Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/567722
A s one of the organizers of the democracy movement in 1989 that occu- pied Tiananmen Square, Shen Tong, founder and CEO of international business accelerator, Food-X, has long believed that big change is possible. He is now directing his activist drive toward tackling some of the food world's most complex problems. BY DENISE SHOUKAS Shen Tong: Accelerating Change Through Food-X, which is just over a year old, Tong aims to support sustainable food businesses and help create a shift away from the world's industrialized food system. The goal of his accelerator is to launch at least 100 food-related ventures each year, through a combination of peer learn- ing, financial support to the tune of $50,000 per team, and mentor coaching with luminaries like Blue Hill's Dan Barber and Dorothy Cann Hamilton, founder and CEO of the International Culinary Center. Tong's focus goes beyond financial success and strives for a triple-bottom-line approach that includes social and environmental success. Here, he discusses his activism, technology's role in today's businesses, and his hopes for the future. What makes Food-X different from other accelerators? We focus on two elements: nature and culinary tradition. There's nothing wrong with fantastic technology, but the big pivot in food is more about restor- ing and working with nature and leveraging culinary traditions. When you think about what is the biggest food problem globally, you say disappearing farmland or hunger. But there is a much bigger problem: In every economy, as soon as it moves out of poverty, people rush to this very bizarre version of the Western diet. It's highly processed, animal protein–centric, and uses "cheap" ingredients—salt, sugar, fat—creating high-calorie, low-nutrient food. And it's at a profound cost to all of us. The connection is simple: We are what we eat, therefore whatever food you put out there as business- es needs to have a fundamental respect to the human body. These are the kinds of things we focus on. We put our money where our argument is, that the big food pivot will, and should be, about restoring that relationship to nature in two ways: as industry, looking at good water, good soil, good PHOTO: SHEN TONG q&a 88 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com