Summary
With the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of us are paying more attention to our food supply chains. This present moment is bringing issues in our food systems to the forefront. Today, Dr. Wendy Slusser chats with Galen McCleary from Patagonia Provisions about how this current moment presents an opportunity to shift our perspective of food towards a more sustainable and healthful one, and how Patagonia Provisions is “rethinking our food chain.”
More about Galen McCleary
Galen McCleary grew up on the island of Molokai in Hawaii on his family’s Biodynamic ranch and farm. After studying business and engineering at Stanford University, he returned to Hawaii and started a restaurant chain that focused on supporting local food production in Hawaii. Banán has since grown to 5 locations in Hawaii and one location overseas in Japan and continues to source almost all of its ingredients from local farmers in the islands and use business to promote nutritious food and robust local food systems.
In 2015 Galen went to work for Tompkins Conservation down in Argentina and Chile for a short period before moving back to the US and joining the team at Patagonia Provisions. From 2016 to now, Galen has been focusing on sourcing and product development for Patagonia Provisions to bring regenerative organic products to market and work on building out nascent supply chains to bring new innovative products to market.
