Annie Ryu, Founder & CEO of Jack & Annie's, joins ChedHER to discuss the story behind her meat-alternative brand, the benefits to jackfruit, and how our meat consumption impacts the environment.

Opening Bell

This Eco-Friendly Meat Alternative Helps Farming Families Earn More Income

Welcome back to check her brought to you by JPMorgan Chase the bank that advances women everywhere. Alright, meatballs, sausage patties, chicken nuggets, buffalo wings making me hungry before lunch. What is one thing that all of these foods have in common? No, it's not that they're made of meat but that they can actually be made from jackfruit, whole food that's sustainable to grow and to harvest. Joining us now is Anne, reuse Ceo and founder of Jack and Annie's, a meat alternative brand, Annie. We understand that you actually dropped out of med school to start this brand. Talk about a commitment there. What is behind the story of Jack and Annie's. It was really a vision of how we could change the world for the better. So I had started a health tech company prior to starting this company, I was working in global health and just continued seeing that poverty was the root cause of all these problems that I was trying to solve for. Um and also that we needed more different options for nutrient dense, minimally processed food in the plant based meat segment. So really bringing those two forces together, we pioneered the largest supply chain in the world for one of the most nutrient dense crops, which is also the media biased plant out there. So a food jackfruit that naturally has that sinuous nature of meat that enables us to replicate the eating experience of meats, but in a way that's just a plant. So, Jackfruit, an interesting fruit, not a common one that you know, you would see in everyday grocery stores at least that that I've ever bought. I'm curious what are some of the benefits of this type of fruit? Why did you focus in on jackfruit? It's just an amazing crop. So it's been growing in India for as long as we know and enjoyed in India for hundreds of thousands of years as a meat alternative, because it naturally has that sinuous nature of meat. Um as you compare it to meet, it is very high in fiber, it's got protein. Um it's also very low in calories. It's free of fat. The particular stage that is used for meats. Meat alternatives is free of sugar. So it really delivers on the benefits of plants and the eating experience of meat. So with that then, what kind of jackfruit products do you offer? We have as you mentioned these amazing chicken nuggets, buffalo wings, meatballs, breakfast sausages, patties, and links dinner sausages. Um but we'll also be bringing new innovation over time because again, jackfruit is really able to deliver on all these different qualities of meat. And we're at the tip of the iceberg was showing the industry what Jack is capable of, You work with? About 1200 farming families. Can you tell us a little bit more about kind of the farmers that you work with and how you're benefiting or they're actually also benefiting from this? Absolutely. Jackfruit grows without any maintenance. So it's the highest yielding tree crop in the world and was thriving in the backyards of thousands of farming families in India who we now partner with and contribute 10 to 40% of their annual income with our purchases previously, jackfruit, there wasn't really a supply chain to get it to market, so farmers would eat as much as they could, give away as much as they could and the rest of it would kind of rot in the, on the ground just without a way to get to market. So by pioneering that path to market, pioneering the product development, the branding and the marketing, we're creating massive incremental income for farming families. You can really benefit from that you're committed to to providing food that can help people cut down on meat consumption. Can you just put into perspective how our overall meat consumption impacts the environment, especially notably on Earth day the meat industry. So animal animal agriculture actually contributes as much carbon emissions to the environment each year as the entire transportation sector, chicken pigs, cows collectively are the biggest single contributor of methane to the environment and methane traps um, greenhouse gasses 20 times more efficiently than carbon. So animal agriculture, the meat industry tremendous impacts on climate change and likewise, just switching as an individual consumer to eating more plant based is a way to, as an individual have a huge impact as a female founder. One of the questions we always like to ask. Our female founders founders are um, you know, what advice do you have for for other female founders out there, looking to either get into similar industry or just kind of breakthrough in creating their own companies? I would say it's really about having a, having a high end vision and bringing um you know, partners around you who will share that vision and partner with you, I think, you know, a huge, huge part of how I've gotten here is through the mentorship and support of other, you know, women executives who believed in me and you know, knew the challenges that I had faced faced, similar challenges and wanted to lend their expertise to grow the next generation. Alright, then, finally, before I let you go, what are your next steps for the company? What message do you hope our viewers, you know, take especially on this Earth day? Absolutely, yeah, we we are growing exponentially as a company and it's been so exciting every the impact that we're looking to have farmers for consumers for. So uh continuing that exponential growth. Um and you know, we really appreciate the support of of all our fans out there. Please please get our food to try. Certainly something to try, especially on this Earth day, if you're looking to have, you know, some sustainability or impact or maybe move in the right direction and we really appreciate your time and your insight. Any reuse Ceo and founder Jack and Annie's