Meet Jody Boyman | Hungry Planet, Inc

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jody Boyman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jody, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My brother Todd and I are entrepreneurs at heart and decided we wanted to embark on a business to make the world a better place. We both came from other successful careers and were ready to embrace new opportunity. We kicked around lots of ideas and settled on food, specifically plant-based meats, because they have the biggest ability to “bend the curve on personal and planetary health” – our mission. Food is humankind’s largest common denominator and thus our best opportunity to address climate change, food insecurity, and challenging health issues among many other things.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?

Starting in 2015, my brother and I focused on scaling Hungry Planet, putting literally everything else in our lives on hold. We worked crazy long weeks, 24/7, for about 5 years, putting key scaffolding in place to scale smartly and sustainably. In the early days we chose to self-fund so that we could remain 100% true to our long-term mission.

One thing about being an entrepreneur: it is a heavy and sustained lift, so surround yourself with the best partners and advisors, especially those who have lots of experience in your chosen business.

Today, the result of our vision is an award-winning chef-crafted plant-based meat company with the widest range of proteins for foodservice and retail. We offer chicken, beef, pork, crab, Italian sausage, chorizo, breakfast sausage, lamb and turkey. Our meats are a simple 1:1 swap for conventional meat in any recipe, all cuisine types. Even avowed carnivores can’t tell the difference!

Our meats are packed with protein and fiber, with about half the calories, a fraction the fat, and zero saturated fat versus competitors – and conventional meat. Our meats are also non-GMO and are naturally devoid of cholesterol, antibiotics and hormones.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

I don’t have too much knowledge of Denver these days, but of course I would take them to all three Meta Burger locations! They serve award-winning burgers (beef and chicken) that are platformed on Hungry Planet. The owners are amazing guys and innovative chefs, with a big vision to eventually franchise. We would love to see that happen.

Otherwise, I’d swing by Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs, and Boulder for some wonderful scenery and hiking. I’m also partial to the Collegiate Peaks near Buena Vista where we grew up as kids during the summer. I attended Colorado College in the 1980’s and loved spending each break exploring a new Colorado gem. After graduation, I also lived in Evergreen with an unobstructed view of Mt Evans. It’s a great 14’er to tackle if you have the fitness!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

I am hugely indebted to our parents who raised us to be independent thinkers and global citizens. I’m also grateful to one of my s/heros, Dr Jane Goodall, who is 89 years young. When I was a little girl, a National Geographic photo of her in Gombe, Africa absolutely entranced me. , Jane was crouched down in the forest, reaching toward a baby chimp named Flint who was reaching back, their hands gently touching.

As someone who has always been an animal lover, needing to spend lots of time in Nature, this photo exemplified the purity and transcendent beauty of a kind and respectful relationship between two species, between two individuals. As Jane says, having respect for animals makes us better humans. I could not agree more.

From a young age, I was inspired by Jane’s career, and although I didn’t become a primatologist, I did become a wildlife photographer for ~20 years, spending considerable time in Africa and Antarctica in the 1980s and 1990s. It was one way to help advocate for individual animals and species who can’t speak for themselves.

Subsequently, in midlife, she also inspired me to co-found Hungry Planet with a mission to “bend the curve on personal and planetary health” through a full range of delicious, demonstrably nutritious, and sustainable meats made directly from plants. If we are to honor Earth and all her inhabitants, we must shift to a diet rich in healthy and sustainable plant-based foods. As a nation we just celebrated Earth Day, but to me, Earth Day should be observed every day!

Website: http://www.hungryplanetfoods.com/

Instagram: @hungryplanetfoods

Linkedin: hungryplanetfoods

Twitter: @hungryplanetus

Facebook: @hungryplanetfoods

Youtube: @hungryplanetfoods

Other: Jody’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodyboyman/