In search of upcycled food that actually tastes good

Back in my Brooklyn kitchen, I started the day by making Rise’s shortbread cookie recipe. As they baked, I daydreamed about an around-the-world tour of upcycled beerstuffs. I’d start in New York for sustainable ice cream sandwiches, then head to Toronto for pine-and-citrus American Pale Ale and Dayton, Ohio, for a sour-tart Gose made from pretzels.

Next I’d hit up refreshing ales in Singapore and Japan, then flit around to Chennai, India, to visit Snackexperts, a company focused on local tastes and ingredients that use Rise’s methods. That’s right next to Cape Town, so I’d stop there for yet another pale ale before heading to Vanderbijlpark, South Africa, to check out what kind of flour (and, more importantly, baked goods) the students at Vaal University of Technology are making to donate to local people in need.

I’d eat a few vegetables and possibly an orange or two while on a short trip to Modena, Italy: Celebrity Chef Massimo Bottura’s restaurant Osteria Francescana bought Rise’s flour once, so a stop there is required. Then I’d head back to New York for banana bread and brownies.

That’s the most innovative part of these companies: People are collaborating across borders on something bigger than the bottom line.

Toast likes to brag that it has upcycled one million slices of bread and donated £25,000 ($31,800) to its nonprofit partners (mostly Feedback), for campaigns like ending Big Livestock and tackling soil depletion. But a company that gives to charity is hardly innovation — corporate America out-charitables itself to prove that yes, we’ve all done something good.

A company that teaches other companies how to brew its recipes? Now, that’s new.

Though Rise has applied for a patent for its inventions, it also shares its flour recipe with folks in Uruguay, South Africa and India, Gopi told me as I chatted with him over the phone, leaning against my kitchen counter and shoveling crackers into my mouth. The company collaborates to create new products with Rise’s technology — such as for Snackexperts’ malty packaged snack. These local companies are completely separate from Rise, with their own revenue streams that do not return to the American company at all.

“We have this inherently exploitative view of technology as a way to manipulate the physical world around us, without realizing that in turn we are also manipulating ourselves and our relationship to this world,” he told me. “If technology is made consciously and critically, then we can actually create systems that even if they are not sustainable, they do less harm.”

“That’s true,” I said, glancing at the empty plate that had previously held a few dozen upcycled-grain cookies. There were only a few crumbs left. Should I make some granola out of them? I wondered. Or maybe brew a crackerjack IPA? It would be a shame to let them go to waste.

Images: Getty Images (Spent grain, flour); Rise Products (Shortbread, team photo); Toast Ale (Sesame crackers)

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.