Speaker: Caroline Cotto , Director, NECTAR, Food System Innovations
Caroline Cotto : Food is the medium through which I choose to explore the world, and it's been the through line of my entire life.
How (and why) are you taking action on climate change solutions in, for, and with your community?
Caroline Cotto : Food has been my passion for as long as I can remember, and I like to joke that I was destined to work in food because my last name means cooked in Italian. I'm from a town called Sandwich, Massachusetts, and my parents owned an ice cream store named after me. But food is something that brings us all together and that every human being on this planet can relate to. Um, I remember back in 2017, I heard the statistic for the first time that 40% of food in the US is wasted, and it was really a mic drop moment for me. So I ended up co-founding a company to upcycle the byproducts of plant-based milk production into flour to keep them in the food supply chain and prevent them from ending up in landfill. But through this process, I learned in the food industry that it was really hard to sell a good story alone. The upcycling story needed to be paired with great taste if we were going to be successful in reducing food waste. So I quickly came to understand that this was true outside of upcycling as well, and especially relevant in shifting eaters towards more plant-rich diets. We as eaters have the unique ability to vote with our dollars 3 times a day. So at Nectar, I'm working day in and day out to root change in our food system in the best tasting food possible, so that the most delicious choice is also the more sustainable choice for all of us.
Describe a moment when you felt the real-world impact of your work in climate solutions.
Caroline Cotto : I have a really fun job and then I get to run blind taste tests with hundreds of alternative protein products. And I distinctly remember an experience where one taster at the end of a session held up the only vegan nugget on her plate and declared with 100% certainty, this nugget is 100% chicken. It really excited me because it gave me a glimpse of the future that we're all working towards where we as eaters can both have our cake and eat it too, so to speak. We can enjoy nostalgic food moments in the company of people we love without having to sacrifice on taste and while simultaneously choosing more planet-friendly options.
Who or what inspires/inspired you to care about climate change and climate solutions?
Caroline Cotto : Food is the medium through which I choose to explore the world, and it's been the through line of my entire life. But I'm now living through an era in which the future of some of the world's most beloved foods, and my most beloved foods, like coffee, chocolate, and bananas, is uncertain because of human-caused climate change. I want future generations to experience the magic of these foods, like that first sip of coffee in the morning, but that is going to require collective deliberate effort to reduce consumption of other foods that are driving emissions, pollution and deforestation at a massive scale. I'm hopeful that this constraint will breed creativity, bringing us new and wonderful food experiences while preserving the earth's natural resources for generations to come.
