Can This Man Change the American Diet?

Ayr Muir always had an interest in the environment. After HBS, he thought he’d find a job in wind power—until a friend gave him an alarming UN report detailing livestock’s impact on CO2 emissions. With the average American consuming 3.1 servings of meat daily, Muir realized that food was a place he could make a difference. In 2008 he started Clover Food Lab with the goal of making vegetables irresistible for people who love to eat meat. Now a chain of more than a dozen fast-casual restaurants in the Boston area, Clover serves an always-changing, all-vegetarian menu to a 90 percent non-vegetarian customer base. In this episode of Skydeck, associate editor Julia Hanna takes listeners behind the scenes at a Clover food development meeting and talks to Muir about Brussel sprouts, the lack of transparency in the food industry, and the iterative process that created Clover’s different look and feel.