Last year, The Rockefeller Foundation invited organisations to develop a vision of a regenerative and nourishing food system that they aspire to create by the year 2050. We answered the call and submitted our vision for a more inclusive food system that leverages nutrient-rich and sustainable crops in Peninsula Malaysia.

Imagine a food system where farms are filled with diverse crops, rural communities are revitalised by a new agri-food economy, rainforests are restored and food is full of flavour, colours and textures.

Join the conversation on our submission page to comment, leave feedback, and connect with the team!

Let’s work together to realize this vision one meal at a time.

See submission here.

Chris had the opportunity to support the Higher Technical College Hollabrunn in Austria’s mission to help challenge the minds of the next generation and inspire some new ways of thinking.

Presenting the Nutritional Paradox to the next generation always gives us hope to face the current and future challenges, and as Chris said “The current challenges require adaptations, flexibility, and novel approaches. I felt exactly this sort of spirit and I was very pleased with the engagement of the students. Impressive!

Speaking at Impactwise 2020, hosted by Cottino Social Impact Campus and Fondazione Cottino, Chris brought the journey of NamZ and initiation of Nutritional Paradox to a diverse panel of professionals.

“Explaining our approach to alleviating the burdens is always fuelling me with hope, energy and motivation” he said.

The conference aims to create learning and exchange to spark off discussion of a culture of social impact and sustainability, which starts in the Campus but spreads out to cover Italy and the world.

Reimagining for Redesigning?

Every bite we chew, every sip we drink directly influences our health and the health of our only planet! We can’t design what we can’t imagine! But why do we have to change what we eat? Let’s think for a moment what is food all about. To us, it is so much more than just calories, nutrients or a full stomach. It defines the degree of our sense-making and our bodily well-being. It connects us with folks around us and it defines the planetary health globally!

Nutritional Paradox’s initiative advocates to bring back more than 300 crops that we have “forgotten” to use. To do that, we need to make those crops taste “awesome”, educate consumers, develop technologies that help us going forward rather than relying on things that worked a century ago. If we bring back a rich agrobiodiversity with FFCs then our planetary health will swiftly improve and our bodies and mind will be pleased with the fresh set of nutrients it receives.

Thank you BioEnergy Society of Singapore (BESS) for inviting us to your workshop on Food Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship. It was an incredible day to spend with fellow industry experts and to hear about your interesting journey on food waste recycling, food productivity improvement.

What an experience! We were delighted to be interviewed Live on CNA938 Money Mind. We were asked interesting questions about how we started the Nutritional Paradox, what was the motivation. We talked about how we can bring about the change that we hope to bring in terms of consumers’ mindset when it comes to healthier food options.

Listen to the interview here.

We are very honoured to be mentioned in Eco-Business’ insightful article “How food systems can tackle malnutrition while healing the planet“. Eco-Business is Asia Pacific’s leading digital media company. This makes us even more determined to put all our effort into creating a healthier planet and healthier people!

“Healthy food products must be affordable and desirable, and their manufacturers must be able to sell enough of them to offset the lower price and make a profit.”

It’s imperative that food manufacturers broaden the base of crops that they use, so that there are many more future-fit crops being utilised. This will be good for both people and the planet.

Food and nutrition experts elaborated on these three key solutions:

1. Make nutrition desirable, affordable
2. Growing the right food, in the right ways
3. Regulation and education”

Read the full article here.

A few weeks into our Nutritional Paradox journey, Patrick meets with Sabine Schindlbauer, an old friend of him, in Salzburg and told her what we are up to. Inspired by it, Sabine made the impossible possible! It did not take long for us to decide and book the trip and before we knew it, we were on our way! We join ACTAI’s XTC – Extreme Tech Challenge finals and as it turns out, the event is going to take place on Sir Richard’s Necker Island where Bill Tai, founder of ACTAI and lead investor in many companies, including Zoom, brings together some of the most remarkable people who enable “next generation leaders” to organically create new partnerships, projects and initiatives that can make a difference in this world.

It was in the morning of April 1st, not an April fool’s day joke, when a few of us played a few rallies with Riza. Here he is – Sir Richard, ready to play tennis. It was then when Riza turns to me saying “Chris, ready to play with Sir Richard”. Sure – no problem was my answer, but I really didn’t know what I got myself into. Here I am, on court one, playing tennis with Sir Richard Branson! From memory, it didn’t take long before he suggested ‘you can play so why don’t we play a tiebreak set to 10’. I stuttered – sure, why not but my mind started to race and hundreds of thoughts criss-crossing my brain. Chris, what on earth are you doing? Apart from a few hours recently, you have not played for more than 20 years and Riza suggested to just keep rallies going. Nerve wrecked, utterly relaying on Sir Richard’s scorekeeping, I somehow found myself playing three sets with him and as time passed, I started to enjoy this somewhat surreal experience. A classic tennis handshake later, a few pictures in the camera and a complement for me ended this once in a lifetime moment.

However, Sir Richard was not done yet! Chris, he called me, come, I give you a lift to the Great House. A few moments later, I find myself in a golf cart sitting next to Sir Richard driving up the hill and him giving me an opportunity to share why I do what I do. Frankly, I can’t remember all the details because, in the moment, all of this seemed so unreal. Yet, I clearly recollect Sir Richard stopping halfway to check on his freshly hatched chicks and proudly pointing at the solar farm sharing that he intends to farm more chickens over there because there is land and shade under the solar panels. It was after him driving over to see the flamingos and him proudly pointing at the new, still grey coloured, flock, when he turned to me and said, “how wonderful is it to do what you do while you can make money”.

The overarching theme at the Vegan Festival, as to be expected, was the elimination of cruelty to animals and moving towards a plant-based diet while maintaining a high protein intake. It was interesting for us to note that the environment was not necessarily on every guests’ concern list.

Creating awareness for the fourth Burden

Based on this observation, the team focused on creating awareness for the fourth Burden: Planetary Health. The way the food industry works is a complex system and hard to impart in a few minutes. However, once guests realised the impact of the food system on the climate crisis, even after eliminating animal products from their diets, many said they “did not know food could be any other way”. We hope we were able to inspire in interest in examining food more closely. From an ethical standpoint, we applaud the environmentally sustainable move from a growing community moving away from animal products.

The festival also left us with a question to ponder – does processed vegan food on the shelf today resolve sustainably the Quadruple Burden of the Nutritional Paradox, specifically the first three Burdens regarding the nutritional needs of those who practise it? Should the learning be, regardless of label, we should focus on the Quadruple Burdens and vet whether the Nutritional Paradox can be resolved?