262 - How Kraft Could Kill Veganism with Entrepreneur Michael Schwarz

Episode • Dec 27, 2023 • 1h 6m

Growing up in South Africa to a family of activists and witnessing the devastating effects of apartheid, today’s guest, Michael Schwarz, had his moral compass set to true north at an early age.

Driven by a profound sense of justice and a desire to combat the deleterious effects dairy has on our planet, he decided to step away from a 25-year career as an intellectual property lawyer and change the food industry by launching Treeline cheese – an independent vegan cheese company.

Michael also appeared in episode 76, where we learned all about his remarkable upbringing, the incredible work his father did as a defense attorney – including the trial of Nelson Mandela, where Michael’s father defended Mandela’s co-defendant and won – and how he made the transition from being a lawyer himself to a vegan cheese entrepreneur.

So if you’re interested in learning what it’s like to run a small vegan cheese company in an era where conglomerates want to take over the industry with cheap knockoffs – and powerful entities like the dairy lobby of Canada are after you – you definitely want to tune in!

“If you look at the products that these larger companies are making, they just aren’t good. Take a look at Kraft’s so-called plant-based Philadelphia cheese. It is basically almost entirely saturated fat. It has no protein. It’s calories and saturated fat. And that’s the bad fat. It’s not olive oil or anything like that. It’s stuff your cardiologist tells you you need to cut down on dramatically, right? I mean, you can eat an entire tub of that stuff and get zero protein. So what does that do to the public’s image of vegan food? Is anyone who’s a nonvegan gonna say, ‘Oh, I’d far rather eat this stuff with no protein, no nutritional value.’ So is that really helping the vegan movement when people look at it and say, ‘This is vegan food?’ Come on. The image of vegan food, I think, is being harmed.” - Michael Schwarz

What we discuss in this episode:

- How the Canadian dairy lobby is trying to block Michael’s trademark.

- The threat vegan products pose to Big Dairy.

- How meat and dairy conglomerates are hurting vegan brands and working to inhibit progress.

- Tips for consumers to navigate making purchases that align with their ethics.

- How Michael makes Treeline cheeses more environmentally friendly.

- Why it’s important to support smaller vegan brands.

- Treeline’s delicious new products and plans for the future.

Resources:

- Treeline Cheese: https://www.treelinecheese.com/

- Switch4Good podcast episode 76: Ethics + Business with Treeline Cheese Founder Michael Schwarz - Switch4Good

- Steven Colbert clip