FoA 339: Carbon neutral foods with Ann Radil and Jim Jarman of Neutral

Sound Agriculture: https://www.sound.ag/

Neutral Foods: https://www.eatneutral.com/

Jennifer Barney's "The Business of Food" newsletter: https://jenniferbarney.substack.com/

When I first read about Neutral Foods, I thought “that’s really smart branding”, but can they really back it up? And if so, how? And what’s in it for the farmer to incentivize them to make changes that benefit society, but may or may not benefit them? 

That’s really what today’s episode is all about. We’re about to bring on Jim Jarman, =vice president of product and commercialization at Neutral, and Ann Radil, head of carbon removal to answer these questions.

Neutral Foods was founded by Matt Plitch, whose mission is to build the world’s first carbon neutral food company. He gained early investment from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Ventures and other celebrity investors like Mark Cuban and LeBron James. Matt wanted to start with milk, which has 93% household penetration. The product, Neutral Milk is organic milk that strives to reduce carbon emissions within the whole supply chain, to become carbon neutral. The way they are going about their mission is by working directly with farmers. A typical dairy they work with is ~75 - 250 head, and what they do is provide financial support and subject matter expertise on things like manure management, feed, feed production, waste water management and more. They work with the farmer’s goals, and have 3rd party monitoring and measurement that quantifies the changes being made, and verifies the emissions reductions. 

Neutral Foods, as a consumer facing brand is already well on their way with nationwide distribution at Spouts, Whole Foods and Target. You can find their products in the organic milk section, and their retail price is in line with the set. They are very clear on their packaging that they are working towards operational carbon neutrality but that they purchase offsets today as a starting point.