Gregory Sams invented the first commercially available Veggie Patty in 1982, ran a successful macrobiotic restaurant in the late 1960’s and had a very specific set of regulars visit his eatery, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
Imagine yourself sitting in a small restaurant in the peak of the Psychedelia scene and through the door walks John Lennon, possibly dragging his band mates to a restaurant he discovered, and you have a meal with The Beatles. The timeline makes all of this possible, The Beatles only broke up in late 1969/early 1970 and SEED opened a few years before that.
SEED was a restaurant in a basement in Paddington, a neighborhood in London, that was started by Gregory and Craig Sams in 1967. The menu focused on rice, seaweed, miso, veggies and seeds like sunflower or sesame and had a recipe for a vegetable burger.
“How could you beat having the hippest restaurant in Sixties London, serving organic wholefood dinners to the likes of John and Yoko and supplying free meals to those with no money” - Sams says in a blog post on his website
On the success of SEED, Gregory and Craig founded a company called Harmony Foods in 1970, Harmony Foods eventually became known as Whole Earth Foods. The company started running into financial difficulties and Gregory knew he had to do something to get them out of that hole. With the experience Greg had with Whole Earth Foods he started The RealEat Company, and this is where he invented the first official VegeBurger that was sold as a dry mix that would create up to 4 VegeBurger patties. He tried to recreate the patties he would use at SEED that were made of wheat gluten, sesame, soy and oats.
Two years after this he had developed it into a frozen patty that was not only meatless but was less expensive than its meat counterparts. Vegeburgers sold for 56 pence and meat-based patties sold for between 75 to 85 pence.
Not only did Sams focus on bringing a meat-alternative to a wider audience he made sure it was accessible to all as well. It inspired others to follow in his footsteps of creating a more sustainable burger.
Since then, there has been many different versions of plant-based burgers, burgers that try to recreate a meat experience and then there is Crossover Meats with a different approach to the same problem. A more sustainable patty.
Why is sustainability so important though? What’s the point? Currently the food industry is responsible for a fourth of all CO2 emissions, and by implementing a few simple changes, the world can drastically change for the better - not only for our beautiful planet earth but also humankind!
With our Crossover Blends™ that emit up to 50% less CO2 and use 50% land and 40% less water to produce than conventional beef patties, we are taking our own steps at being more sustainable. We also have a competitive price as we believe to make change, you need to make it accessible to all. Why not support more innovation and go buy a pack of Crossover Blends™, you never know if you’ll run into the next John Lennon or just maybe make a friend that makes sustainable choices. The world is always changing, and you can be part of the steps that head towards a more sustainable future. You can make real change with real meat and it’s as simple as heading to a Giant Food and buying something that is more sustainable.
Comments