6 minute read
Plant Based World Expo Founder Ben Davis
From An Ardent 25-Year Meat-Eater To A Whole Foods Plant-Based Crusader On A Mission
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by Karin Olsen
Five years ago, Plant-Based World Expo Founder Ben Davis couldn't predict how his life would change. As unbeknownst to him, a pivotal relationship was about to lead him to a new way of thinking, a new diet, and a wildly successful plant-powered career.
In 2017, Davis was an ardent 25-year meat eater when his girlfriend inadvertently started him on the vegan path. She had debilitating endometriosis and, after extensive research and trial/error, had discovered an animal-free diet was the remedy. In support, he started cooking plant-based meals for her while maintaining his steady side diet of meatballs and sausages. He said after witnessing how she thrived on the vegan diet, he ultimately opted to exclude the meat, and the results were powerful. "My body started feeling better, and I became more aware of the environmental implications. I felt I could cut certain things like red meat out as doing my part. Then, the ethical question popped into my head: Would I kill the animal to eat it? The answer was no, and that was the final reason."
He said he maintained a vegan diet at home for most of that first year but found himself wavering while traveling. Questioning his commitment, beliefs, and goals, he decided there were no good reasons to continue this practice and set out to make his lifestyle plant-based. "Once you put in the effort, you start discovering a new world. You discover places on the road serving delicious food and parts of grocery stores stocking what you need. For example, while traveling, I found the Beyond Burger before any hype or news about it. I walked into Whole Foods craving a meatier burger and thought this looks like what I want. I've been a fan and supporter of what they've been doing ever since." Davis' favorite home-cooked dishes have always revolved around pasta, and transitioning non-vegan recipes to plant-based was surprisingly simple. "I'd normally make pasta with meatballs or sausage, and then I started making it with more vegetables like zucchini with lemon and garlic along with meatballs on the side for myself. Slowly I'd stop making the meatballs because I realized I could eat more." A self-proclaimed "big eater" with a "big metabolism," Davis said he's always been able to eat large quantities of food without putting on weight but discovered his plant-based diet enabled him not only to eat as much as he wants while also meeting his calorie needs but also benefit from the higher nutrition value of an exclusively plant-based diet. When the 2020 health crisis hit, he doubled down on a whole-foods-plant-based approach to fortify his immune system. "While I binged on vegan chick'n nuggets throughout quarantine, I would want to follow that up with juice and whole foods as that's what my body recognizes and what gives me energy," he said.
Davis said that physically, high energy levels are only the beginning of the benefits of his plantbased journey. "I feel like it's pushed me to want to be more in tune with my body -- more flexible and more body-aware, which leads me to do more stretching and yoga. I know the diet and yoga combination is working by how much healthier I am. I can go without much physical exercise and still go on a hike or whatever I'm doing. My body can handle things that previously would have rendered me out of breath." Bounding with energy during those early days, it was only natural that Davis introduced his plantbased lifestyle to his family. "I came in, and there was a moment my family thought I was crazy. I was trying to get them to listen to me, do things I wanted them to do, and watch documentaries, but I couldn't get anything to happen. I finally got their attention by simply cooking delicious food and getting the reaction — 'wait, what did you use?' That response changes everything. "My mom was already the healthiest eating of all of us, so it was easy for her to start making vegan food once she embraced it. She is also a yoga teacher who studied in Africa. Now she works with refugee women in Connecticut and educates the community on maintaining a healthy body with plant-based food." Davis said his dad was the toughest to convince. "He and I were always the meat eaters, but once he started researching plant-based for business purposes, he
started to learn. When he began learning, he tried it and was convinced." Then, he and his dad found common ground on which to build the business that would become Plant Based World Expo. In 2020, as fate would have it and with the laws of attraction in play, he met a like-minded woman on a vegan journey during a freestyle Zoom rap course. The couple now lives together on her 11acre permaculture research orange farm near San Diego and plans to marry. "She's transformed her entire health journey through raw vegan food and is helping me do the same. I thought I was already doing pretty well, but now I feel best when crunching on broccoli and carrots. It's amazing how good you can feel when you're eating food in the same form as the way it comes out of the ground." The couple, however, isn't entirely raw, as they enjoy vegan nachos and other cooked dishes when they want and follow up with raw food for a couple of days with juices and salads. They also enjoy their recipes for raw vegan Pad Thai, raw vegan buffalo cauliflower wings, and raw vegan walnut tacos. "Nobody thinks of things like that. They think of raw as a vegetable, but you can do all sorts of things. There are so many options." The culmination of his thriving personal relationships and health makes his latest success – The Plant Based World Expo – all the sweeter. Now the organization's content chair and strategic advisor, Davis said the event unites his professional and personal interests like nothing before, and he looks forward to each opportunity to help others in the plant-based space realize their goals, too. "So many people are excited to come up and take a microphone to say here's our angle, what we're bringing to the table. I get the chance to sit down and moderate some of those discussions, introduce them, or sit in the audience and watch. Being here is like this explosion of the champions who have been pioneering this thing for years. Now everyone else is coming in – that's why I'm here now. I want to listen, and I want to learn. "Our first show in 2019 was a big experiment; we created this thing out of nothing, and last year was a miracle that it even happened. It was December in NY. This is the first year it feels like we are delivering on our purpose of bringing together the right business people. It's taken us a few years to realize that's our sweet spot, and we've finally found what the people are excited about. This year we have 250 companies that make 300 plus booths. We had 170 last year and a little over 100 in the first year. I can't imagine many other industry events seeing that kind of growth, given the world we've been in. The Plant Based World Expo is the true story of the plant-based industry and movement. It's not just one company; it's not one stock. It's what's happening out there.
The next Plant Based World Expo is in NY September 7 - 8, 2023, and the Plant Based World Expo Europe is in London November 15 - 16, 2023.
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