Edible Empire

Kennedy Zakeer is a successful account director whose life trajectory changed in 2016, after a harrowing experience working with orphaned rhinos in South Africa.

Kennedy now splits her time between the corporate world and saving rhinos in Africa, having established the Council of Contributors, a 501c3 organisation that raises funds to support ‘boots on the ground’ and ‘eyes in the sky’ organisations that are fighting to protect the rhino against the relentless poaching and the illegal horn trade.

With an average of 3 rhinos killed every single day, it’s a race against time to save these amazing creatures.

In this episode we discuss:
• Kennedy’s corporate background and how she splits her time between projects
• The motivation behind establishing the Council of Contributors
• Main focus areas for the Council of Contributors
• Past and future projects supported by the Council of Contributors and their highly collaborative, project-by-project approach, which ensures effective outcomes
• The current state of rhino poaching in South Africa and Kenya, and what drives the illegal horn trade
• Why we should all care about rhino conservation and the crucial role they play in sustaining a balanced ecosystem
• What we can do as individuals to take action on this important issue

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Dr Diana Bogueva is a professional journalist, Research Associate and Adjunct Fellow at Curtin University and is also centre manager at the Centre for Advanced Food Enginomics at The University of Sydney.

Diana has a strong interest in meat consumption reduction, food sustainability, social marketing and consumer behaviour change, after conducting her PhD on these topics. What we choose to eat and why, isn’t always black and white. Globally, meat consumption has almost tripled in a little over 100 years. With an increase so large there’s obviously more at play than just personal choice.

Join us for a fascinating discussion into the many aspects of what really influences consumer behaviour when it comes to meat.

In this episode we discuss:
• Diana’s background and passion for food sustainability
• The health and environmental impacts of meat consumption
• What traditionally motivates consumers to eat meat
• Marketing and its role in perpetuating meat consumption
• Perceptions of masculinity and meat eating
• The potential role of social marketing in reducing meat consumption
• Acceptance of meat alternatives and cultured meat
• Upcoming research and projects for Diana
• And so much more – lots to unpack in this episode folks!

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In this episode, we talk with Ryan Alexander, the co-founder and managing director of No Meat May, a registered charity that challenges people to eliminate meat from their diets for the month of May for 4 big reasons; environment, health, animals and food systems.

From humble beginnings in 2013, No Meat May has quickly grown into a hugely successful global campaign with over 65,000 participants for 2021. With this year’s campaign, one of the main goals is reaching more men. We talk with Ryan about the many misconceptions surrounding meat consumption and masculinity, including some surprising outcomes for a recent study they commissioned.

In this episode we discuss:
• Ryan’s personal background and the motivation behind establishing No Meat May
• Our current consumption of animal products and impact on the environment, human health, animals and food security
• The inclusive approach and global appeal of the No Meat May campaign
• The demographics and motivations of people taking part in the challenge
• Men, meat-eating and perceptions of masculinity
• The resources and information available on the No Meat May website and social media platforms
• The positive outcomes from taking part in the No Meat May challenge
• The exciting plans for the future for this amazing charity

Be sure to tag @TheLentilIntervention and help us reach more people by subscribing, reviewing, and sharing this episode with your friends and family.

Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee.

To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.

Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee or becoming a member of Athletes for Nature.
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In this episode, we talk about all things kidney health with Fuchsia Goldsmith, a dietitian based in Auckland. Fuchsia is the founder of Feed Nutrition and serves as Doctors For Nutrition’s lead dietitian for New Zealand’s North Island.

Also working as a renal dietitian, Fuchsia is an expert on diet and kidney health. Kidney disease is a leading cause of premature death in developed countries and an estimated 1 in 10 Australian and New Zealand adults have biomedical signs of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), so this is an important episode for everyone!

In this episode we discuss:
• Fuchsia’s upbringing and motivations for adopting a plant-based diet
• Her research in the growing area of epigenetics - and the marketing hype vs real-world application in this space currently
• The services offered through Feed Nutrition
• Contributing factors to CKD and importance of prevention and proper monitoring
• Key nutrition tips for kidney health, including the vital difference between plant and animal proteins
• The changing advice regarding potassium and phosphate for those with established CKD (it’s good news for plant-eaters!)
• Acute kidney injuries and endurance sports
• Fuchsia’s involvement in the upcoming public lecture series with Evidence Based Eating
• Fuchsia's Pomegranate Summer Salad recipe submission to the Doctors for Nutrition Recipe Collection.

Be sure to tag @TheLentilIntervention and help us reach more people by subscribing, reviewing, and sharing this episode with your friends and family.

Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee.

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Dr Martyn Williamson is a General Practitioner from Alexandra in Central Otago, achieving the honour of New Zealand’s Plant-Based Practitioner of the Year in 2019. In addition to his GP work, Martyn is a senior lecturer in the department of general practice and rural health at the University of Otago, is co-founder of Lifestrong Health with his wife Liz, and is a committee member of Evidence Based Eating NZ.

After discovering the countless benefits of lifestyle medicine and plant-based nutrition, Martyn changed his approach to practice, integrating these strategies into his work, helping countless people lead healthier, happier lives by preventing, treating and reversing lifestyle-related conditions.

In this episode we discuss:
• Martyn’s frustration with the limitations of standard medicine and his journey to embracing lifestyle medicine and wholefood plant-based nutrition
• The important difference between simply managing disease symptoms and actually treating the root cause of disease through lifestyle changes
• Understanding motivations for change and various intervention strategies for adopting a whole food plant-based diet – the benefits and potential pitfalls of the different approaches
• Coaching young cyclists and ensuring they’re eating sufficiently; and dispelling the need for additional protein
• The proven benefits of the Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP)
• Upcoming CHIP programmes in the Central Otago area
• Future plans for Martyn and Liz in their business Lifestrong Health
• The opportunity to join Martyn and Liz on a health retreat at Aro Hā just outside of Queenstown

Be sure to tag @TheLentilIntervention and help us reach more people by subscribing, reviewing, and sharing this episode with your friends and family.

Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee.

To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.

Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee or becoming a member of Athletes for Nature.
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In this express episode, Ben and Emma celebrate Earth Day and share some exciting news about joining the 50by40 network.

We dive into some listener questions — Emma discusses tips and tricks for enhancing iron and zinc absorption on a plant-based diet and if oxalates are an issue; Ben delves into some strategies for overcoming shin splints.

We discuss some upcoming events of interest by our friends at Doctors For Nutrition and Evidence Based Eating NZ, and given we recorded on Earth day, we unpack an important climate study released earlier this year titled ‘Greater Committed Warming after accounting for the pattern effect’.

Ben finishes off with a fitting excerpt from ‘The New Climate War’, the latest book by American climatologist and geophysicist Michael E Mann.

Be sure to tag @TheLentilIntervention and help us reach more people by subscribing, reviewing, and sharing this episode with your friends and family.

Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee.

To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.

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Dr Rebecca Van Amber is a Senior Lecturer in Fashion and Textiles at RMIT University in Melbourne and an expert in clothing and textile science. Rebecca is passionate about textile and apparel sustainability, research and development and was the winner of the 2017 H&M Foundation's Global Change Award's innovation challenge.

Typically, when people think about the industry and environmental impact, the fashion and textile industries aren’t top of mind. However, the ecological footprint of these industries is quite significant. Each year the average Australian buys 27kg and discards 23kg of textiles, with much of this ending up in landfill. 50-60% of clothing fibres worldwide are now petroleum-based, so production methods and product lifecycles are also important considerations. Dr Van Amber takes us behind the curtain as we discuss fashion and sustainability.

In this episode we discuss:
• Rebecca’s background, interest in fashion and textiles and path to research
• The surprising link between clothing and plastic in our oceans
• Strategies to reduce microfibre shedding from clothing
• The need for responsible product stewardship from industry
• The pros and cons of various clothing fibres - have we been bamboozled by the magic of marketing?
• The steps towards sustainability within the fashion industry
• Rebecca’s involvement in an award-winning circular denim project
• How to make the best sustainable fashion choices
• Micro- and nano-sized plastics in teabags
• And much more!

We hope you enjoy this important conversation and would love to hear your feedback! Be sure to tag @TheLentilIntervention and help us reach more people by liking, reviewing, subscribing and sharing this episode with your friends and family.

Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee.

To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.

Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee or becoming a member of Athletes for Nature.
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Professor Corey Bradshaw is the Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology at Flinders University, where he leads the Global Ecology Laboratory and heads the Flinders Modelling Node of the Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage.

Corey was lead author of a recent perspective article titled ‘Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future’. This paper discusses the major environmental issues that have regrettably received little attention but require urgent action. Anyone with a passing interest in the environment knows things aren’t great, but just how bad are they really? Professor Bradshaw is not here to appease the masses with a watered-down message, but rather gives us a well-needed reality check and urges us not to look away from the mess we have created. An overview of this research was published in The Conversation.

We are living on borrowed time by taking more from the planet than it can take. Scientists are no longer talking about avoiding environmental problems, but rather how to best deal with them. Irrespective of what we do now, the future is going to be ghastly – but just how ghastly depends on the path we take moving forward.

In this episode we discuss:
• How Corey’s childhood shaped his relationship with the environment and inspired his journey to academia
• The subject matter of Corey’s previous books Killing the Koala and Poisoning the Prairie and The Effective Scientist
• The silos in academia, lack of connectivity and why this model won’t deliver adequate solutions for the wicked problems we face
• The catastrophic loss of biodiversity and the detrimental impact this is having on ecosystem resilience
• How humanity is driving the sixth mass extinction
• Why the rise of the right-wing populist movement, the weaponisation of environmentalism and ongoing political donations have led to political impotence on climate change
• The ignorance of wanting unlimited economic growth in a finite world
• The potential solutions we can all consider, individually and collectively
• Corey’s must-subscribe blog Conservation Bytes
• And a WHOLE lot more - there’s a lot of knowledge dropped in this one folks!

We hope you enjoy this important conversation and would love to hear your feedback! Be sure to tag @TheLentilIntervention and help us reach more people by liking, reviewing, subscribing and sharing this episode with your friends and family.

Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee.

To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.

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Professor Alan Brent is Chair in Sustainable Energy Systems at the School of Engineering and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington. Alan also holds the position of Extraordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University and is an executive committee member for The Sustainability Society, NZ.

His research interests encompass engineering management and sustainable systems, and as an expert in systems thinking, Alan brings a wealth of knowledge to this conversation as we discuss the various pros and cons of the current renewable energy options.

As always, things are not quite as straight forward as they first appear - renewable energies aren’t always sustainable options. So, should we all be putting solar panels on our roofs and buying Teslas? Take a listen to find out! We hope this episode helps our listeners become more critical, mindful consumers.

In this episode we discuss:
• Alan’s background and journey from engineering to sustainable energy systems
• Renewable energy – what it means, what role it currently plays and where we are headed
• The importance of systems thinking approach
• Alternative energy options and the potential benefits and pitfalls of each
• Storage issues of sustainable energy systems
• Electric vehicles vs conventional vehicles vs hybrids – what’s the better choice? 
• Renewable energies vs habit change
• Solutions into the future

We hope you enjoy this important conversation and would love to hear your feedback! Be sure to tag @TheLentilIntervention and help us reach more people by liking, reviewing, subscribing and sharing this episode with your friends and family.

Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee.

To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.

Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee or becoming a member of Athletes for Nature.
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Boyd Swinburn is a Professor of Population Nutrition and Global Health in the School of Population Health, University of Auckland. Originally trained as an Endocrinologist he is now an eminent public health physician conducting research on community and policy actions to prevent childhood and adolescent obesity, and reduce what he has coined the ‘obesogenic’ food environment.

Boyd is Co-Chair of World Obesity Federation's Policy & Prevention section and Co-Chair of the Lancet Commission on Obesity. He also established the World Health Organisation's first Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention, at Deakin University. We take a deep dive with Boyd as he discusses the problems with our current food system and the changes needed in order to deliver on human and environmental health, as well as economic prosperity. Boyd also calls on us to reframe the role of the individual when it comes to obesity.

In this episode we discuss:
• Boyd’s transition from Endocrinology to Public Health Advocacy
• Obesity and the ‘obesogenic’ Food Environment
• The need for policy change when dealing with the harmful products that dominate our health environment; tobacco, alcohol and junk food
• Government’s role in curbing the detrimental marketing of junk food to children
• The potential benefits of a sugary drinks tax
• The policy inertia regarding nutrition - despite the evidence, and what we can do about it
• The heavy environmental impact of our current food system and the need for a social movement to change this
• The necessity of sustainable dietary guidelines and why we don’t yet have them; the strong lobby forces that unfortunately have a seat at the table
• The big-ticket items we need to address regarding policies on food
• And so much more – this is one fascinating chat!

We hope you enjoy this important conversation and would love to hear your feedback! Be sure to tag @TheLentilIntervention and help us reach more people by liking, reviewing, subscribing and sharing this episode with your friends and family.

Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee.

To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.

Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee or becoming a member of Athletes for Nature.
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, subscribe to this podcast, and share this episode with your friends and family.