{"id":16886,"date":"2021-02-08T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T14:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=16886"},"modified":"2021-01-28T09:43:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T14:43:19","slug":"calling-all-bootstrappers-in-search-of-the-wild-tofurky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2021\/02\/08\/calling-all-bootstrappers-in-search-of-the-wild-tofurky\/","title":{"rendered":"Calling All Bootstrappers! In Search of the Wild Tofurky"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Angela Weber, VRG Intern<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Search of the Wild Tofurky: How a Business Misfit\nPioneered Plant-Based Foods Before They Were Cool<\/em> by Seth Tibbott with Steve Richardson is truly a\nmust-read. This is a tale for all of the entrepreneurs, the environmentalists,\nthe foodies, the hippies at heart, the businessmen and women, and the people\nwho love a great underdog story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Seth Tibbott chronicles his journey as he\nturns his passion into a worldwide phenomenon \u2013 the Tofurky. He begins each\nchapter of his story with unbelievable previews of anecdotes, such as studying\ngraffiti, renting space to piano-tuning clowns, and turning four trees into a\ntreehouse where he lived for seven years. He closes each chapter with heartfelt\nand honest words of advice to inspire his fellow \u201cbootstrappers\u201d engaging in\ntheir own journeys. Everything in between is a fascinating story about how a\ndream became a reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Tibbott begins by warning readers that,\n\u201cThe Tofurky story is the opposite of smart money.\u201d It is by no means a story\nabout building a business to amass a fortune, but rather a story about how\npreserving authenticity, positivity, and passion can reap great rewards when\nyou enjoy the work you are doing for your business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Tibbott had the insight to recognize a\ncritical need amongst vegans. Thanksgiving meals tend to be meat-centric,\nleaving vegetarians and vegans to only be able to choose from the side dishes.\nThe Tofurky deliciously addressed that need, and the brand has expanded to\nprovide some ingenious plant-based alternatives to meat products. This is the\nstory of how that all came to fruition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     His successes were inspiring because they\ndid not come from having a lot of money or resources, but rather, they came as\na result of his hard work, determination, gut feelings, support system, and\nunwaveringly firm stance behind his mission and vision of \u201cbringing vegan,\nlow-on-the-food-chain protein to the world.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     A sense of creativity and community and an\nenjoyment for life were instilled in him from a young age by his parents. When\nhe went to college to become a teacher, he found the traditional classroom\nsetting to be too restricting and unimaginative, and he could not be true to\nhimself in this way. Although teaching elementary schools was ultimately not\nhis destiny, it was during this time in college where he stumbled on to\nvegetarianism and the wonders it could do for human health and the planet, and\nit became one stepping stone on his path to revolutionizing the vegan food\nmarket with the Tofurky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     As his perspective changes, he goes on to\nbecome a wandering naturalist, spending a lot of time in the great outdoors\nwith very little income. His modest lifestyle allowed him to have freedom and\ncreate memorable experiences, one of which being his discovery of tempeh. Upon\nvisiting a commune known as The Farm, he learned about the miraculous mold and\nsoybean combination that made tempeh. Immediately becoming fascinated with\ntempeh, Tibbott purchased a starter culture and produced his first batch. The\nrest, as they say, is history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Tibbott\u2019s passion for this process leads\nhim to create his company, Turtle Island Soy Dairy, where he devotes his time\nto producing tempeh. He faces many trials and tribulations along the way. With\na lack of fundamental business knowledge, a meager annual budget of $2,500, and\na slew of individuals insisting that meat consumption would never change in\nAmerica, what could possibly go wrong? He shares with his readers his many\ntransitions, mistakes, insights, signs, and moments of growth, all of which\neventually lead him to pivotal decisions and his aha moment of creating the\nTofurky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     He never gives in. He never gives up. He\nuses the resources he has to constantly grow, learn, and improve, while keeping\nTurtle Island Foods and Tofurky brands under family ownership for the past\nforty years. A lot can be learned from this humbling, often humorous, and\nengaging story of someone who wants to change the world for the better, one\nTofurky at a time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     I definitely recommend looking for the\nTofurky brand on your next trip to the grocery store, and I absolutely\nrecommend reading this book! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can order the book on\nAmazon here: https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Tofurky-Story-Pioneered-Plant-Based-Dinner\/dp\/1635766532\/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Angela Weber, VRG Intern In Search of the Wild Tofurky: How a Business Misfit Pioneered Plant-Based Foods Before They Were Cool by Seth Tibbott with Steve Richardson is truly a must-read. This is a tale for all of the entrepreneurs, the environmentalists, the foodies, the hippies at heart, the businessmen and women, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16888,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16886\/revisions\/16888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}