BC Business
There's plant-based food, skincare and robots at the Vancouver Convention Centre November 20 and 21
Living a plant-based lifestyle is most often associated with diet (Where do you get your protein? hears every vegan, every day, ever), but there‘s a world beyond salad and Impossible Burgers. This weekend‘s Planted Expo at the Vancouver Convention Centre is packed with local and international vendors selling goods that are made sustainably and ethically, like skincare offerings, hair products and candles. There‘s also a food waste video game. What?
Here are five things to check out at the event, running November 20 and 21. You can get tickets here.
Vancouver-based robotics startup Trenditech is all about innovative food waste and upcycling solutions, and it‘s bringing a cool factor to Planted Expo with an augmented reality photo booth and its Food Rescuer mobile video game. The company‘s booth is also eco-friendly—it‘s made from recycled shipping containers by Montreal-based Steel Space Concepts.
Carla Pellegrini, executive director of the Food Stash Foundation, will speak about food waste and local food insecurity problems (and what we can do to solve them—like this zero-waste, pay-what-you-feel market, for example).
Victoria-based Save Da Sea is sharing its plant-based alternative for smoked salmon—the main ingredient is carrots, but you‘d never know it.
Nena skincare from Richmond and Vancouver‘s Faceplant Organic Skincare serve up luxe skin solutions that are ethically manufactured, while Langley-based Nuez Acres and U.K.-headquartered Noughty Haircare will show off their vegan haircare.
READ MORE: United & Free vegan skincare goes through a three-year rebrand
Boosh, the presenting sponsor for Planted Expo, is launching its brand-new, plant-based mac and cheese—notably, not KD, but maybe the vegan childhood favourite of the future? The rest of the Surrey company‘s heat-and-eat meals will also make an appearance.