Many great company journeys begin with a purpose. Whether it’s to sell a billion widgets or to disrupt an entire industry, there is generally some ‘why’ at the onset and birth of every company. For us, we set out with an initial purpose years ago that still remains unchanged today: to Deploy Nutrition for Humanity. And not just any nutrition, but complete nutrition security — meaning food that is dense in nutrients, healthy, sustainable, promotes disease prevention, widely available, and more affordable, too. We set out to help eliminate key inefficiencies in the current food system by looking at food waste as a valuable resource for nutrition, instead of simply accepting its negative impact on the environment and the loss of nutritional potential as a given. How do we do this, you ask? Well, the answer is simple…and yet not at the same time.
It’s our belief that every single piece of food material is a resource, whether it is used in production, surplus in a field that would otherwise be thrown out (gluts), pressings leftover from processing (industrial waste), ugly or deformed fruits and vegetables (imperfects), or even the leftover hemp from CBD processing, which still has valuable nutrition left in it. We have developed technologies and platforms to up-cycle and create not only food products and ingredients from these sources, but also biofuel and biochar to replenish the soil. We call this mission our Resource Revolution™, and we aim to spread this ideology and circular economy thinking as quickly, far, and wide as possible to bring others along.
Sounds impossible, right? Too good to be true? It’s not. In fact, it’s very real, and it’s happening, right now. For example, we’ve exclusively licensed and further developed a USDA-patented technology called SAUNA, which includes the world’s most powerful dehydration technologies. It allows us to do most of the above, in a timely, efficient, and sustainable manner. And this allows us to exceptionally capture nutrition to feed a population that is more and more looking for healthy, and safe food, and communities that need access to trustworthy foods that benefit our health.
But what does “capture the value of nutrition” actually mean? When we talk about this, we’re focused on the principle of food-as-medicine. This is no longer a hippie-dippy, crunchy granola philosophy, but one that is rooted in science and backed by leading doctors and scientists. One of the leaders of this movement, physician, scientist, and author, Dr. William Li, is a champion of our work and involved with what we are doing. He has written that the human body is capable of naturally resisting chronic diseases (including cancer!) through five health defense systems that can be activated by eating certain foods. And this is why it is so important for us to utilize our technology to capture this whole food nutrition, as it is part of our overall purpose to Deploy Nutrition for Humanity.
Securing access to better nutrition will also help stem the deadly rise of obesity and related diseases that we’ve seen globally in recent decades. In fact, while the US was once the center of obesity in the world, other countries have begun to catch up as the Western diet is exported elsewhere. China and India now hold the top numbers when it comes to obese children. And globally, the numbers have tripled since 1975, with the rise of fast food and industrialized processing. In fact, poor diets now kill more people globally than tobacco and high blood pressure. But the good news is that changes in food system and diets can help to solve all of the above. Or at the very least, significantly reduce the occurrences.
At the present moment, many of us, have come to rely on fixing problems with pills instead of preventing problems in the first place. Frankly, this is not a good solution for the long-term. Antibiotics have begun to fail us; viruses are outsmarting us; and healthcare costs are breaking us. Our bodies are ready for remedies that stem from nature. While many of today’s companies have been generating enormous profits from, and are contributing to, obesity, chronic diseases, and health eroding practices, billions of people and the planet itself have become victims of such industries and their rise to wealth.
But it’s not too late.
At Treasure8, we’re developing nutrition solutions that strengthen immune systems to help prevent, fight, recover and rebuild from these types of health challenges. And with partnerships like that with Dr. William Li and others, we can deploy them to the most vulnerable people in our communities.
If more doctors commit to philosophies like that of Dr. Li, and more food companies begin to adopt a circular economy approach, we can begin to spread the Resource Revolution to those who need it most. It will require more global partnerships, greater investment, more collaboration and working together, and even more folks around the world to adopt a broader vision…but the good news? It is, in fact, possible. As Dolly Parton says, “Everybody has a purpose.” And she is right. Ours is and always has been to Deploy Nutrition for Humanity, and we hope that others will join us on our journey as we do just that.
Written by Timothy Childs & Derk Hendriksen, co-CEOs of Treasure8
