Buy, Sell, or Hold: Food Innovation Edition

In the following video, we hear from Fedele Bauccio, founder and CEO of Bon Appetit Management. His company has built its reputation on locally sourced, seasonal, healthy foods, and is actively involved in sustainability issues affecting every aspect of the food industry.

Bauccio joins us for a "Buy, Sell, or Hold" segment on food safety issues such as industrial-scale organics, genetically modified foods, and even food trucks. A transcript follows the video.

Isaac Pino: I wanted to do something that we've been doing for years, for decades now on our NPR radio show, back in the day. It's called a "Buy, Sell, or Hold" segment.

Then I'll ask a couple more questions, and then open it up to the audience. I'm sure they have a lot of thoughts on what your experiences have been.

The "Buy, Sell, or Hold" segment -- if you can, in a few words, give me your thoughts on a couple of these issues that I just wanted to bring up.

The first one is: Buy, sell, or hold genetically modified foods?

Fedele Bauccio: I hate genetically modified foods.

Pino: So that's a sell.

Bauccio: Sell!

Pino: What about buy, sell, or hold industrial-scale organic?

Bauccio: Industrial-scale organic ...

Pino: It seems like there's a lot of pros and cons to that, and maybe it's something that you are --

Bauccio: Are we talking about factory farms? Industrial, concentrated animal feeding operations that are organic?

Pino: The organic movement, or brand, has gained a lot of traction, but in some respects it has been under the radar, exposed that it's not necessarily the best way to deliver foods to people all over the country or all over the world, so I was just curious about your thoughts on that.

Bauccio: Sell.

Pino: OK. Buy, sell, or hold food trucks?

Bauccio: Buy.

Pino: Buy, sell, or hold urban farming?

Bauccio: Buy.

Pino: Buy, sell, or hold going public -- or your experiences, the pros and cons?

Bauccio: Sell.

Pino: Sell going public.