Food Out Loud

At its core, Alpha Food Labs has a simple mission: research, invest in, and create innovative foods that are more sustainable, healthy, and tasteful than what currently exists today. And co-founder and co-CEO Mike Lee is committed to bringing the conversation around the future of food and its current problems to the community.

“The future of food is everything,” says Lee. “We want to inspire and educate the food industry on where the future of food might go. We’re not dictating what the future of food will be—we’re offering opportunities for conversation and inspiration.”

While growing up in Detroit, Lee loved to go to The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) every year. He most loved to see the cars that were not going to be for sale: the concept cars. Lee eventually began to ask himself: “Who is doing concept car level stuff in food?” Concept cars are designed to inspire other automakers; he wanted a food company that did the same for the industry.

And consumers are asking for it. “People have woken up to the fact that food impacts your body and the environment in very profound ways,” says Lee. Plant-based has become a billion dollar industry, and what started as a niche market is becoming a key investment for companies like Tyson Foods.

Alpha Food Labs also includes companies Food+Tech Connect and The Future Market. Food+Tech Connect specializes in providing the most up-to-date research on what is currently happening in food technology, while The Future Market offers concept food products and experiences largely based on that research.

Lee and his company have been involved in flavor development for a number of products, including plant-based yogurt Lavva. The yogurt uses plant-based ingredients—including Pili nuts, young plantains, coconut, and cassava—that together create a creamy, delicious taste eerily similar to that of animal-based yogurt.

Lee does not advocate for any particular diet, and is determined to maintain a critical eye on all types of products—whether animal-based or plant-based. “There is no such thing as one optimal diet,” adds Lee. “At the end of the day, it’s not about the right diet. It’s the diet that’s right for you.”

Listen to the above episode of Food Out Loud to learn more about the future of Alpha Food Labs and the ever-evolving problem of sustainability.

Moringa is known by many names throughout the world: drumstick tree, mother’s milk, the tree of life. But the plant is relatively unknown in the United States, and its extensive nutritional and medicinal benefits are only beginning to be studied.

In this episode of Food Out Loud, host Nathan Mikita chats with Lisa Curtis, the founder and CEO of Kuli Kuli. A former Peace Corps volunteer, Curtis began researching the moringa plant after personally discovering its exceptional nutritional benefits while living in a mud house with no electricity in Niger, West Africa.

Listen to the above episode of Food Out Loud and learn more about the next steps for Kuli Kuli and the medicinal benefits of moringa.

Brandi DeCarli is not an engineer or a farmer but she and her team at Farm From a Box have created a revolutionary product that could change the way the world farms.

In this episode of Food Out Loud, we meet Asori Soto, filmmaker, and director of the documentary Cuban Food Stories. The documentary takes us on a tour of Cuba through the eyes and the food of the locals.

The film is split into chapters, each one taking us to a different place on the island, meeting new people and discovering new traditions. Some moments in the film leave you longing for a simpler time, questioning what the higher calling is. In Cuban Food Stories, you discover a culture being preserved through food and a people who take pride in that mission. You find yourself thinking of your grandmother's cooking, for me a taste and feeling that I haven't experienced in years. It made me wonder, maybe I need to get more in tune with my heritage and the recipes my family passed down for generations before those stories start to become forgotten.

The use of GMOs has been a hotbed issue in the U.S. for many decades and there are strong concerns happening on both sides of the conversation.

One of the biggest arguments for GMOs is the idea that we need them to feed a growing population. I realized that I don't understand enough about what it takes to feed the world, let alone what it will take to feed future generations. I also did not know exactly what was considered a GMO and how present they are in the food we eat every day.

With that in mind,  I decided that I wanted to try to find someone who was an advocate of GMOs to ask them some of the basic questions that I just simply do not have the answers to.

Atlas is a Meat-Free Delicatessen that provides healthy and nutritious vegan food, without losing sight of why people enjoy comfort food and their food quality and flavors are taking the Miami market by storm.

In America, we are struggling with obesity and as a result: our health. We have to take a look at what we are eating because the current American diet seems to be out of whack.

On this episode of Food Out Loud, I interview Mark Yu, co-founder of the keto-friendly, butter coffee brand, Grass Fed Coffee. We discuss our experience with the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting. Mark tested this diet and lifestyle on himself and after losing 45 pounds in just four months, he simply became a believer.

In this inaugural episode of Food Out Loud, we talk with Sara Brito the founder of Good Food 100 Media Network, which is responsible for the Good Food 100 Restaurants List. We talk about the changing U.S. consumer, the Good Food 100 Restaurant List, the future of food in America.

America's food industry is connected to everything and the potential to address some of our most challenging issues lies in how we think about our food. Food Out Loud will take an exploratory look at the some of the biggest questions, changes, and challenges in our food industry by talking with influential and interesting people who are doing the same thing, and impacting our food future.