Elysabeth Alfano

Elysabeth Alfano isn't your typical ETF portfolio manager. She came to investing through Kellogg's brand management , running production, packaging, logistics, shipping, sales, and marketing for brands like Special K and Frosted Mini-Wheats. When she shifted her personal diet away from meat and dairy and started researching the business economics of the food supply chain, she found an investment thesis hiding in plain sight: the current system is catastrophically inefficient, and the companies disrupting it represent an enormous opportunity.

The Business Case for Food Disruption

The numbers Elysabeth rattles off are staggering. "It takes 25 to 35 calories of crop to get one calorie of beef." That conversion ratio drives deforestation for both animal feed crops and the animals themselves , "41% of the world's tropical deforestation comes from animal factories." Methane emissions: "32% of our world's global methane emissions comes from animal factories."

But she frames it entirely as a business problem, not a moral argument. "When I looked at the business equation of our current food supply system, it was so clearly ripe for disruption. It's bad for the business bottom line because it's bad for cost of goods sold because it's so inefficient." The disruption isn't about convincing Americans to give up meat , "Americans aren't giving up meat, we know that" , it's about finding more efficient ways to produce the same end product.

When she couldn't find an ETF investing in the companies working on this disruption globally, she and Dr. Sasha Goodman created EATV , the world's only plant-based innovation ETF. "The food system is eight trillion dollars. The meat industry is 1.4 trillion. I'll take 10% of that and be really happy for my ETF."

Up and Down the Supply Chain

EATV doesn't just invest in consumer-facing plant-based burger companies. The fund spans the entire alternative protein supply chain: ag-tech companies, ingredient companies, technology companies working on flavor and texture, and the consumer packaged goods companies at the end of the line. "We're investing in these ag-tech companies, these ingredient companies, these technology companies, these flavor and texture companies that are working out the innovations to make these products really taste great."

The innovation happening in agriculture technology specifically gets overlooked, Elysabeth argues. AI-powered lasers for weeding, precision farming, controlled-environment growing , "those of us who are in investments are focused on the big things like autonomous driving or AI, but we're not really focusing on all the technology that's helping us do things we've done for a long time, like growing corn."

Climate Impact: 3x to 40x More Effective

A Boston Consulting Group study compared the climate impact of investing in four disruption categories: alternative building materials, electric vehicles, alternative energy, and alternative proteins/plant-based innovation. The finding: "Investing in plant-based innovation is three times to 40 times more impactful than the others." The reason is capital efficiency , much of the existing infrastructure can be repurposed, so you get to impact faster with less capex.

Food Security as National Security

The conversation takes a geopolitical turn when Elysabeth connects food systems to national security. COVID and the Ukraine war exposed food supply chain fragility. "You can't be an independent country if you're relying on others for your food. And when you've got 1.4 billion people like China does, of course you're relying on others for your food." China is investing heavily in alternative proteins , growing meat from cells in controlled environments , specifically to reduce dependence on imported food.

This frames the alternative protein investment thesis beyond consumer trends: governments are treating food production technology as strategic infrastructure. Countries that develop the capability to produce protein independently, without the land and water requirements of traditional animal agriculture, gain genuine geopolitical advantage.

Elysabeth's pitch is fundamentally different from most ESG or impact investing narratives. She's not asking investors to sacrifice returns for values , she's arguing that the inefficiency of the current food system creates the investment opportunity. When it takes 35 calories of input to produce one calorie of output, and technology can improve that ratio dramatically, the economics drive the disruption regardless of anyone's dietary preferences. The question isn't whether the food system will change , it's which companies will capture the value when it does.

The portfolio construction is specific: roughly 80% food-related holdings (up and down the supply chain) and 20% materials (less beef means less leather, for example). The portfolio is approximately 30% small cap, 40% mid cap, and 30% large cap. More than half of the holdings are companies where less than 100% of revenue comes from old legacy food production , they're the innovators. Elysabeth notes that EATV screens rigorously on financials too: "We really screen for the financials." It's not enough to be mission-aligned; the companies have to be financially viable. The average American eats nearly 300 pounds of meat per year, compared to roughly 80 billion animals in factories globally. The scale of potential disruption is massive.

Key Takeaways

• Elysabeth Alfano isn't your typical ETF portfolio manager.
• When she couldn't find an ETF investing in the companies working on this disruption globally, she and Dr.
• Sasha Goodman created EATV , the world's only plant-based innovation ETF.
• I'll take 10% of that and be really happy for my ETF." EATV doesn't just invest in consumer-facing plant-based burger companies.

Listen to the full conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.