problem, not only because are the animals suffering, but also our health.
After writing OMD and working with the brain trust of doctors that I was so grateful to be able to work with, I discovered that only about 4-5% of diseases are genetic. The rest of them are created by what you’re eating and lifestyle.
Colin Campbell’s 40-year research project called The China Study looked at what everybody was eating. Peasants were eating a plant-based diet because they couldn’t afford meat, and they were the healthiest in the country.
The people who lived in the affluent areas were the ones that had cancer, heart disease, diabetes and autoimmune issues.
They call it the affluent disease. As you know, I am an animal advocate and I am concerned about species extinction, which brings me to my next question… What do you believe is the biggest reason for loss of biodiversity and species extinction?
Making room for animals/cows to graze and/or clearing spaces to grow corn and soy to feed the animals. It is mind-blowing how many forests are cleared to feed these animals. The Amazon is a perfect example. They clear massive amounts of rain forests to grow corn and soy, and 80% to 90% of it goes to feed animals. Imagine how many people that can be fed from this corn and soy?
It’s all about the burger. Biodiversity loss is the result of people’s taste buds, because we’ve been told our whole lives that we need meat and dairy, meanwhile they’re clear-cutting forests left and right and centre in the Amazon. In your opinion, how can we motivate people collectively to make a change? The OMD Plan invites people to change one meal a day, and to have flexibility by being able to just dip your toe in and try one plant-based meal a day. It’s an invitation into a whole new way of living and you don’t have to be perfect.
When I was on my book tour, people would say, “Don’t take away my burger away, don’t tell me what I can eat it”. People get very territorial because it’s comfort food, or tradition or cultural.
But when I started explaining that this is just changing one meal a day, all of a sudden everybody relaxed and started saying “ok that sounds easy, I can do that”. In my interview with Oprah, she said: “well that’s graspable, I can wrap my brain around that one”. Then people realise that after they’ve had a plant-based meal, they don’t fall into a food coma and have that mid-morning or afternoon dip, or they don’t have indigestion.
Typically, what happens is people will try one meal a day and then they’ll feel so great that they’ll transition to two meals a day.
So many people say, “I don’t know what I can do for climate change” or “there’s really nothing I can do as an individual.”
But with OMD, every time you put food on your plate, if it’s plant-based, you are helping your health and the environment. If you’re putting animal products on your plate, you’re hurting your health, the environment and the animals.
