After processing thousands of tons of raw soybean to make vegan foods since 1980, my plan thirty years ago for the seed of hemp was to disrupt 15% of food soya and shelling was just the first step in that marathon.
Taking off the non-nutritive hard shell was a crucial first step to my goal of competing with food soya and legitimizing hempseed as a commercial food ingredient, like I had done for years with tofu and soymilk as ingredients in other foods such as ice cream or yogurt. But only a first step, not the whole enchilada. Like I said, a marathon.
I worked on shelling techniques for years before finding the product ready to go in Germany, so I started importing and branding it as “Hemp Nut,” the obvious best term for the material since it is in fact a nut, a fruit covered in a hard shell. And the first one in gets the best name so I was and I did, years before today’s hempseed companies started.
But my perspective on all this was quite different than most Hempsters, owing to my food career and academic training in Marketing. For them, hemp=fiber=hemp, end of discussion. However, I saw whole and then shelled hempseed as just another grain to be processed, like I did for years with the soybean. Instead of buying tons of soybean and turning it into foods, I bought tons of hempseed, shelled it, and turned it into foods.
For those I inspired to get into hemp food, they saw not my vision of a marathon disrupting soya, but as a 100m sprint to get rich, the whole race. Period, full stop. Even hemp protein powder took them years to introduce.
Starting from scratch in an industry new to them (food) is hard for those who haven’t done it before, while I already had an existing sales and distribution network with over 100 companies in two countries making money selling our foods for years. So unsure of even how to market foods, they even “borrowed” our trade dress and product names!
HempNut, Inc. had a whole line of consumer packaged goods (CPGs) including the basic products they copied, plus a whole lot more: veggie burger, cheese, chips, lip balm, essential oil, bar, chocolate chip cookies, nut butter, margarine, ice cream, chocolate, UHT milk, even the first protein powder. The various branded foods contained 5% to 51% HempNut shelled hempseed and came in forms familiar to the American consumer. The burger would sport an FDA-legal health claim “reduces risk of heart disease,” the only hemp food ever to do so. And many products had legal Structure-function health claims.
The first products were introduced in 1994, HempRella and Hempeh Burger. They were all over the store shelves as well as magazines, radio, newspapers, and TV for years. In 2000, the Arizona Republic newspaper wrote “HempNut, from California, absolutely rules the market. The company offers a startlingly diverse line of products, from lip balm to cookies. All of it is vegetarian, most is vegan, and some is organic.”
Today, 28 years later, it’s time to take it to the next stage and continue that marathon. Who do you think first sold hempseed to Nature’s Path, to French Meadow Bakery; branded CPGs are the way to go.
I even said as much as early as 1981; value-added foods for the modern palate, in this case secondary soyfoods which are vegan foods made from fresh tofu and processed into familiar forms, like dips, dressings, and desserts. A few years later, sales growth of TofuRella cheese would be 950% in 5 years despite being “America’s most-hated food” (tofu) during the conservative Reagan ’80s.
A trade magazine on what was likely the first vegan restaurant in California:
“Soy delis: Fast, natural, and growing.” Soyfoods. Winter. p 35-37, by Richard Leviton. Concerning the Real Food Tofu Café (8473 East Rd., Redwood Valley, California):
The Tofu Café is “in the tiny inland town of Redwood Valley (population: 400). Real Food (billed as ‘Vegetarian whole foods, specializing in delights from the humble soybean’) opened its 900 square foot facility (which includes in-house tofu production and secondary tofu products) in November 1980.
The café is open for leisurely lunches, from noon until four and the customer often feels as if he is dining in someone’s large, lovely living room.
The deli is outfitted with wall-to-wall carpeting, an authentic rock wall, hefty wooden tables, plants. The decor, in fact, in most soy delis is typically tasteful, low key, earthy, and exudes a subdued sense of quality.
‘Anyone who runs a soy deli,’ Rose remarks, ‘should make secondary soyfoods because of their promotional value for the deli name.’ Rose’s café, which is the retail branch of his Brightsong Tofu Company, produces Missing-Egg Tofu Salad, Tofummus, Almond Tofu Creamie, and Strawberry Tofu Creamie, shipped around the San Francisco market. Missing-Egg Tofu Salad sandwich and banana carob soymilk shakes are the deli best sellers.”
What I was saying in literally the last century:
“I fully expect hempseed foods to someday rival the current state of soyfoods: hempseed is more nutritious, easier to work with, easier to grow, and tastes better. I expect to see it used as a nutraceutical in many foods, as well as a whole host of actual hempseed foods. In the 1980s we made over 60 different foods from soy. As I look at the list, every single item could be made from hempseed, thereby improving its nutrition and taste. Since 1979 I have been involved full-time in making soyfoods, and have watched the soyfoods industry grow. I see similarities between hempseed foods and soyfoods in the growth potential and reasons for its growth.”
And:
“Hempseed can be processed very much like soybeans for use in soymilk, tofu, and secondary soyfoods. As with soybeans, a larger hempseed with higher protein content is best. Soaking, milling, cooking, and extracting the insoluble fiber are the stages of soymilk production, which would also be the same for hempseed milk production. From soymilk one could make tofu, frozen dessert, cheese, or hundreds of other products, and so it is for hempseed milk. There are few soy-based foods that could not be made from hempseed.”
Source: https://www.soyinfocenter.com/pdf/284/Tof1.pdf [PDF]
My ebook “Seedy!” details exactly why and how to get into hemp foods. A generation ago I proved the model for how to make money on hemp by slightly pivoting my successful Inc. 500 business from using tons of soybean to using tons of hempseed. Working with the dozens of brokers and distributors that helped us make America’s most-hated food (tofu) popular in the Reagan ’80s, we had shelf placement in thousands of stores in just months. It’s the same business model still used today throughout the industry. And you don’t even need a farm, building, or equipment to get started. Click here to download it free.