Last week I participated in the 48h Makeathon: Meat the Future organized by Swiss Food Research.

Following the design-thinking approach combined with expert inputs to foster innovation in one of the most pressing challenges the world food system is facing: our meat consumerism. Participants worked in preformed teams to create new business ideas that would help reduce meat consumption and presented them to expert judges at the end of the event.

 Challenge Brief – Social & cultural dimension

Eating and diets have a strong socio-cultural and psychological link – Taking this into account, what can help to successfully rethink meat consumption habits?

• Day 1. Setting the scene through presenting the topic through various speakers presenting their research and development in the area. This concrete data served as a strong basis to drive the teams.
• Day 2. The most intense of the days. Full on idea creation and prototyping.
• Day 3. Finalization and presentation of solutions.

Tackling global food challenges with a collaborative and diverse team

I was blessed with a wonderful team, full of knowledge, each of us bringing our own spark and expertise from different fields, food science, business, nutrition and hospitality.

We received the “highest social impact” award. Our project, “Beyond MEATing” focused on empowering companies to boost employee engagement and reach their sustainability goals even though people work in home office. With our slogan : Connect. Act. Have fun.

To do this we wanted to create a platform to unite home-office workers through their love of food, but not just any food. We would send employees a plant-based mystery box to conjure up meals of the future, all locally sourced, all sustainable. It is pertinent and a valid business opportunity as companies must push CSR to concrete actions, no more greenwashing.

Although a logistically complex project, the after effects would work positively on many levels.

• Engaging local farmers for ingredients, 
• Making plant-based ingredients accessible and socially accepted 
• Reconnecting and reviving life within the home 

… All of this through one movement. Beyond MEATing. Prized with a further 15 hours of coaching from Swiss Food Research, we now have the option to try and bring our idea to fruition. 

Exploring ideas and discovering new solutions

Through design thinking processes you can go from a 50 idea mindmap to a 1 idea pitch within less than 48 hours. All you need is a diverse team of motivated people and a time crunch, and the tool “miro” we used was a great help to visually map everything out. You can very quickly produce a relatively solid business plan. So if you have an idea, go for it!

Overall, what I found most impressive over the workshop was the passion and sheer quantity of ideas all participants had. It  gave me hope that despite having many worldly issues to tackle, we are not missing ideas or motivated individuals that truly want to take them further and solve problems.

I feel inspired and more engaged than ever to tackle the food crisis through a new and innovative business. 

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