Fork Ranger

As the founder of Fork Ranger, I’m on a journey to use my food as a force for good. I’ve got much to learn before I can call myself a Fork Ranger, so I translate my insights into digestible stories and recipes so everyone can come along.

One side of me wanted to be an adventurer. But with a big extraverted heart and two pastors as parents, climbing Mount Everest always felt too egoistic and lonely.

As I searched for my role on this planet, I taught myself design, gave storytelling workshops in India, and worked for the first solar-powered expedition to the South Pole.

Then I wondered: what’s the best way to tackle climate change? I found the answer in food and started helping people to eat less meat. I saw a hopeful and accessible story and discovered my calling in life: to be a 'pastor' for climate change.

You’ve probably heard that eating meat causes climate change. But do you know why? And isn’t soy even worse?

Our food is one of the most destructive forces on the planet and is responsible for a quarter of all emissions. Yet hardly any of us understand what sustainable food really is. Even if we did, changing habits is hard.

That’s why I started Fork Ranger: a game to make sustainable cooking radically easy. By completing quests about the food system, you unlock sustainable recipes that have been crafted for the struggles of daily life. Basically, we help you answer two tricky questions: 1. What can I do about climate change? And 2. What’s for dinner

Eating is like voting three times a day for what kind of world we want to live in. With Fork Ranger, millions of people will be empowered to ‘vote’ for a more sustainable world.

We cannot avoid a climate catastrophe without changing our diets and eating less meat. Worldwide, people are theoretically willing to eat less meat (China 42%, The Netherlands 40%, Canada 50%). But in those same countries, food emissions are still rising. This problem has three dimensions:

1. Knowledge

More people know about the high impact of meat but this isn't enough to reduce their emissions. Lots of information feels contradictory and it can be hard to see the bigger picture. 'Is grass-fed beef better than almonds from California?' People become overwhelmed and return to what they already know.

2. Habits

Even if someone understands the problem and wants to change, actually doing so is a whole new challenge. Since food is emotional and habit-based, changing one's diet is a complex journey. I've experienced this myself: It took me years to move from caring about my food emissions to eating sustainably.

3. Feelings

Meat is an emotional topic. Sometimes people are afraid to change because they don't like who they will become. A vegetarian or vegan lifestyle is a strong marker of identity that fails to convince many people to eat less meat.

Everyone can help to solve climate change by starting with their own food, since food is often the biggest emission category of people's lives (35% in the Netherlands). Fork Ranger makes this as easy as possible. People learn what sustainable food is and can apply it with our recipes.

1. Journey (knowledge)

A ‘journey’ respects that you can’t change your diet overnight. In our app, the journey consists of small game-like quests about the food system. They are ordered in relation to their impact (e.g. it starts with beef because beef has the highest emissions). By sharing my own journey, people have a role model and can relax when they see my own shortcomings.

2. Recipes (habits)

Every quest awards points that will unlock sustainable recipes. They only include familiar ingredients and are designed to be nutritionally complete, yet affordable and easy to prepare. Everything is designed according to scientific principles about changing habits and sustainable diets.

3. Storytelling (emotion)

The goal is to become a Fork Ranger. This changes the narrative from something negative (you cannot eat meat) to a more positive vision (take care of your environment and make meat a luxury for the weekend).

Linda is 29 years old and lives in Amsterdam. She recycles, buys fewer clothes, and tries to eat more sustainable. She really likes the vegetarian recipes from Ottolenghi but finds them too difficult for most days. Every time she watches a climate change documentary, she feels fired up to do more but she doesn’t know where to start. The next day she falls back into her daily routine, carrying around a deep-buried feeling of uneasiness about the future of the world and her role in it. 

With Fork Ranger, Linda gets new energy. Understanding the importance of food within climate change allows her to relax about not living perfectly sustainable in all areas of life. She loves to explore new flavors and none of the recipes overwhelm her. She feels good about herself and her friends are intrigued by her enthusiasm. Even her meat-loving boyfriend is curious. With the right information, easy recipes, and a good laugh, Linda slowly convinces people around her to eat less meat as well. Not only can she finally relax about her footprint, she feels a new sense of purpose to continue her adventure of making the world a better place.

Climate change is arguably the world’s most pressing problem. How we eat is responsible for a quarter of all emissions and experts agree that we cannot avoid a climate disaster without changing our diets. Fork Ranger was started specifically to tackle this grand challenge.

Fork Ranger creates awareness around the impact of food and then empowers people to take action. Many people are worried about climate change but don’t know what to do about it. Fork Ranger bridges that gap.

In December 2018 I had a big question: how can I make the biggest difference for climate change? I had been interested in the topic since I was 16 years old but I was embarrassed about how little I knew about the solutions. Not interested in solar panels or windmills, I always found it hard to grasp what I can do.

During my research, I was surprised about the immense impact of food. I was already eating less meat but I still found it difficult. Many recipes just didn’t feel right.

I had been joking for two years that I would make my own cookbook because I hated most cookbooks and recipe blogs. Now I had a good reason to make it happen.

I shared my idea for a cookbook about climate change and immediately found the first ‘fans’ who helped me to refine my vision. For example, after receiving many questions about what sustainable food actually is, the book became half explanation and half recipes.

As I was writing the content for the book and creating videos, I realized Fork Ranger would need to be focused on human-centered design and good storytelling. An app would be the best medium.

I grew up in a beautiful village in Switzerland, playing in forests and rivers. I was 16 when ‘An inconvenient truth’ came out. My heart was broken and I made a website about climate change. Throughout university and my early work life, I kept searching for ways to take action on my passion for sustainability.

At the same time, I saw many of my friends struggle with their purpose in life.

I wanted to help them connect to nature and also fight for a more sustainable world because I believed it would fill their hunger for purpose. But I realized that shouting from the rooftops wouldn’t convince anyone.

With Fork Ranger, I found a way to channel my enthusiasm for nature and make it accessible to others. Food is not only the easiest way to make a difference every day; it’s also the most delicious way. With food, I have a chance to help people reconnect to nature one meal at a time.

Fork Ranger is the result of a 10-year search for how I can help people to live more sustainably, and more importantly, how to give them a sense of purpose in their own life.

The number one reason that startups fail is that no one wants to buy their product. I feel confident about avoiding this trap because I am the target audience myself.

I was so frustrated with vegetarian recipes that I decided to make a cookbook for my friends and myself. Again and again, people were excited about the concept and Fork Ranger grew from there.

The only way to change people is with stories, also when it comes to food. My personal story serves as an example and inspiration for the people who want to be part of the solution but don’t know how. It’s as if I’m talking to my past self.

Storytelling and design are at the core of Fork Ranger and also what comes most naturally to me. Additionally, my two biggest strengths are radical optimism and teaching myself new skills. This is how I self-published the Fork Ranger book and developed the first version of the app.

I’ve always loved presentations and never shied away from sharing my life online. At first, I used this to feed my own ego but my communication studies taught me how to balance social media. Now, Fork Ranger allows me to focus all these experiences and desires into something inspirational and productive.

In 2018 I was working for the first solar-powered expedition to the South Pole, with a vehicle made from recycled plastic (Clean2Antarctica). As communication manager, my job was to share the project with the world. Eventually, I even got a seat on the expedition. Not only was it a dream job but it also gave me a sense that I was finally taking action on my passion for sustainability.

But as the expedition came closer, we couldn’t work out how it should be used for publicity. Since I was ‘chief evangelist’ I had to believe in the project with all my heart, which became more and more difficult. In the end, I decided to forego my spot on the expedition. I had always been proud of persevering, whether it was a marathon or high grades at university, so I was heartbroken to leave the project.

I decided to use this moment to research a question that had been growing on my mind. I had been working on plastic pollution, but I wanted to know how it compared to climate change. What is the most effective solution? My research led me to food and to the beginnings of Fork Ranger.

Each summer I’m part of a camp for 150 teenagers. A few years ago my task was leading the team that prepares a weeklong program full of games. I selected the people, mentored them throughout the year, and helped them to be as creative as possible. But one of them was free-riding on the others’ efforts. After some difficult conversations, I decided he would have to leave and this brought the team closer together.

Everyone found their sweet spot and it was inspiring how the team became more than the sum of its parts. I had to balance being the most visible role model for the teenagers with supporting the team to be at their best. Everyone had a fantastic week and many remember this as the camp when the games and storytelling reached a new level.

That’s why this is my favorite leadership experience; not because of its scale but because it touched people’s hearts and gave me a taste for how I want to lead the development of Fork Ranger.

Fork Ranger makes it radically easier and more desirable to practice a sustainable diet. No other solution educates people’s understanding of sustainable food in an enjoyable way while also helping them to turn it into action.

People might use an emission tracker to learn about their footprint and read books on climate change and agriculture. They might download a recipe app or search for vegan recipes on blogs. But we have already done all of this for them and upgraded the experience.

While there is an overlap between veganism and sustainable food systems, there are also many differences. Fork Ranger is the only solution I know of that connects the latest science on sustainable agriculture to people’s everyday food choices. 

Our innovation centers on design. Just like Tinder simplified the dating process into swiping right or left (for better or worse), Fork Ranger simplifies climate-friendly cooking. 

We have connected something abstract like climate change to the daily 'problem' of making dinner. We help people with the dinner question by improving on recipe design, with both ingredients as well as visual layout. While most recipes are made from a chef’s perspective, we start with the home cook in mind. Serving home cooks is important because as Foodnavigator reports, one of the most popular resolutions for the US is “spending more time at home cooking healthy dishes.”

Activity: Sharing content and recipes 
Fork Ranger translates climate science into vegetarian recipes, educational content, and inspiring stories about becoming a Fork Ranger.

Output: More knowledge and sustainable meals 
When someone engages with Fork Ranger they will: 

1. Gain knowledge and motivation about the topic of climate change and food 
2. Cook one of the recipes

Because of the user-friendly layout and easy ingredients, our readers report that our book is one of the few cookbooks they actually use.

Short-term outcome: More confident 'climate cooks'
Cooking the recipes is likely to result in a reduced environmental footprint. Most recipes are plant-based, which can reduce emissions by 30-80% compared to a typical Western diet.

From reviews, stories, and feedback we know that many readers have substantially reduced their meat consumption with the help of Fork Ranger.

Using a recipe to cook a sustainable meal gives people something to be proud of. Not only have they made a good meal, but they have also contributed to a climate solution. Since the recipes are designed to be as easy as possible, it gives people the confidence that they can cook without meat.

More knowledge and content motivates them to keep going.

Long-term outcome: More purposeful citizens 
The process of cooking sustainable meals embodies a different worldview than that of being a consumer. Consumerism starts with the gratification of your own desires, while sustainable cooking starts from a perspective outside yourself. In other words, taking the time and attention to cook sustainably means practicing the values of a more selfless and empathetic world. 

Since food is something we engage with every day and one's opinion is often a result of past actions, becoming a Fork Ranger is likely to create a chain reaction in other parts of life. That is our long-term mission: to build the foundations for reshaping what 'The Good Life' means. Because only when we abandon consumerism for a better narrative can we truly regenerate the planet and live happier lives.

Now: ca. 1500
I self-published the book in December 2019 and have so far sold 1100 copies with word-of-mouth marketing.

Our newsletter and social media following are a combined 1300 people. Around a third of those people can be counted as being directly affected (around 400).

At the time of writing, the first version of the app has been live for three weeks and currently has 130 users. 

One year: ca. 9.000
The feedback from the book and app so far has validated people’s excitement. We project that it will be possible to continue growing the users of our app exponentially at the current rate of 10% per week.

Five years: ca. 10 million
In the highest meat consumption regions (Europe, North and South America and China) there are around 263 million people who identify as flexitarian. Using this as an estimate for how many people can be excited about Fork Ranger, we feel confident it will be possible to reach 3-4% of those people with our app.

In the next 12 months, we want to test and expand the current version of the Fork Ranger app. The current version was built by myself without any programming experience. Thus the first step will be stabilizing the app with the help of a developer. With the feedback and tests, we already have, we are convinced that the concept will work but the details are a matter of execution and testing. In the first six months, we will test the features and then focus on growing our user base. 

The goal for the next five years is to reach at least 10 million users. With our recipes and information, people can reduce their food-related emissions by 30-80%. If half of the users cook regularly and taking the 30% measure, it would save 2,7 million tons of CO2 per year. This is equivalent to running 583 wind turbines for a year, which might cost around $1,5 billion to install. 

 We also have dreams for the next ten years. Besides further growing our user base, we also want to expand into education and infotainment. With a strong Fork Ranger brand, we will have a chance to broaden our impact through cultural life.  This could include collaborations with museums and schools and producing short films and documentaries.

APPROACH

1) Resistance to change (now & 5 years)
Food habits are one of the most difficult habits for people to change. Not only because they are so ingrained in daily life but also because they’re connected to pleasure, emotion, and morality. 

2) Bridging intention and action (now & 5 years)
Once people are motivated to change their habits, we still have to help them make the right changes for the long-term.

3) Daily engagement (now & 5 years)
When people sign up for the app they often spend 20 minutes going through the content right away. However, how will people return to the app on a regular basis?

BUSINESS

4) Talent (now & 5 years)
An app good that’s enough for daily engagement needs the best designers, developers, cooks, and researchers.

5) Funding (now & 5 years)
Without enough funding, we cannot hire the necessary talent. 

6) Business model (now & 5 years)
Finding an offer with the right value and price will take time.

MARKETING 

7) Old ways of thinking (now)
Since Fork Ranger is mostly a social innovation, it is often difficult to explain its potential to people who have had success in the current status quo of ‘technological capitalism’.

8) Distribution (now & 5 years)
Distributing our app to new markets will be a major challenge culturally and financially.

LOCAL NUANCES 

Culture & Food (5 years)
Scaling up will require an adaptation to local preferences.

Sustainability (5 years)
Local circumstances influence what ‘sustainable food’ means.

PRODUCT

1) Sharing my personal journey with all my failures and doubts makes it more accessible and reduces the pressure to be perfect.

2) Human-centered design and principles of behavioral psychology can divide big and abstract challenges into digestible and tiny steps.

3) The key to high engagement is using the app to solve a daily ‘user problem’, such as the question ‘What’s for dinner?’ and people’s struggles with recipe instructions.

BUSINESS

4) We aim to attract talent with our mission and culture. Together we will not only tackle one of the world’s biggest problems but also redefine what ‘work’ means to us.

5) We are currently applying for subsidies, raising funds with friends and family, and applying for grants like this one.

6) By starting with a first premium offer we aim to find our price-value through rapid iteration.

MARKETING

7) We are constantly fine-tuning our story and testing it with different groups.

8) Besides using a freemium strategy to promote word-of-mouth, our goal is to use content marketing (YouTube) and find partnerships with schools, universities, NGOs, governments, and influencers.

LOCAL NUANCES (9 & 10)

Since these two barriers are currently not a major issue our plan to overcome them is still abstract and untested. Generally, we aim to partner with local organizations and focus on the content that is applicable on a global level.

The Erasmus University Rotterdam as well as Wageningen University & Research have expressed interested in collaboration about teaching students how to leverage food for fighting climate change. We are currently exploring the options.

We have also worked with elementary schools to give a guest lesson about sustainable cooking.

At the core of Fork Ranger is the previously described app with educational quests and recipes. This will be available for free, which will allow the fast growth of new users. A fully functional free app is easily recommended in the app store and social gamification aspects like a leaderboard will encourage sharing. 

The value proposition for these free users is twofold: learning about a topic they worry about and cooking new recipes to feel peace of mind about their impact on the world. In a traditional business, free users only count as advocates but don't contribute to the bottom line. Our free users also contribute to our impact since they are cooking the recipes.

Additional to this free version, we will offer all of the above with a third value proposition: a sense of belonging. For €9,99 a month ($11,28), someone can join the Fork Ranger community. This allows them to earn badges, vote on new features, and interact with other members. Every week, they will also receive new recipes and cooking tips, as well as inspiration for an adventurous and sustainable life. This is about empowering people who want to live a full Fork Ranger life and making them leaders in their community.

The model of our app relies on attracting millions of users with a free version in order for 3-4% of those users to upgrade to a monthly subscription of €9,99. This model only works at a bigger scale and this is also part of the mission: millions of lives can be affected with the support of the premium members. 

The consequence of this strategy is high up-front costs in order to build the app. Thus, we aim to raise investment capital as we build our user base. The most important funding gap is the current one. We need around $200-300k for the next 18 months. We hope to (partially) raise this starting sum with seed investors and grants or subsidies.

The next financing round will require larger sums of around $3-15 million as we expand our team to build more advanced features and local customizations. 

We project to be profitable around year 5-7 with a user base of 10-30 million and yearly revenue between $10 and $60 million.

App

The app has not generated revenue, yet. 

Book

Last year we completed a crowdfunding campaign of $13,550 to print the Fork Ranger book. We then sold additional copies for revenue of $23,710.

The funding needs can be divided into two phases:

1. First 5 months
In order to add a developer to the team we need a minimum of $36k.

2. Following 13 months
To extend our runway to 18 months and build a successful pilot, we require an additional minimum of $186k. 

We aim to fill this need with a grant or equity investment.

The expected costs for the second half of 2020 are mainly related to paying two (small) full-time salaries. Together with some legal costs, website and office space, this adds up to a total of $36k.

I’m applying for the Elevate Prize because of the personal focus and the goal of elevating humanity instead of merely looking for product solutions. Again and again, people have told me that it’s my personal journey that most captures them. I hope to already fulfill the criteria enough to be selected but this application has also helped to clarify my ambition. 

The barriers of Fork Ranger can be divided into four topics: approach, business, marketing, and local nuances. In the past 12 months, I’ve found an approach that works. Now it is time to create a business around it. 

The Fork Ranger concept with my personal story and custom recipes has helped hundreds of people to reduce their meat consumption and gain new confidence about their impact. From my own parents to my friends and their co-workers to complete strangers, Fork Ranger has motivated people to eat more sustainable and give them the tools to do it.

Now it is time to amplify this approach and address the next two barriers: business and marketing. In order to scale I need access to a bigger network and resources.

For our business barriers, the Elevate prize would help with:

• Funding to build a highly qualified team
• Visibility for talent and partnerships
• Advice and mentorship to tweak our business model
• Diverse opinions to cover cultural, technical and legal blind spots

Elevate would help our marketing barriers by providing:

• Legitimacy
• Reach to new markets

Funding and revenue model
The Elevate prize covers our projected costs of at least the next 18 months. Additionally, we seek support with developing a strong case for both business and impact. We've noticed that people can often help us with one or the other. Elevate’s network provides both.

Talent recruitment
Elevate’s affiliation with MIT increases our chances to get in touch with technical talent. 

Mentorship and coaching
The complexities of starting a business plus the challenge of changing people’s habits are so great that it’s crucial to get diverse coaching and mentorship. We are interested in Elevate because other programs don’t combine the same focus on business and social impact on such an ambitious level.

Marketing, media, and exposure
As a Dutch company, we need help with expanding into the US, which is a crucial target market given the high per capita meat consumption.

Creative organizations
We would like to work with a branding agency to further develop our story. Additionally, we would like to work with artists, illustrators, and game developers to develop rich learning experiences. In this context, MIT’s Media Arts and Sciences faculty could also provide valuable connections.

Schools
Since Fork Ranger includes educational content, we would like to partner with elementary, middle, and high schools to see if we can set up our app to teach children and teenagers about the scientific background of climate change as well as introduce them to cooking and farming.

Research institutions
In order to translate the latest science into enjoyable quests and provide clarity, we have to be at the forefront of research. That’s why we would like to partner with universities like Wageningen University & Research and MIT’s Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences department. Additionally, we would like to work with the EAT-Lancet foundation. The goal is to have accurate and legitimate content about sustainable food.

Chefs
A network of chefs not only provides recognition and legitimacy but also helps us to innovate recipes. A collaboration with Dan Barber would bring us to the next level of ‘sustainable recipes’ while partnering with Jamie Oliver would help to make recipes more accessible. Specifically, we are interested in his work to empower teenagers to cook.