I'm often asked by customers, family, and friends about why I chose this career path for myself. My background isn't in food, beyond a couple of short stints working as a dishwasher in a bakery and another slinging pizzas. I don't consider myself culturally savvy enough to be a significant voice in the culinary world.
What I do know, and what I am passionate about, is sustainability. To put it more simply, I love math. In our increasingly chaotic world, I find that math and arithmetic can provide windows of peace, providing some real, firm answers to questions that are on my mind.
I still remember the first time I was introduced to the concept of sustainability when it comes to our environment. I was given a book on the topic by my Aunt when I was a teenager, and I found myself fascinated by the way the information was quantified. From this point on, I found myself constantly looking at the world through this lens. What was the true cost of the things that we do? Not just in dollars and cents, but the costs to our planet at large. As I aged, I began to apply this to myself. What are the costs of the things that I do? As I explored this question, I began to realize many of my daily habits were unnecessarily expensive for our planet relative to what I needed. I don't consider myself an extreme person, I'm not advocating that we all cap our showers at 2 minutes. But I began to realize that there were things that I could change about my habits that would be a minor, or non-existent, sacrifice to me, at great savings for our environment. Namely, I began to see this relationship with food.
Do you know what your food costs? Not what you pay at the store, but what goes into bringing that food to you: water used, gasoline costs, emissions produced, etc. I certainly didn't, and am still learning every day. I assumed that the cheaper foods would have costs that were consistent based on their price. I learned this isn't the case. Many foods can use double, triple, or more the resources of foods that are only slightly less expensive. I began to explore the following question: what foods are the most efficient (in terms of nutrition per gram) in terms of their inputs (namely, water usage and emissions generated)? Furthermore, what impact do these foods have on our body and health? Are there foods that create an outsized positive impact compared to the resources they cost? The answer to this question was surprisingly singular and clear: Beans.
Beans are the most important food in our world. Before examining their efficiency, I believe it's worth noting the significance that Beans have in cultures across the world. Beans often get a bad reputation for being a food associated with lower classes in societies. I've found this to actually be their greatest strength. Because Beans are so relatively efficient to grow, they are traditionally sold at a lower cost than other sources of food. Beans are everywhere. Examine any culture, go to any place around the world, and you're likely to find a popular, unique dish composed of or including Beans.
So this begs the question, if we have this efficient source of food, why do we eat so little of it, especially in the USA? In both my own diet and in my experience with Mighty Beans, I found the answer to be simple: Beans haven't been adapted to fit our modern culture. Nobody has successfully made Beans exciting to us. Many Americans struggle with how to realistically incorporate Beans into their diet. Or, to put it another way, nobody has made a Bean dish for our modern, American culture. To put it another way, I was getting tired of eating the same, microwaved package of Edamame every day.
That's how I came up with Mighty Beans. Mighty Beans are Beans roasted in the oven until they're perfectly crunchy, then topped with delicious seasonings, like a healthy chip! Eat them straight out of the bag, or add them onto dishes like salads for a tasty crunch.
By turning Beans into a ready-to-eat snack, we created a way for the average on-the-go American to get their fix without the often long preparation times that Beans can require. By adding exciting and familiar flavors often found on popular American snacks, we can turn Beans into something that people can not only understand, but get excited about. Furthermore, Mighty Beans increases the amount of Fiber and Plant-Based Proteins that people consume. This can help reduce risks for diseases like Heart Disease or Digestive-based Cancers, two of the top killers of Americans.
Mighty Beans are a unique and tasty source of healthy food that's efficient to make. We're excited to continue this journey of making Beans exciting to people, and are grateful for all of the support we've received from y'all to make that privilege a reality. I wake up every day with wind in my sails from the people like you, reading this post right now. I've never had an opportunity in my life to work this hard on something I consider to have a positive impact on the world, let alone something I'm lucky enough to lead. I'm excited to see where it takes us next.
Thank you for taking the time to read more about why I do what I do. Want to chat about it more? My email is freddy@eatmightybeans.com, and you can always find me at Farmers Markets around the DFW area every weekend. Follow our Instagram @eatmightybeans to stay up to date.
Len-till next time!
Freddy