♪ ♪ AMANDA ANDERSON: Hi, my
name is Amanda Anderson and for as long
as I can remember, my family in rural Minnesota
has gotten together for an annual pheasant
hunt and reunion. DOUG OLSEN: Well, I
believe it started back when my dad was young. The family would get
together and pheasant hunt and then it grew
and just escalated. (upbeat music) ANDERSON: Dougie is my uncle and a quintessential
Minnesota meat eater. Somehow I ended up a vegetarian,
the only one in the family. Do you have any friends
that are vegetarian? ANNA: No.
- ABIGAIL: No. ANDERSON: Do you know any
vegetarians besides me? No. ANDERSON: Would you ever
consider not eating meat and eating a plant-based
version of venison? I don't think I could do that. ANDERSON: Why not? Because everything I
eat has, like, meat. (upbeat music) ANDERSON: I have to admit,
each year we gather together, I do wonder if my
meatless lifestyle will ever become
more mainstream. (upbeat music) So I've set out on a
quest across Minnesota to see the
impacts
of alternative meats and changes in farming and more that might surprise
my meat eating family. (upbeat music) Is there a food revolution that's starting
right here in Dawson, in Minnesota's heartland? (upbeat music) (bright music) ANDERSON: Welcome to
Dawson, Minnesota, an agricultural town located
in rural southwest Minnesota. Population about 1,500. Affectionately known as
Gnome Town to locals, these gnomes over here
represent the founders of Dawson Mills, the company
that was the or
iginator of Dawson's signature smell. BERNICE OELLIEN: The biggest
thing for anybody coming in was like, you know,
there was a smell. Well, as one person said,
it's kind of like a pig yard, but I don't agree because I try to tell everybody it's
the smell of money. There is a hint of money, but the main smell,
it's soybeans. You see, Dawson, Minnesota
has played an important role in soybean processing and in the development of plant-based
alternative meat options. Which, as you may know,
are havi
ng a moment. [Reporter] Plant-based meat, or fake meat, as
some might call it, is wildly popular.
- It's so good. But is this plant-based
approach really all that new? Nadia Bernstein is a
historian of food technology. NADIA BERNSTEIN: So
vegetarianism and
diets that avoid flesh or certain kinds of meat have been around
since antiquity. And there's a lot of reasons
for vegetarian diets. Spiritual, ethical, religious,
concerns about health, that have existed
through history. ANDERSON: America's h
istory
with plant-based proteins starts around the
time of Henry Ford in the early 20th century. Ford was a vegetarian and a
huge backer of soy anything. Like check out his soy suit. In the 1940s, Ford's food
scientist, Robert Boyer, developed a way to make a
fiber spun soy protein product that was initially used for
textile fibers, like the suit. And then to make
meat substitutes. BERNSTEIN: Boyer
patented his technology for protein skinning for food. Another entity that licensed
this patent wa
s General Mills. ANDERSON: At the same
time, over in Dawson, four forward thinking
business people started talking about
the business potential of soybean processing. They met for coffee in the
local cafe and decided. DAVID CRAIGMILE: Maybe
they should look into establishing some kind of
a processing plant here. It was fraught with challenges
all the way through. ANDERSON: The businessmen
were convinced that soybeans would take off. This was the start of Dawson
Mills, which would become one of t
he largest
employers in town. Soon, Dawson became home
to a soybean days festival. This pancake
flipping contraption was arguably as hot as
the pancakes themselves. OELLIEN: The grills had eight
different plates on them, like a carousel. The first one would put the
batter on and would go around and they would flip
'em as they went. And it brought in people
from all over the state to see this. ANDERSON: Bernice worked
her way into the trade room, where they would buy
and sell soybeans. That's her
right there. So it looks like it's a
room full of men and you. - It was. (laughs) Dawson Mills also bought the
rights from General Mills for protein spinning. This meant a bigger plant. Dawson Mills was located
in the heart of town and expansion was
nearly impossible. So they headed east, like
one and a half miles east. OELLIEN: This was a
sketch of the plans. ANDERSON: So this
would've been 1970s . . . - Seven.
- 1977. Obviously, look at those pants. (Bernice and Amanda laugh) LEE GUNDERSON: A
nd I
mean there was a lot of talk about plant-based
protein back in those days. They must have saw this coming and thought it's worth the try. You know, risk and reward. ANDERSON: Dawson
Mills stuck with it, trying to market
the meatless meat. GUNDERSON: The ham and the
chicken was pretty good. It worked great in salads. The beef was a little, you know, maybe if you used it,
I'm not sure what. That's his Minnesota nice way of saying people didn't like it. OELLIEN: And I think,
maybe, if we could
have exposed people more to how to use it and
what was really involved, it would've been better. But that's hindsight.
You just don't know. ANDERSON: By May of 1981, Dawson's meatless meat
dreams had come to an end. But what's old is new again. (upbeat music) [Reporter] If you haven't
yet heard of PURIS, you will. NICOLE ATCHISON: Our company
is known for pea protein. [Reporter] The ag tech
company based in Minneapolis was just named by
Fast Company as one of the world's most
innovative compani
es of 2021. - And just like that, the facility in the
field has new tenants. The challenge PURIS sees
for the future of food is creating a product that's
plant-based, nutritional, and maybe most
importantly, tastes good. ATCHISON: When my
parents founded the
business back in 1985, my dad said that we
were gonna create a plant-based food company. So his belief was that if
people are gonna eat plants, then the plants
need to taste good. And so at a very young
age, my brother and I, we really had t
o
pull our weight. And so we grew up cross
pollinating plants to make new varieties. We did that all the
way through college. My dad, we were from
southern Iowa, he planted one of his test plots in Ames in
the town I went to school in so that I could still do
the crossing that summer. Definitely a dad power move. PURIS's special sauce has
been the yellow field pea. MATT KARELS: So this is our
splits, receiving and storage. ANDERSON: You've heard
of split pea soup, yeah? KARELS: And you take
that
outer shell off and it falls into
two pieces, right? So we call those splits. And what we receive
here in Dawson is cleaned yellow split peas. Once here, we grind
them up into a flour, put it into a solution, and then we do a bunch of
separations after that. But why peas? KARELS: A pea consists
about 20 to 25% protein. ANDERSON: And that's higher
than a lot of other legumes, or? KARELS: Well soy actually
has a higher protein content, but you get the allergens
that come along with that. And anot
her thing
about pea protein that makes it a little more
attractive is taste and texture. Our dad really challenged
our team to say, you know, if we can make pea
protein taste just as good as any other proteins
on the market, then we might have something ANDERSON: PURIS
coming to town seems to be good news all around. But Minnesota is really
meat and potatoes country. Remember my family hunting? With one of the biggest
plant protein facilities in their backyard,
will Dawsonians and people in the
region consider making plant-based
eating part of their diets? That's a question that can
only be answered by heading to the one place in town that's
serving plant-based burgers. The Rusty Duck. Co-owner Tom Beals
remembers what it was like when PURIS first moved to town. TOM BEALS: Tons of contractors.
It would be nuts in here. Our place was full
of steelworkers, electricians, you name it. They were, yeah.
ANDERSON: Yeah. Something new was coming to town and to the Rusty Duck menu
came somethin
g Tom never could have imagined. CHEF: Oh, we got
a veggie burger. ANDERSON: Veggie burgers! BEALS: We put it on the menu
after PURIS had started here. I pretty much just decided it
was a good business decision to support them and
what they were doing and put it on the menu. And if people wanted it,
were asking for it anyway. ANDERSON: Mm-hmm.
- Then let's roll with it. (upbeat music) ANDERSON: But despite putting
a veggie burger on the menu, Tom hasn't tried one. He agreed to a taste test, alon
g with Dawson's
mayor, Randy Tensen. Will they be able to tell
the difference? I wonder. CHEF: Put both burgers
on the char boiler, cooked them both
exactly the same. And I put different
colored picks in them to be able to tell the
difference between the two. RANDY TENSEN: I'm pretty
sure which one is which. ANDERSON: Interesting. Just facial expression we have here.
TENSEN: That's a very good tasting burger. This is the beef. This is all plant and this one is really good. ANDERSON: What do
you
think, Tom? BEALS: They're both very good. I think I would guess
what one is the beef and what one is the
veggie burger, yep. CHEF: That is the real meat
and that's the plant based. ANDERSON: So you had it right. CHEF: Yep, and that's
the plant based and that's the real meat. ANDERSON: So you both had it.
BEALS: Yep. Both had it right. Yep.
TENSEN: I was expecting it to have a taste that
was pretty bland. BEALS: And I even
think the texture is quite amazingly similar. TENSEN: Oh it is.
BEALS: It
's very, I mean. ANDERSON: So is this the
first veggie burger either of you have ever eaten?
- Yep. - Yep.
- I'm so glad I could be here for this moment. ANDERSON: Okay, so if taste
was the last frontier, does that mean everyone
here in Dawson is up for eating plant-based? It's time for
another field trip. (upbeat music) We're here at Tim's Food Pride and it's a local
grocery store in Dawson. I was curious to
see about what types of plant-based foods
that they have here. So we're gonna go back t
o the
dairy section to check it out. So I see here we have
vegan veggie burger, veggie burger, Morningstar. These are Bocas. So it looks like
those are our options for plant-based protein. (upbeat music) How have you noticed
what people are buying or what people are coming
to the grocery store and what they're eating? How have you noticed,
if at all, that change? Well, I noticed that the
ladies that come and shop and have families and young
children are buying a lot of produce and not
so much as
meat. ANDERSON: You've noticed more of the plant-based
burgers being available. Yes. Do you think people
are eating 'em though? You know, I don't know. ANDERSON: This. This is what
we're here to figure out. Walking through Tim's Food
Pride, people know PURIS and people know there are
plant-based options now that are out there. AMBER BOYENS: When we think
about an average plate, half of our plates, at least, should be coming from
plant-based foods, if not three quarters
of our plate. ANDERSON: A
mber Boyens
is a local nutritionist and has helped many
people in this area navigate dietary change. But Amber tells me the switch to a plant-based
lifestyle is hard for most locals she knows. BOYENS: Food is so deeply
rooted in who we are. It's rooted in our
memories, in our culture, in our traditions, in our
family, in our lifestyle. So when we make changes to
food, it can feel very personal. What do you guys think about trying a hot dog or a hamburger or chicken nuggets that are
made from bea
ns or peas? KID: My dad ate a crocodile
before. Just a little piece. BOYENS: Plant-based foods in
general are so full of flavor, but they're intimidating. I mean, I find eating crocodile
a little more intimidating than plants, but people
change their diets for a number of reasons. Health, budget, ethics,
the environment, enjoyment. Kelli Fernholz is the teacher of this preschool class in
Madison, a town next to Dawson, that Amber occasionally
comes to talk to. (upbeat music) KELLI FERNHOLZ: Like
fruits and vegetables have always come naturally, but the plant-based
protein is the harder part. ANDERSON: Traditionally,
plant-based has meant foods like vegetables,
beans, and tofu. But now companies in this
plant-based space, like PURIS, are hoping the term
makes consumers think of things like pea
protein sausage and soy protein chicken,
something that people with busy lifestyles
like Kelli can just throw in the microwave. But Kelli isn't
so sure about some of these new alt-meat options. FE
RNHOLZ: I just would rather
just go with like a real food. Like I'm just gonna eat
the salad. Real food. ANDERSON: And depending on an
individual's dietary needs, meat alternatives
aren't always healthier. BOYENS: Plant-based doesn't
necessarily mean healthy in every aspect of it. ANDERSON: These plant-based
meat alternatives are more about adding variety. BOYENS: So if we're gonna
introduce a plant-based burger, it's still a burger. And maybe you don't change
any other element to the meal, but
you change what
that burger is made of. ANDERSON: Or you change
what the cookie is made of. BOYENS: Who's heard
of a chickpea before? Have you eaten chickpeas?
Do you like them? Yes!
FERNHOLZ: You had 'em in your lunch yesterday. BOYENS: You did?
- Yeah. Chickpeas are what we're gonna
use today to make our dip. So we're gonna make
chickpeas taste like cookies. What do you think about that? Have you ever done that before? (upbeat music) ANDERSON: They added
vanilla, salt, peanut butter, soy milk,
maple syrup,
chickpeas, and chocolate chips. That sounds pretty good. BOYENS: Let's go
around and I want all of you to be good listeners and to tell me what
was your favorite thing that we tried today? Oh, and let's start with you, 'cause I know you love to share. - This.
- You like the dip? Yeah? Ella, what was your favorite? - The dip!
- The dip? ANDERSON: The dip. - I don't like chickpeas. BOYENS: You don't
like chickpeas? But you like the dip, right? And what's the dip made from? - Chickpea
s.
- Chickpeas! So sometimes if we don't
like a certain food, we might like it if we make
it a different way, right? ANDERSON: But with busy
schedules, is there time to make special meals every day? And our culture has
started to reflect that. Grab and go breakfast,
fast food restaurants, drive-throughs,
convenience store sushi. We can see the impact that unhealthy diets can have
on our bodies and our planet. It's not clear if plant-based
alternatives are a solution or just perpetuating our
busy
lifestyle eating habits. And specifically in Dawson,
there's more to the arrival of PURIS than if locals will
choose to try an alt-meat diet. How did you feel
when you learned that PURIS was gonna be
moving into that building? BONNIE OLSON: Oh, I
thought it was great, 'cause it was standing
empty for a while. And like I said, it brought a
lot of jobs to the whole area, not just Dawson, all
the way around here. Do you think that Dawson had
the infrastructure to support that many people
coming to
work in town? - I think so.
Housing is a problem. - Yeah.
- Housing's always a problem. - Everywhere.
- Yeah. ANDERSON: When
PURIS came to town, they had about 100 jobs to fill. For a small town, that's
a lot of new people. MEGAN LYNCH: I think
with the population of Dawson being a little
over about 1,500 people, and us needing to employ
100 people here in Dawson, I think we realized
that we might of course be drawing
from nearby communities. About 95% of our
current workforce is driving within
a 50 mile
radius of the Dawson plant. ANDERSON: Megan
knows that hiring and retaining staff
isn't just about the job. With her young kids, she
also discovered the shortage of childcare providers in town. LYNCH: We don't want them to
have to leave our community or leave PURIS because
they can't find childcare. Tony Aafedt is the
athletic director, transportation director, community ed coordinator in
the Dawson-Boyd school system. Subtext here, the school
runs on thin employee margins and it hits
hard when
they lose workers. TONY AAFEDT: When PURIS opened, it wasn't like this mass influx of people coming in
looking for work. We had several people
leave the school to go to work at PURIS. ANDERSON: Because PURIS
pays more than a lot of other businesses in town. It's been hard,
nearly impossible, for Tony to recruit people to work in the
daycare at the school. Yes, childcare falls under
Tony's giant umbrella of jobs. AAFEDT: And here's our
new daycare coordinator, I guess we call
it, 'caus
e she's, Nancy's over the
preschool and the daycare. ANDERSON: How long have
you been in that position? NANCY: A week and a half.
- Oh! Nancy just moved to
Minnesota from Florida in the middle of winter. Welcome, Nancy. Have you heard people talk
about a need for childcare? NANCY: Oh yes. I have already
been to several meetings and absolutely, I have a
waiting list of babies. That waiting list of babies
is gonna bump up our numbers in every other class as well because we have to move
kids along
to make room. AAFEDT: I think PURIS is, it's a great thing for our community. You know, it's
definitely pushing us. ANDERSON: But how much push
to provide more services is healthy for
communities to grow? And how much push causes
community collapse? Let's look at the push
on the housing market. Janell Welling is
a local realtor. For her, it's personal. This is home and she wants to help other
people find their place. But it's hard when the
housing options are limited. JANNELL WELLING: Right now
in Dawson, as of today, there are three houses for sale. ANDERSON: We went to go
check out those three houses, on like, the coldest
day of the year. Ooh, it is chilly. (upbeat music) WELLING: What PURIS
did is it brought to the forefront the true need that not only Dawson is having, but all of our
communities is having, areas for development
of housing. Infrastructure,
putting in the street, putting in the new
sewers and gutters. Who's going to pay for that? LYNCH: We know it's a problem. And so
how can we help
come up with a solution? What is that gonna look like? Because it's gonna impact us, you know, being able to
hire and retain people. ANDERSON: And there's
another challenge for PURIS. They need farmers, which
are plenty in Minnesota. The bigger question, do they
want to grow the PURIS pea? LUKE PETERSON: Smell
that baby, bud. - That smells like a sunflower. Smells like a
sunflower, doesn't it? ANDERSON: Luke Peterson
runs an organic grain and livestock operation right in the sha
dow of
PURIS's Dawson Plant. PETERSON: When PURIS moved
into town originally, my first thought was, great, I'm gonna have
a processing facility to bring peas to
three miles from town. I think a lot of farmers
thought the same. ANDERSON: I did too with PURIS
so close, like right there. What a great opportunity for
farmers in southwest Minnesota to introduce a new crop
into their rotation. (upbeat music) But ultimately, Luke decided
growing the PURIS pea would not work for him and he wasn't the on
ly
farmer in the area. In fact, there is
not a single farmer in the entire county
growing peas for PURIS. PETERSON: It's hard when
you take a specific crop and try to attach a
dollar amount to it. If I did that, I'd
be growing corn and soybeans consecutively,
year after year. 'Cause that would generate
the most revenue per acre. ANDERSON: Corn and soy. Let's talk about corn and soy. I can tell you all about it. ATCHISON: There's
about, you know, 90, 85 to 90 million acres of corn and soy grown i
n
the United States. There's about one
million acres of peas. PATRICK MILLER: You know,
there's huge markets everywhere for corn and soybeans. There's two spots in every town I can deliver my corn
and soybeans almost. ANDERSON: Farming runs hand in
hand with a well established and entrenched system known as the Federal
Crop Insurance program. US farmers mostly
grow corn and soybeans because those are the crops
that get crop insurance. The county that Dawson is
in, Lac qui Parle County, doesn't h
ave a policy
for yellow field peas. So when PURIS tries
to convince farmers to grow the pea here, they
have to convince farmers to give up the safety
net of crop insurance. MILLER:It's nothing to spend
a half million dollars before anything comes
out of the ground just to plant my farm. ANDERSON:$500,000. MILLER:If you don't have
coverage for that, if you don't have
guaranteed coverage through crop insurance, you're never gonna
get an operating loan. ANDERSON: But here's the
M. Night Shyamalan t
wist. Luke does grow peas, but not to sell to PURIS
for its plant proteins. PETERSON: So after that
wheat crop comes up, I'll plant 40 pounds
of peas per acre. I let all of the
seed and everything, all of that protein
goes back into the soil. And that's one reason
we have such a nice, healthy looking corn crop. ANDERSON: For Luke, the
priority is the environment and the health of his farm. And he's finding a
way to make it work. PETERSON: So I have a pretty goo
percentage of the farm that isn't
insured. I take on a considerable
amount of risk by doing that. But what I'm looking
for is the diversity and having that rotation
that supports soil health. So instead of just focusing
on the year to year, make it or break it, maybe safe way of
looking at agriculture, definitely took a turn
towards playing the long game. (soft upbeat music) ATCHISON: It's hard, like farmin
agriculture, it's hard work. I think everyone's
figuring it out and we're trying to make
new and better products that can h
elp people say,
"Hey, this is just good food." (soft upbeat music) ANDERSON:Sometimes the
system makes change hard. Even if small farmers
like Luke and Patrick and companies like
PURIS are all interested in the same thing: how to make a living while
also thinking broadly about Earth's finite resources. (soft upbeat music) And it's not just in Minnesota. Around the world, people are thinking
about what they produce and eat in a different way. (soft upbeat music) I can't predict the future,
but if
growth projections of plant-based
proteins are accurate, making up 7.7% of the global
protein market by 2030, PURIS is gonna need a lot
of peas for their alt-meats. (soft upbeat music) So these choices we've been
making here in Minnesota are likely some choices
you'll be facing, soon. (soft upbeat music) (soft upbeat music continues) (funky upbeat music)
Comments
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