Meat may be one of the most controversial topics in sustainability discourse. It’s a major contributor to climate change emissions, for one, and vegan advocates have a hard time convincing diehard carnivores to change their ways. Frank Hollemen scales the in-between: he set up Fork Ranger to raise awareness that an impactful change to diets doesn’t need to be all-or-nothing, and to provide the means for those of us with a taste for flesh and an environmental conscience to make reasonable changes. The real magic is in the message.
Leaving aside issues around animal welfare and the health risks of processed meat, a diet that involves eating flesh can still create quite a stir.
The global food system is responsible for 34% of global greenhouse gasses (GHG); livestock releases 14% of all carbon dioxide derived from human activity with beef especially a concern due to cows producing so much methane. Food is also the leading cause of deforestation and biodiversity loss because agriculture takes up half of all habitable land on Earth. The main culprit is meat and dairy: 82% of that agricultural land is used for animal farming but only produces 17% of global calories and 38% of all protein.
Some argue that this is reason enough to switch to a plant-based diet. But even if we share that viewpoint, such a drastic lifestyle change doesn’t always follow.
“I’ve met people who say, ‘I’m open to eating less meat, but I just don’t want to become a vegan or vegetarian,’” Frank Holleman tells us. “That’s a sort of all or nothing approach that doesn’t work for a lot of people.”
Him included.
Meat Me in the Middle
Our CityChanger now lives in his native Amsterdam, but grew up in Switzerland, where he developed a love and deep respect for the mountains. It was seeing glaciers melt that ignited Frank’s lifelong compulsion for protecting the natural world from the ravages of climate change.
For the longest time, though, he didn’t know what to do to help.
Then he discovered “that food plays a huge role” in the causes of global warming, via Project Drawdown. Frank decided to cut down on his personal meat consumption, but he draws the line at going full veggie.
Meat-free diets are arguably better for the environment, but that asks fans of eating flesh to give up a smorgasbord of their favourite foods. It would take a dedicated mind not to relapse.
Rather that tempt disappointment, Frank sees the advantage in compromise: reducing how much meat we eat.
Asking us all to do a little could result in a greater net reduction in meat-based emissions than would be the impact of a smaller proportion of hardcore herbivores.
“It’s not about being 100 percent perfect,” Frank explains. “That’s not realistic, and it’s also not necessary. Right now, two thirds of our protein come from animal-based foods and one third from plants. We need to switch that around.”
Arise, Fork Ranger!
In 2019 Frank established Fork Ranger, an impact organisation set up to normalise the idea that we can eat meat and still be good climate citizens.
The beauty of Fork Ranger’s chosen approach is the simplicity in their methods. Their compass, for example, lays out in basic terms the impact of various actions we can take.
This ranges from eating less beef (high impact), to going organic (medium impact), and buying only local products (very low impact).
This is a meaningful comparison. Frank points out that people often “feel guilty about packaging and about where their food comes from”. They can (wrongfully) prioritise this over making better choices about the meat they buy, which has a bigger footprint.
Seeing the spectrum set out like this, Fork Ranger helps people make easy and informed choices, and “not feel so stressed out about every single food decision at the supermarket”. After all, we want to ensure the right decisions are the easiest ones to make.
Incremental Changes
The compass also forms the basis of Frank’s frequent speaking engagements, in which he encourages individuals to make realistic, simple changes, one step at a time:
- Replace beef – if not with a vegetarian option, then with pork or chicken, which both have a lower environmental impact.
- Reduce food waste – which makes up “one third of all food,” Frank informs us, and is a source of needless emissions.
- Encourage other people to do steps one and two, “because we need to create momentum”.
- Eat less cheese, dairy being the second biggest food-related GHG emitter.
- Eat more nuts and legumes, “two plant-based protein sources that are great for the soil, have a low carbon footprint, low water footprint, and are very healthy”.
By just doing step one and two, you’ve already tackled the most important problems in the food system.
Step three doesn’t even require us to sacrifice any foodstuffs. “I think that’s where the real impact is,” Frank tells us. “It’s creating ambassadors and front runners who then go out in their own social circle to create change.”
Recipe For Change
Wanting to change, and knowing what needs to change can be only part of the battle. Often, we also need to be handed the tools too. Frank has certainly been in that position.
By his own admission, our CityChanger is not a natural chef: “When I started, I was just an average cook.” That posed a problem when he wanted to make tasty reduced-meat meals.
“I felt like there weren’t enough recipes that were easy and my type of meal.”
So he researched, tested, and refined some that had reduced- or no-meat content.
Then, with the aid of a crowdfunding campaign, Frank published his portfolio of recipes in a cookbook.
Like all Fork Ranger’s products would turn out to be, it’s primarily targeted at people “who are motivated to eat less meat, but don’t know where to start”, Frank explains.
Which is why the book includes content pulled from his blog, exploring wider themes of food and sustainability, and explains the impact of individual eating habits.
Putting his aptitude for graphic design to good use – Frank studied communications in Rotterdam – this material includes a mainstay of Fork Ranger’s branding: infographics conveying complex messaging in easy-to-digest formats.
It seems to resonate with the community: the book is in such demand that Frank was able to release a second edition now also accompanied by a calendar with information on seasonal fruit and vegetables.
Turning Up the Heat
But it hasn’t all been plain sailing.
Frank originally envisaged Fork Ranger as a tech startup but soon realised he’d have to hand some control over to investors. As a foundation, he’d spend more time fundraising.
Instead, Fork Ranger is a straightforward business, relying on sales to keep afloat and finance development. This allows Frank to stay focused on what’s important.
“We are a mission first and a business second. One of the best benefits to came from this, which was completely unplanned, is that we now have 10 volunteers who help us.”
Four of whom dedicate their free time to developing the Fork Ranger app.
An App a Day Keeps Food Ennui Away
Essentially, the app started out as a rudimentary digital version of the cookbook, but this failed to ignite public interest.
“It was really hard to figure out something that people really used regularly,” our CityChanger recalls.
That changed when co-founder Marijke Brühl came on board.
Boasting a technical background, Mareike takes care of business – finances, stock, and working with volunteers – so that Frank can concentrate on content and marketing.
Together they kept brainstorming and interviewing users to figure out how the app should work.
“The idea was to create gamification,” Frank explains, citing the language learning tool Duolingo as inspiration.
In the new and improved version, users gain access to recipes by answering daily quiz questions – unlocking infographics that explain the answer whether they get it right or not.
It taps into a natural competitiveness, Frank has observed. People dive in because there are no consequences for getting the answers wrong, but also simply because “people like learning and people like surprising insights.”
But for those that don’t fancy the challenge, the visuals are also available on social media, including the range of creative videos Frank’s been working on.
As he says about the content: “Once you have it, then you might as well post it. Because it’s such a concentrated, condensed version of the information, it does help to communicate with people.”
Gamification
Even the five steps to lowering meat consumption get a makeover influenced by Frank’s fond memories of video games.
He created blocky 8-bit visuals, similar to those seen on the consoles he played as a child, to liven up his presentations – like in his TedTalk.
This serves a genuine purpose. In the game analogy, the steps are rather seen as levels and citizens as characters. When one level is complete, ‘players’ can progress to the next. It underscores the sense of accomplishment, which can be beneficial for sustaining motivation.
We have limited attention and limited capacity of focusing on changing our habits. If you put anything into a game, it just becomes more fun.
Consistency, Motivation… and Campfires!
Frank reiterates that Fork Ranger advocates for some, not total, dietary change.
Repeating this message keeps people on track, especially as many of us can hit a wall at step four – reducing cheese.
“That’s usually the one that is most painful, because it’s very hard to imitate the taste with something else and you can use cheese in so many different ways.” But there’s an upside to it, too: “Once you’ve tackled this, you can do anything.”
This is why Fork Ranger will often share small tips too, like suggesting grating cheese to make it go further.
This is advice Frank shared in a ‘campfire’ session – the name he gives Fork Ranger’s online community meetups.
“We originally started these to introduce people to Fork Ranger. Of course that worked, but it was kind of a bummer for anyone who wanted to join again and would hear the exact same story.”
Unlike vegans and vegetarians, eco-conscious omnivores don’t really have a shared identity. Fork Ranger helps fill that void, which is why people come back; Frank has found eagerness from their community for interaction. It seems they find sticking to the diet change easier among peers.
I often tell people that facts don’t convince people. Change comes through relationships.
Drumming the Message Home
“We regularly hear from people who have changed their diet,” Frank tells us. “That’s what I’m most proud of.”
He acknowledges the other approaches: “You see there’s a lot of sustainable versions of existing products,” like meat alternatives, for example. “But it doesn’t really tackle the underlying behaviour change that’s necessary.” That, he stresses, is much harder.
Hence the importance of creating ambassadors. Increasing momentum, Frank says, is about reaching “a social tipping point” where enough people adopt more sustainable eating habits that it will “create the system change that’s necessary”.
Achieving that is all down to finding not only the right way to spread the message, but defining the audience and a message that resonates with them in the first place.
That requires more than just a sustainability story, Frank explains. “It could be about human connection or about something visually beautiful or pleasurable to experience, but it needs to be some core human thing beyond just CO2 and climate.”
It’s also about posing realistic expectations and putting them within reach.
“We can’t expect the big meat lovers who eat it seven days a week to become vegan; it’s about the people who eat meat three or four times a week reducing it to once or twice.”
Fork Ranger had this concept down pat from the start, which is what made the rest of their journey – however bumpy – easier and why their trajectory continues to rise.
But at the heart of what Frank does is ensuring people who want to make an impact have the resources – physical and social – to stick with it.
“One important goal is to affirm the choice that people have already made. To just show them, hey, if you’re eating less meat and replacing beef, you’re doing the most important thing already. Keep going.”