There was this influx of investors who had come to me chomping at the bit, salivating, saying, “it feels like the early days of the internet.” [They were] just so excited to be able to get in and be able to see the profit that they could get in a three to five year timeline. I wanted to write about the alternative protein boom and bust from that perspective. [The billionaires and investors] are looking at it for profit–even if they are talking about how they’re interested in the climate. At the end of the day, these funds need their returns.

[Those investors] eventually realized that you can’t put a food company on a three to five year venture capital cycle timeline. Food is not a cloud company, it is not, you know, a creator company. At the end of the day, people only have one mouth, and they’re only able to eat so much. –Chloé Sorvino on A Public Affair 

Chloé Sorvino joins us to talk about her recent book Raw Deal, and what she exposed in her reporting about the industrial meat industry and meat-alternative market.

Chloé Sorvino leads coverage of food, drink and agriculture at Forbes. Her debut book, Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, and the Fight for the Future of Meat, is available from Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books. Her work has been featured by NPR, the Los Angeles Times and Fast Company.

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