Should Food Delivery be a Public Utility? with Errol Schweizer

New Food Order

This week we have a mini episode featuring snippets from a recent conversation we had with Errol Schweizer, former VP of Grocery at Whole Foods, where we asked him what he sees as the top challenges with the business of food and agriculture. Errol shared many challenges with us, but we are sharing the parts of the conversation we had about short termism, corporate oligopolies, and the concentration of ownership.

Errol has over 25 years of experience in the food industry, from grill cook and stock clerk to V.P. of Grocery at Whole Foods from 2009-2016. He has extensively developed plant-based, organic, non-GMO, and regenerative meat and dairy supply chains and production standards. Supermarket News has recognized Errol with a retail game-changer award and he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Hemp Industries Association. Since 2016, he has been a board member, co-founder and advisor to over two dozen food retail and CPG enterprises. He is active in municipal food policy and healthy food access. Errol is a Forbes contributor and is the host of The Checkout Podcast.

In this primer episode, we’ll be talking about:

• Oligopolies in the food and agriculture industry
• Short termism and its impact on public and private companies
• Errol’s ideas about common and public ownership of food delivery - with some heated debate between Danielle and Louisa!
• And be sure to stay tuned to the end of the episode for a little bonus!

Episode Resources:

ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) https://www.esop.org/

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This series is sponsored by Foodshot Global & New Hope Network

New Hope Network

New Hope Network is a media, events and business intelligence company, covering natural products trends, industry insights and marketplace data that educate the industry about key issues, like regenerative agriculture, sustainability, responsible sourcing and more. Visit newhope.com.

FoodShot Global

FoodShot leverages resources from investors around the world to provide non-dilutive, equity, and post-investment capacities to innovators. Find out more at foodshot.org.

New Food Order is brought to you by AgFunder and Food+Tech Connect. Visit agfunder.com and foodtechconnect.com to find out more.

And a huge thank you to everyone who helped us bring this podcast to life:

Production: Cofruition, Anna de Wolff, Pamela Rothenberg

Audio Editing: Mercy Barno & Tevin Sudi

Original Music: Rodrigo Barbera

Art: Lola Nankin & Rekai E. Campbell

Project Management: Patrick Carter