Bernat Añaños Martinez is Chief Social Movement Officer and co-founder of Heura Foods, a company that creates plant-based meat products with a Mediterranean twist.
The motivation driving him and the people at Heura seems simple at first glance: For people to stop eating animals by providing the tastiest alternatives possible, akin in both texture and flavor to the meat products it seeks to replace. Heura’s vegan chicken for example has managed to become immensely popular, even amongst non-vegans.
We discuss the many reasons why cutting down on meat could be one of the most powerful ways for an individual to make an impact and talk about Heura’s vision for the future.
“We want to create not meat alternatives but meat successors”
We grill Bernat on all the obvious potential caveats:
- What makes Heura products different from other plant-based meat substitutes?
- Why do they come in plastic packaging?
- What about the ingredients do Heura contain and are they not unhealthy?
- What does an animal meat-free diet have to do with social justice?
“Social justice is just inherent in the whole food system. (…) We can build a food system that is socially just.”
You can download the episodes of our podcast in audio format on all of the usual streaming platforms (Spotify, ApplePodcasts, you name it) or here.
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I have just checked one of the UK stockists – can Heura clarify whether the “flavourings” listed in the ingredients are natural or artificial?
Dear Sarah,
For questions related to Heura products please contact Heura directly!
Happy new year!!
love the podcast ! I regularly listen to it.
We are glad 🙂 Thank your for letting us know!
Always love the podcast! But I am alarmed at artificial meat, as it has no ‘basis’ in nature. We are flexitarians, not eating meat every day, mainly eating vegetables from our large garden . Here in Galicia they eat so much meat it is mind boggling. what meat we do eat is locally produced , all grass fed and locally killed etc. Or perhaps small amounts for flavour like a bit of jamon for the traditional dish of Judias Verde con Jamon when there is a glut of green beans. Our milk yoghurt and cheese are from local small organic herds . But all our food is mainly Not Processed. I read extensively on this subject, regenerative agriculture, no dig cultivation, nutrition, and all in relation to climate change, human and animal health, soil health etc. I notice that there are extensive books in English from across the globe, but many less in Spanish.
I am very interested in the nutritional qualities of food, depending on soil health, and I am alarmed at falling nutritional values in our modern foods, even the unprocessed products. Even some organic vegetables if produced on disturbed ground. A podcast about this would be very interesting.
Dear Deborah,
Thank you for your feedback! We agree that fresh products tend to be a better choice than processed ones, but it the case of meat it can a be a good alternative for people that crave a similar taste or texture but do not want to eat the real thing. It is true that in Spain meat consumption is very high! We also have an episode on the Mediterranean diet with Dr.Martinez-Gonzalez, who talks a lot about nutrition and health, the need to reduce meat consumption and also processed foods. Have you listened to that one yet? We agree that soil health and its relation to human health is a super interesting topic, we will try to get a qualified expert for a future episode! In the meantime, we can already share a spoiler: We did record an episode about no dig with Charles Dowding. so stay tuned! It will probably be published in early Spring.
Happy new year!