The Future is Female AND Vegan: EMA Interviews Jennifer Stojkovic
This week, we got to have an empowering discussion with vegan leader Jennifer Stojkovic on all things food-tech and women's leadership. Jennifer is the founder of Vegan Women Summit (VWS), and author of The Future is Female. While growing a flourishing career with some of the world's largest tech companies in San Francisco, she noticed the inequalities for women in the food tech industry and beyond. This experience prompted her to use her expertise and wisdom to create a platform that would develop influential women leaders of all sectors.
Jennifer launched VWS in early 2020 with a sold-out global conference, credited as the world's first events and media organization dedicated to inspiring women to bring compassion to their careers. With a thriving international community of female leadership, VWS features programming with the world's leading vegan CEOs, celebrities, investors, Olympians, and much more.
We are grateful to share the knowledge we gained speaking with Jennifer on the history and realities that food tech plays in our everyday lives, how we should avoid repeating mistakes made pre-COVID, and how related industries and female leadership are. Check out our latest EMA exclusive.
First off, tell me a little about your journey. What drove you to be involved in the environmental space? Why food systems in particular?
Professionally, I was a Silicon Valley tech executive for several years. I was a vegan; I just celebrated my 8th vegan anniversary! I had suffered a personal tragedy in my early 20s when my husband's friend was murdered, creating an initially unbearable amount of grief for him and me. We went through many avenues to process our grief, from therapy to Buddhist teachings. I learned power and liberation through intentional compassion during this time, which frankly changed my whole life for the better. This practice of intentional compassion eventually allowed my husband and I to go to the prison where his friend's murderer was and intentionally forgive him.
The experience taught me so much as it made me ponder how we as humans may or may not be living with compassion daily. How can one find it within themselves to live with intentional compassion daily? I applied this concept to the food-tech space, namely industrial agriculture, where my passion for the field continued to grow.
For example, about 99% of animal agriculture in the United States is industrial. What's more, when I looked at developments and initiatives being done as solutions to this in food tech, I realized that all of these were being done only by men. I was the only one (woman) in the room. I was already deeply committed to advancing food tech sustainably and ethically but realized I could also build a space that served to bring women into food innovation equally. It made no sense that it was not a thing being done before.
Looking closely at the data, you can see that women greatly influence the food industry. Women make 93% of the food purchase decisions, so we control the grocery carts of the world. The more I thought about creating this space, the more confident I felt that I was onto something special. As we are a population of 8 billion people on this planet, we are all connected by eating. However, our consumption is not without social inequity. In the United States, Hispanics are the largest growing demographic of food buyers. Yet, we still need a Spanish-speaking, plant-based food company. The rise in meat consumption in the Global North is causing starvation in the Global South. Women, especially those of color, need to make food decisions. This is one of the many points I drive tirelessly with CEOs I work with, such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat.
This continuing path led me to write my book, The Future of Food is Female, and to launch Vegan Women Summit. I am proud to say that while we started with about 250 women about three years ago, we are now a platform of over 60,000 professionals, with many attendees including both women of color and men. We receive so many applications from around the world to take part in our programming – it is truly humbling as we are a growing community. We are all empathetic changemakers creating culturally important solutions.
Where do you see the state of the environment and food systems today? Has more attention been given to understanding the connection following the Pandemic?
Unfortunately, today, as we move away from the immediate repercussions the Pandemic has brought on, we are making the same mistakes over again. I have recently seen how 150 million birds have been culled at the time of this conversation in 2023. Egg prices are rising as an example of this result, with some states seeing 150% increases in prices.
Zoonotic diseases, as they are called, have the potential to spread again, with the same magnitude as COVID. Those diseases are anything from swine and avian flu. For example, we know now the Spanish flu in 1917 was essentially the avian flu.
The way I see it, from a public health perspective, the way we confine animals to meet our consumption levels is only a hair away from another global pandemic. The threat of this becoming a reality is happening right now. News outlets share devastating, alarming news, but don't share why! From a social justice perspective, people dealing with the brunt of this are almost always brown and black people. Despite this talk of progress, we are not changing anything.
Sadly, food systems are appalling here in the US. A recent investigation showed the CEOs of US meat companies conspiring to keep factories open despite COVID hazards, killing up to 300 workers, all of whom were people of color. In addition, we are heavily disconnected from the circumstances for our food to get to our table. Pig farms are not in this lavish valley with sunny skies in Southern California; they are in poor areas in North Carolina.
How would you say compassion can be successfully placed to enhance any workplace?
Compassion is a key ingredient in utilizing the power of women and diversity in leadership. By self-actualizing, we can become more observant of everyday life's realities and have more conversations. When we do this, compassion is a crucial byproduct. As mentioned earlier, most Americans need more time and energy to have these conversations. So, how can we make our choices a little better, especially for those that do not have the optimal circumstances?
I did not grow up in optimal circumstances. My father is blind, and my mom worked at a liquor store. I never saw a vegetable until I was 20 years old! However, these humbling experiences fueled the compassion I have today to be a successful leader, and that is what we aim to teach all women of all backgrounds.
You have highlighted the need for women's empowerment in the food tech space. Why is it more important now than ever to see the rise of female leadership in this industry? How can this be expanded to women looking to rise in other industries?
As I noted before, most consumers are women, leading purchasing decisions. So investing in people with the knowledge and experience of what the space looks like makes sense. We know we have not done a good job supporting others who are non-disabled white men. Today, we are seeing founders who were never looked at for capital before now getting funding. Black investors and entrepreneurs are now getting the capital and attention they deserve.
Interestingly, investments in women took a downturn starting at the pandemic's beginning. Investors were called out for not taking a "risk" as it's reported that less than 3% of founders are women. Women of color are even less, accounting for only 0.5% of founders.
It makes sense to grow this space for many reasons, as the benefits simultaneously aid our communities and the planet. For example, investing in plant-based protein is the single greatest climate investment and is 11 times more effective than investing in electric vehicles and 3 times more effective than investing in decarbonizing cement. So, from a sustainability perspective, dollar for dollar, food has tremendous value.
If we move to regenerative agriculture, it will likely reduce the amount of meat production by 90% or more, prompting people in the global north to make a choice. This consumption habit would take a lot of work to change for consumers immediately. Our goal is we want to be there to fill that gap and make a solution.
What advice would you give young professionals and activists looking to inspire sustainability in their community and workplace? What does that mean to you?
You can be a hero every time you lift your fork! Every single one of us has our network of influence! It can happen anywhere. We always have a voice. The more we talk about this, the more we can change culture. Culture is not bought, but built through conversations. We need to build a culture of saving the planet.
In my work, I am raising an investment fund of $25 million to invest in entrepreneurs who are from underrepresented backgrounds. For the Vegan Women Summit, many attendees still need to be vegan. This encourages growing a culture of empowered, open-minded individuals who seek to change what has been done to what makes sense.
At EMA, we strive to bridge the gap between science and communication. What benefit do you see that storytelling can bring to the movement for positive change?
Storytelling can connect those who would otherwise feel unconnected. Everyone can tell their perspectives and connect about what it means through stories. The best part is that we all possess the innate ability to tell a compelling story, wherever we are, with whatever we have right now.
Thank you so much, Jennifer!