Feeling Our Oats - with Jinqi Yu (Ellen Macarthur Foundation) and Yifan Yang (Oatly)

Environment China

The food industry has a major ecological and climate impact. A wide variety of efforts are underway to reduce that impact, including regenerative ‘agriculture, development and promotion of new or existing plant-based foods, and organic agriculture. In the EU and UK, for example, 40% of agricultural land use is influenced by the top 10 food brands and supermarkets. While many are currently part of the problem, given their size and influence, they can be, and need to be part of the solution.

Our guests today are Jinqi Yu of the Ellen Macarthur Foundation and Yifan Yang of Oatly.

Jinqi currently works as consultant for Food Program at the Ellen Macarthur Foundation. She is dedecated to accerlerate the transition towards a circular economy and has been working with the foundation since 2016.

Yifan is the sustainability manager at Oatly. She is responsible for the holistic sustainability in the value chain of Oatly. Founded in the 1990s, Oatly is a Swedish food company that produces alternatives to dairy products from oats. Oatly has boomed in Shanghai since entering the China market in 2018. The Swedish oat-based drink is one of the fastest growing milk alternatives in the market and has a devoted fan base worldwide.

"The Big Food Redesign," Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 2021, at https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/resources/food-redesign/overview.

Oatly Sustainability Report 2021: https://a.storyblok.com/f/107921/x/5f77aca2c2/oatly-sustainability-report-2021-web.pdf

"Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Dairy Sector A Life Cycle Assessment," United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report on Dairy Carbon Emissions, 2010, at https://www.fao.org/3/k7930e/k7930e00.pdf