Episode 18: Alternative Meat and a More Sustainable Food System

Join the Sustainable Food Systems Division along with host Bruce Perkins and guest speaker Sue Klapholz as they discuss her passion about addressing climate change by moving away from animal agriculture, while ensuring nutrition and public health are not compromised. In addition to sharing her passions Sue shares her insights as one of the original scientists at both Impossible Foods and Kite Hill.

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Speaker Bio:

Sue Klapholz, M.D., Ph.D, is VP of Nutrition and Health at Impossible Foods. She is also on the board of directors of our sister company, Lyrical Foods. Sue holds five patents and brings a wealth of experience from her diverse career as a scientist, doctor, teacher, editor and writer.

Before joining Impossible Foods in 2013, Sue was a senior scientist at Cell Genesys, where she established a large DNA cloning lab and led the team that cloned the megabase-sized human immunoglobulin genes in yeast, among other projects. Sue also taught a professional course in cloning and analysis of large DNA molecules at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, and was a lecturer on genetics and evolution at The University of Chicago.

Sue was a resident physician in the Department of Psychiatry at The University of California, San Francisco. She was also a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at Stanford University, where she worked on cloning a gene responsible for manic-depression, and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology at The University of Chicago, focusing on the genetic control of recombination and chromosome segregation during meiosis in yeast. Sue has an M.D. from The University of Illinois College of Medicine and a Ph.D. in genetics from The University of Chicago. She has volunteered with a variety of organizations, including the Stanford Health Library, the Palo Alto Children’s Theater and the Palo Alto Humane Society.

Bruce is the principal scientist and operator of Robust Food Solutions LLC, a food science-based consultancy that has operated since 2017, providing strategic advice and hands on support to food businesses in the areas of quality systems and food safety, innovation, product development, and organizational design.

Bruce Perkin is a Certified Food Scientist, a Certified HACCP practitioner, and is a Certified Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence through the American Society for Quality. He is also a Preventative Controls Qualified Individual under the FSMA regulations. He has completed Food Defense training through the FDA and the FSPCA. Bruce is a past Chairperson of the Dallas /Fort Worth chapter of IFT, and also a past Chair of the Food Service Division of IFT. In addition, Bruce is a part time Adjunct Professor at Texas Womens’ University teaching NPD, Food Science and Food Safety to Culinology students.